Tenor guitars?

[slowlearner]

Thinking about building a few tenor guitars. Just wondering if anyone here has built them. Would love to hear people's input re scale, fret sizes, truss rods, neck width/profile, bridges etc.

Thinking about building some semi-acoustic instruments with live tops and chambered solid bodies and maybe a resonator.

Cheers, Pete.

[peter.coombe]

I have made two tenors and have looked closely at any tenor I can get my hands on including vintage Martin and the usual Chinese imports. I will certainly be making more. Usual scale length for a tenor is 23", but 21" is also common. I used the plan from LMI as a start so the body size is the same as this plan, but modified it to how I thought I should be building them. In future I might try a smaller body size that actually fits in a case I can get. The neck is 32mm wide at the nut, which is the same as my mandolas. Some tenors, including the Chinese imports have a wider neck and it feels like a crowbar to play so are not very comfortable instruments to play. Being a mandolin maker and player I can play these things if they are tuned in 5ths, and it is the logical sort of guitar for me to make. Mine are tuned like an octave mandolin, but you can tune them however you like if you adjust the string gauges. Usual tunings are CGDA or GDAE. With only 4 strings, the tension is less and you can build them quite light. The Chinese imports are way over built (surprise surprise). I do use a 2 way truss rod, and was glad I put a truss rod in the first one. The problem is the string tension is so low that it is difficult to get enough relief in the neck to stop fret buzz just from string tension, so a 2 way truss rod will solve this problem. Start with a flat fretboard, string them up and the fretboard is still dead flat! I used Jim Dunlop banjo fret wire for the frets. Bridge was a pin bridge made from Blackwood, weight 15gm, so very light bridge.

My first tenor was Red Spruce and Brazilian Mahogany 23" scale length, second was 21" scale length from Red Spruce and Myrtle. Both were very well received by tenor guitar players, as well as the local music shop owner, and sold quickly. I thought the 21" tenor was astonishingly good, could not put it down, and that was confirmed by Dave O'Neil who told me it was the best tenor guitar he had ever played. Can't get much better endorsement than that. I had it at the National Folk Festival and could have sold it several times. The different scale lengths make quite different instruments. 23" is good for finger picking as well as flat picking, 21" is really only a flat picking guitar. My instruments are acoustic flat top so are a bit different from what you are thinking about.

Summarising, there are not many tenor guitars around in Australia. Most are pretty average sounding guitars, and it is not too difficult to make something that blows them all away. There does seem to be quite a bit of interest in Tenor guitars amongst musicians at the moment. Some have told me they had been looking for years to find a good one. The main problem I have had is finding a case that fits. Virtually impossible without getting a case custom made. Problem then is the guitar package then becomes too expensive to sell easily.

Hope that helps.

[nkforster]

Thinking about building a few tenor guitars. Just wondering if anyone here has built them. Would love to hear people's input re scale, fret sizes, truss rods, neck width/profile, bridges etc.

Thinking about building some semi-acoustic instruments with live tops and chambered solid bodies and maybe a resonator.

Cheers, Pete.

Have a look over in the gallery section, I made one recently.

Nothing out the ordinary spec wise - I based the scale/fretboard/neck dimensions on what I know works for octave mandolin - 22" scale. I used one of my regular guitar bridges but cut 1/2" off either wing and blocked the two outer string holes (capped the holes with fretboard dots)

You might want to look at the size of your top bout and waist position relative to the bridge so you don't loose too many frets from the short scale - I based mine on my 24.75" guitar bouzouki body which is normally 16 frets to the body. A 22" scale makes it 14 frets instead.


Apart from that, just lighten things up as there is about 20kg or so less pull than a 6 string.

[slowlearner]

Thanks guys. Nigel, again really sorry I couldn't get to visit you. Just got home yesterday.

In other news, I set to pulling the neck off this Ovation Celebrity a friend gave me. It's neck had been broken and reglued a few times but the headstock totally came off and I was given the remains. What a totally disaster these guitars are. The neck joint is held together with epoxy, skyhooks and... more epoxy. However, I did manage to save the fingerboard and get the neck off... with a saw and a chisel.

I'm thinking of building a tenor using a new neck on this body. I know it's not ideal, but I thought it'd be a good trial. Thoughts?

[kiwigeo]

Turn the body of that Ovation body into a paddle boat and give it to your kids...

[slowlearner]

bahaha. Yeah, it's a little like that eh.