I built this tenor with the melodic players of traditional Irish tunes in mind. It is tuned like a violin, but an octave lower, and uses heavier strings to make flatpicking easier. This small guitar has well-defined bass and sounds pretty cool with wide-open chords as a backup or accompaniment instrument, too. A friend of mine thinks it would be a nice alternative to the typical bouzouki sound for Irish music.
Amber’s parents came up with the perfect name for this lightly shaded, barely-a-sunburst finish: the tea-burst.
The body is finished with a French polish and water-borne varnish sandwich, and the neck is sugar maple with an oil finish. The sugar maple and Adirondack spruce top were supplied by Old Standard in Callaway County.
This grand concert in sugar maple has wonderful tone and clarity, with a feeling of space between the notes. It responds eagerly to a light touch and is very powerful when driven. Amber’s parents came up with the perfect name for this lightly shaded, barely-a-sunburst finish: the tea-burst.
The body is finished with a French polish and water-borne varnish sandwich, and the neck is sugar maple with an oil finish. The sugar maple and Adirondack spruce top were supplied by Old Standard in Callaway County.
Yesterday I closed the boxes on a new pair of guitars, both in sugar maple. Sugar maple is a dream to work with and handsome to boot.
These sets show incredible figure now and will be eye-popping under shellac. I’m setting this tenor up to be tuned slightly lower, like an octave mandolin (G-D-A-E), rather than the more common C-G-D-A tenor tuning. Its big sister will be a grand concert size six-string, and this batch of sugar maple so far sounds like the best cherry, with a nice pinging tap tone.
Another large guitar measuring 15″ across the lower bout, this guitar has a big, warm sound and retains the singing tone I squeeze out of my smaller guitars, making it an ideal fingerstyle guitar. This is the 12-fret version; the auditorium can be made up as a 14-fret guitar as well. I finished it with a French polish/varnish/French polish sandwich, and the cherry looks incredible. The Adirondack spruce and cherry for this instrument came from Old Standard in Callaway County, Missouri. Continue reading “Auditorium Prototype”→
Measuring 15″ across the lower bout, this guitar is the largest guitar I’ve built to date, and it sounds even bigger than it is. It features a narrower nut (1-11/16″) and correspondingly narrower string spacing at the saddle (2-1/8″). I finished it with a French polish/varnish/French polish sandwich, and the cherry looks incredible. The Adirondack spruce and cherry for this instrument came from Old Standard in Callaway County, Missouri. Continue reading “Orchestra Prototype”→
Amber’s mom is a great artist who enjoys painting Missouri critters and plants. She enjoys it even more if she can work in miniature. When Amber asked her about engraving some tuner buttons, it seemed like the perfect medium. A few weeks later, she returned with the excellent menagerie pictured below: a crappie, perch, ruby-throated hummingbird, butterfly and dragonfly (I’m sure those are species-specific, too, but I don’t know which ones). Continue reading “Engraved Tenor Tuner Buttons”→
