Tenor Guitar help

[martintaylor]

Hi All,

I have been asked to design a Tenor Guitar that a friend of mine would like to build. I am going to take him through the build process in my shed and help along the way. I have drawn up my own plans so far but have been struggling to find any good reference for neck thicknesses. Any ideas/suggestions/measurements would be appreciated. At the moment I am looking at 21.5mm at the first fret (including 5mm for the fretboard) and 23.5mm at the ninth fret. As I don't own a Tenor I am really just guessing at this point.

I am also wondering what type of truss rod to get. So far I am using a 23" scale length.

Any help would be much appreciated and I will be happy to supply the plans as PDF as they currently are to anyone interested.

Thanks, Martin

[nnickusa]

Will check my Tenor plans and let you know in the morning. At the restaurant for the night....

[martintaylor]

Thanks Nick, any help would be appreciated. We start the build tomorrow morning! woo hoo I love a challenge.

[nnickusa]

Martin, the plans I used, Antes' Regal Tenor, shows a 20mm 1st fret and 25mm 8th. The scale is 20.88' on this one. Here it the one I'm working on.

[martintaylor]

Thanks Nick. Have you used a Truss Rod? and if so, where did you source it? I am looking at a 360mm one at the moment.

[nnickusa]

Ah, yeah. I bought a Mandola truss rod or two on eBay. They are 10 inches or so long overall. I have one left if you want it. I doubt I'll use it again.

Oh the fretboard on mine is 4mm.

Mightn't be long enough for a 23" scale, tho......

[willcall]

Glad you asked the question Martin,
I too am about to start building a small body guitar with a 22'' scale. Have also been wondering what neck thicknesses & what truss rod to use.
Will keep an eye on this thread.

Will

[Allen]

Quite timely Gents. I've had two requests from previous clients who would like to step into a tenor guitar, and not ever actually seeing one in the flesh, I'm going to need to do a bit of research.

Nick, are the plans from Scott Antes any good? Or did you just use them for some overall idea and went down your own path?

[nnickusa]

Allen, I don't really know yet, as it's not finished.

But, having always read that his plans are over-braced, I've reduced the dimensions a bit, and as is(photo), it has a nice sound tapping the top and back. Nice separation between the two, and a mellow tone from the top, which is huon pine. Another experiment...

It is all ladder braced, with the lower bout basically having two 3mm spruce braces, so really just holding it together, I think....

Gonna fret it this weekend and string it up before finishing. If it sucks, there's no reason to continue, hey?

I think it'll sound OK at this point. Will let you guys know how it goes over the weekend....

Also, I think that the string tension is so low, at this scale, that one could forego a truss rod, or just make a one-way that would do the job easily enough....I was worried about it being neck heavy with a two way, but I think it's OK.

Happy to give any dimensions from the plans for those interested.....

[Allen]

I'm going to be down this weekend for a course that Micheal and I are instructing at Carbatec. Possible that we might touch base.

[nnickusa]

Easy.Give us a hoy. 04 01 618 558 or at the shop 66802346