A "little purple rock guitar"!

[Shane Woonton]

So on to design brief number 2 - my 6YO loves her dad's Fender blues junior and want her own electric to make some real noise with.

The brief - Dad, can you make me a little purple rock guitar?

I'm looking for advice on size, scale length, other design considerations. Also interested in keeping this simple as far as electrics go - I'm thinking single pickup, volume and tone control. Inexpensive local (NZ) material options? Advice on the right inexpensive pickup for the job? And where it should be mounted (neck, bridge, somewhere in between)? I have made a double humbucker lapsteel before so have some limited experience with this stuff, jut not quite like this!

Also need an inexpensive finish that will stand the rigours of multiple sticker applications

Once again I'd like this to last her for a few years so happy to build something for her to grow into.

All advice much appreciated!

Cheers,

Shane

[Trevor Gore]

How about a smaller one of these....

Stuart Newman.jpg (70.23 KiB) Viewed 15864 times

Only kidding, but when someone says "purple guitar" this is what comes to mind! (Purpleheart back and sides, but hard to see all that )

[Allen]

Stuart is always a bit out there isn't he.

[Shane Woonton]

Funny thing is - she'd think that was AWESOME!!!!

...but dad is hoping to find something a little simpler.

[Dominic]

I made a little short scale les paul junior for my 8 year old nephew. I scaled the body down a bit so it looked right with the shorter neck. I think the scale ended up around 23". I just measured down on one of my longer templates. Still big enough for me to play and have fun on but enough taken off so stretches up at the nut are easier for a small hand. And a purple les paul junior can be cute when shes young and totally punk when she gets older. Classic.
Dom

[seeaxe]

It has to be a Tele...............essence of simplicity but timelessly elegant. Pure form and function. If Coco Chanel and Yves St Laurent had guitars, this is what they would be.
So cool, its cryogenic.

imagesCA2VADKC.jpg (6.61 KiB) Viewed 15832 times

It has two pick ups and a switch and knobs to twiddle!!.

This is a girl after all, they are complicated - if it was a boy you would only need one pick up and a permanent distortion setting.

And it will be good practice for the full size version you will inevitably be asked for when she gets to 14, or probably sooner the way she is going.

But seriously, I would build a little tele, use pine or something light for the body, paint it using spray cans, purple with lacquer over and you will get a good, durable finish.

If I only had room for one pick up it would probably be the neck one (it will still LOOK like a tele, but it won't sound like one). Its the simplest solid body guitar there is, thats why its the best!!

Lucky girl!

Good luck

[Dominic]

Ahhhh, Gibson vs Fender eh. I don't know, playing a boring flat slab of tree like a Tele could put her off for life. And the blobby roundness of a strat with it over inflated look would surely drain her enthusiasm. Just because she is only 6, doesn’t mean she won’t recognise aesthetically challenged guitar designs.
Dom

[Shane Woonton]

So this is what it comes down to... do I want to raise a Gibson girl or a Fender girl?? Yikes! I was hoping to not have to make that decision for a while...

I'm more of a LP guy myself, but the thought of a shiny purple tele with mother of toilet seat pick guard is certainly interesting

Dom, how did the 23" scale go for your nephew? I'm wondering if I can go a little shorter than that.

Cheers,

Shane

[Dominic]

Hi Shane, my nephew loved it but he was tall for his age. Easy to go shorter, just keep dropping frets of the nut. Use an existing guitar and see which fret becomes easy to play for her. I suppose she wants to be able to play a bar chord at F so if she can play that she should be OK. Sounds like a fun project. But kids grow fast right so you don't want to make it too easy for her now as she'll grow into it. I saw this very strange song on youtube with 5 tiny little chinese kids playing full sized classical guitars and their hands were tiny but they ripped it. So it can be done.
Good luck
Dom

[Lillian]

So this is what it comes down to... do I want to raise a Gibson girl or a Fender girl?? Yikes! I was hoping to not have to make that decision for a while...

I'm more of a LP guy myself, but the thought of a shiny purple tele with mother of toilet seat pick guard is certainly interesting

Dom, how did the 23" scale go for your nephew? I'm wondering if I can go a little shorter than that.

Cheers,

Shane

I'll toss PRS into the mix, just because a girl has to have choices.

[Cookie man]

So this is what it comes down to... do I want to raise a Gibson girl or a Fender girl?? Yikes! I was hoping to not have to make that decision for a while...

Make two then
I do think the tele would look best in purple though.

mother of toilet seat pick guard

[Shane Woonton]

It lives!

OK, so when you're working with a 6YO girl you know everything is probably going to end up pink... so the little purple rock guitar ended up pink... with butterflies (they're cooler than unicorns right now, apparently ). So here it is, I ended up using a mahogany neck and rosewood fingerboard as it's what was at hand. I followed someones advice and used a lightweight (and cheap!) pine body, gotoh tuners and wrap-around bridge. Single pickup with some knobs to twiddle. The shape I drew myself from an image we liked off the web. The scale of the various elements came together pretty well. Tuners are cosy, but useable.







Sounds cool, is easy to play and best of all the customer is totally stoked!!!



Already have her order for the next one - size 5 acoustic. Got one other acoustic to get out of the way before I can start that.

Cheers,

Shane

[Shane Woonton]

Forgot to mention - scale is around 23" and the nut is 42mm. Seems to work well for her little fingers and I reckon she'll get at least 2 - 3 years out of it.

Shane

[Lillian]

Great job Shane. Your client looks totally happy.

[Allen]

Much cooler than my first guitar. Great job on that one. Can't wait to see the next.

[Nick]

Your customer's look says it all really! Great job Shane The colours work well together