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Hello everyone

Has anyone built a “guitar” with a ukulele tenor size body? I’ve got some beautiful Brazilian rosewood that I was initially going to build a tenor ukulele with but figured I don’t play the uke very much and I much rather have something as close to a guitar as possible. I figured a tiny travel guitar with an acceptable scale length and a neck that’s as close to 1 11/16” would be cool.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Does anyone have any plans available? I remember seeing a video of Rick Turner talking about this but just can’t seem to find it.

All the best

Carlos

I'm sure they are, but I'm not hip to them right now. Some of the big companies offer small bodied guitars in uke sizes. An internet search should yield a few. Pretty sure Ibanez offers one.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I have made many of these. The body is a bit larger than a tenor uke, but it demonstrates the concept. The neck is normal 24.9” scale length. It is x-braced. Just remember to scale the braces to the size of the instrument—it doesn’t take much to support the strings over such short distances. This guitar has tone and volume. Enjoy.

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull plays a custom made guitar by Brook Guitars.

It is very similar to what you are talking about. His has a pickup and I am sure they EQ it to sound good. It probably is pretty weak without the pickup but it shows you can do it.

Cheers,
Bob

Here is a link to Brook Guitar web page, you will see a number of small body guitars.

https://www.brookguitars.com/gallery/

That’s exactly what I was hoping to build. I don’t have any room to make it larger than a tenor (ukulele). I found a couple of pictures on Brook guitars. MaybeI’ll reach out to them and pick there brains a little.

I’m thinking of either going with an x braced top and silk and steel string or a fan fret bracing with nylon strings.

If I want to do a 435mm scale length how would I calculate bridge position and fret positions?

This was the image I found

Deegz,

If you are setting the scale length at 435mm that is where your saddle will be from the nut. Your 12th fret will be half that distance at 217.5

You can determin if you want (or need) the 12th or 14th fret at the edge of the body to get the best placement for your bridge on the lower bout.

Hope that helps,

Cheers,
Bob

There are several fret position calculators you can find online. I use an old one called "wfret" that prints a template. The template may not be accurate depending on your printer, but the proportions are correct. So you can calibrate it and input a scale length that results in the print out you want.

If I were doing what you plan to do, I would draw out the strings over the fretboard from the nut through the bridge full size. I would draw out the body I planned to use and then move one drawing over the other to position the bridge on the body such that all of my goals were satisfied. Personally, I wouldn't want the bridge too close to the rim because that would limit the motion of the top and thus the volume. You might not be able to put the body join at the 12th or 14th fret and that's okay.

Deegz,
"I don’t have any room to make it larger than a tenor (ukulele)."

Assuming your BRW is the "room" limitation:
If the limitation is lower bout width, don't forget that you can take the back's "waste" from the waist, and use it for ears on the lower bout. Just remember to flip and rotate the ears to the opposite side to keep the runout of the ears the same as the wood they end up glued to.

If it's sides length, an especially wide end graft will stretch the side pieces for you.

Also made several of these little travel guitars to fit in airplane overhead bins 20 years ago. (They promptly shrunk the bins...)

As I recall, the lowest string or two were exceedingly ornamental, but increasing the body depth helped that to some degree.

And I'll reiterate Bob's bracing comment. The stiffness/cubed rule really shows up with the little guys.

Thank you all for the advice. I’ve been thinking about the scale length quite a bit. I’m kind of leaning towards a scale length that keeps the instrument in standard tuning (EADGBe). The length of the body is 11 3/4” and the optimal bridge position would be around 8” from the “neck joint”. Can I get away with building a tenor(ukulele) size body and end up with an acceptable scale length? Maybe something similar to a gs mini(23 1/2”) scale length and move the body to join at a much higher fret.

I don’t know if my mind is out of wack and I’m trying to build the impossible

What do you folks think?

Why not build a trial guitar with cheaper, commonly available wood to try out your design. Once you get it dialed in, then you could build with the BRW. Musically, it doesn’t matter where the neck joins the body. The joint just has to be tight,

The guitar I showed above has a 24.9” scale. That way, I can go back and forth from my regular player without disturbing the muscle memory. Also, I find that a 23.5” scale sometimes sounds a bit sour on the upper frets even when the intonation is perfect. The shorter strings and lower tension seem to make the harmonics go sharp such that a high fretted note compared to an open string sounds a bit dissonant. If you never play up there, it’s no problem.

Just remember that if you make the body join at a higher fret, you will need to sort out a truss rod for the longer neck. So, that will have to be part of your planning.

You might also consider making a Terz guitar. Basically cut off the first 3 frets. That may bring your neck length down to a more "normal" measurement.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I built a terz (copy of a Martin size 5) a while ago. Recently I took it on a 2 week vacation because it is small. Gotta say the higher tuning made it less enjoyable for me. If I make another it’ll probably 13 or 14 fret 24.5” scale that I can tune standard.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"