Monday, October 22, 2012

small scale steel string guitar

this is a small scale acoustic i built for my former boss to give to his kids to learn on. 
at the time i think his oldest of four was 12 years old. the main consideration with that in mind was to build it to be durable. i went with an ebony fingerboard and bridge for the added strength.
all the wood on the body is extra thick and heavily braced. i also used an oversized pickguard, which as you can see by the gigantic scratch below the bridge could've stood to be bigger. 
next it had to be easy to play for small hands, i believe i used a 22" scale length, i probably have it written down somewhere, i'll check on that. 
 the neck, back and sides are mahogany, the top is salvaged redwood. the binding and inlays are cream vinyl
one last feature i added for the beginning guitarist was numbered frets. i made a set of letter and number stamps from an old typewriter, i use them for dating and numbering my instruments(most times).