New Year/New Project: The Tenor Guitar Project

This is the first post of the new year, and it's going off with a bang.  I decided on building something I've wanted for a long time.  But I took an odd route to get there.  Let me explain.

I found a neat website for cigar box guitars.  It's called C.B. Gitty Crafter Supply.

https://www.cbgitty.com/

I was thinking about building an inexpensive guitar, but then I noticed a few things on their website.  First, they actually have four string electric humbucker pickups.

https://www.cbgitty.com/cigar-box-guitar-parts/pickups/deltabucker-deluxe-4-string-maple-cigar-box-guitar-humbucker-pickup-pre-wired-with-volume-and-tone-no-soldering/

That made me think that I could build something with a cello tuning.

For those who don't know my musical beginnings started with me playing cello at age 12.  If there's one thing that every 12 year old dramatic teenage celloist wants, that's a guitar to play cello on.  What I didn't know then, is that, those guitars actually exist.  They are called tenor guitars.  They are a shorter scale, smaller guitar, and they are tuned like a cello, A, D, G, C.  Here's an example of one.

I wish I had known about these when I was a teen.  It turns out that tenor guitars were popular in the 1950's but not so much anymore.  Only a few companies manufacture them anymore.  The most famous for electric tenor guitars is Eastwood Guitars.

So now, since I am a builder of musical instruments, I can build a tenor guitar the way I want to.  First up, I know it will be a four stringed instrument, and it will have a 23 inch scale.  I will build it in the style of an archtop guitar.

Electronics will be simple.  I will have two humbuckers, one 3 way switch, one volume, one tone.  The woods will be pretty standard.  Spruce top, mahogany body, maple neck, rosewood neck, rosewood floating bridge.

Now, I decided to do this the smart way.  I actually drew out the plans on graph paper.   Here's a photo of my plans.

Next up, I had to acquire the spruce, but I had all the other woods hanging around here.

Here's the spruce being glued up.

I already had access to radiused rosewood fingerboards.  So I took one out, and shaped it.

I've always used a three piece neck method for building necks, but I decided to make one the way most manufactures do these days.  In other words, a scarf joint.  It all started with a giant chunk of old maple I had hanging around.

Within that board I found a really nice straight section.  I built the neck from that piece.

From there it was time to make the scarf joint.  How do you like my homemade jig?

Yes, it's oversized for a few reasons.  I wanted to make sure I had plenty of wood to work with.  Better too much than too little.  Since the neck is only four strings it won't be as wide.  That means it will need to be thicker for more support.  In the next photos you can see where I am planning on installing the trust rod.

Right now I am gluing up the mahogany body.  Admittedly, this will not be like a typical hollowbody.  I will glue the halves of the body together, and route it out.  I know, it's a hell of a waste of good mahogany.  But it works.  Also, I don't have side bending equipment or jigs, so this is the one way I know how to do this.  

 

A lot of the parts for this build I already had.  I will use a violin tailpiece for this project.  It actually fits perfectly.  I already had some old Schaller tuners that have been sitting in a drawer for a long time.  They will be perfect for this guitar.  I already have pots and copper wire.  The same with bone nuts.

The only things I had to buy were a few templates, a 3 way switch, violin tailpiece cord, a book, a fret slotting miter box, and the pickups.  Unless something odd comes up I think I have all I need for now.

So that's where I am so far.  Look for more upcoming blogs about this project.  I'm all ready to put this one together.