I just got a cheap dreadnaught, even though I play a jumbo (Running Dog) and 0-18 (Martin) and classical and archtop (Epiphone Zenith). I got it at my wife's suggestion, bacause it's a "Woods," which is her name. It was cheap, it's Chinese made, and it's cheap. But it's actually kinda nice, and will be a good one for "non-top-notch" settings, like parties or bar gigs or the beach (not that I'll be going to any of those often).

As for playing finger-style on a dread, it's no biggie. Tom Paxton was doing his pattern-picking accompaniment back in 1963, on a D-28, and it suited him (and me, 'cause that's what I had, too). I admit that a smaller guitar is possibly a little more suited to the style, but it's not a cut-and-dried decision, and if you want to play in any other style (Carter-style, flat-picking, fully-strummed chords, etc.), a dread at least doesn't have to be clobbered to get volume and bass when you need it. I'd get whatever I could find that sounds good, plays good, and doesn't break the bank. But that's me.

I do know, though, that cut-rate 000- or OM- style guitars are not usually as good in tone as the cut-rate dreadnoughts, for some reason. I assume it's because the larger guitar is easier to make "boomy" than the smaller one is easy to make "mellow."

So don't shy away from one or the other; play 'em all and see what floats your boat.

As for the electrical part, again, the larger number of options are in the dreadnought lines, I've noticed.

Bob Clayton