Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

My latest guitar. Can hardly believe it, but this is my 17th guitar, and I must have learned something because it is a beauty. I have had a few enquiries about a small guitar, so decided to give it a go. The body is the same as my bigger tenor guitars and it fits into a case designed to fit a Taylor GS Mini, so no problems with finding a case. This one is a small bodied guitar with a short scale length of 23 1/2 inches with Red Spruce top from John Preston, and Black Heart Sassafras black and sides. Neck is Honduras Mahogany, rosette Blackheart Sassafras, bindings Indian Rosewood. The tuners are the fairly new Schaller grand tune black nickel tuners which are quite nice. This one was a surprise. I was not expecting much because of the small body and scale length, battling against the laws of physics, but it is one sweet sounding guitar with a good solid bass. A few jaws have dropped with this one, including mine when I strung it up. After 3 mandolins and this guitar, I really like Sassafras. It seems to have a warm bass very similar to Mahogany, but better clarity in the mids and treble.

Just lovely Peter, great job.

Nice work Peter. The 23-1/2" scale length is very short....what strings did you put on the instrument and how do the tensions feel when you play it?

Ended up with Elixir 13-53. Tried lighter strings, but did not like the sonic results. Tensions feel about right, they don't feel floppy.

Peter

Nice I like the machines was just looking into hand made ones Oh and that wood looks perdy nice on the back.

You have a stash of that appendix II mahogany do you Peter?

kiwigeo wrote:Nice work Peter. The 23-1/2" scale length is very short....what strings did you put on the instrument and how do the tensions feel when you play it?

If you didn't like the tension at E you could easily go up a semitone at that length.

I have a small stash which is disappearing all too quickly. Bought it from Gillian Alcock when she retired. She bought it 40 years ago.