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I got to hear A local play his old cheap Ladder braced Kay Tenor guitar. They really have a neat old honky/boingey banjo-ey ladder braced sound.... and he can really coax the sound out of them.

Never mind that Upstate South Carolina is Bluegrass and Gospel country, Land of the Martin D-28 -- so finding these little guitars locally is like finding hen's teeth....

But.... after hearing him play one of the things.... I want to build one.

Can you guys point me towards a good sounding ladder braced smaller guitar plans or give me some pointers on what sort of bracing sizes these would have... These seem to be a really neat instrument with a lot of potential....

Like could you build one on the old 1920's Gibson L-1 ladder braced body... and with 4 strings -- how much bracing would you really need up in there?

Thanks

John

Try John How. http://www.johnhowguitars.com/

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

I built a couple of steel string soprano guitars, 6 strings, E strings tuned up to B. At least I call them sopranos, since they are higher than tenors. Haven't found anything similar to compare to, name-wise. The common keys line up very well to be able to accompany everyone else in standard tuning. If they are in C, you play in G, if they are in G, you play in D, etc. Built the first for my newly born son to be able to start playing as soon as he takes an interest, but discovered they were a perfectly viable instrument that can really add interest to a stage show. If you are missing a mando in band, you can cover off the high end with this little guitar. The scale length is 17", and it's x braced just like a full sized dread.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/video/video.php?v=98590631680

Look at this little beauty that Dave White made, I believe that when a player heard it at a festival, that he prised it from Dave's hand and never let him have it back (Dave of course prised money from his hand and didn't give that back either). Dave's made a lot of ladder braced guitars and like John How, knows how to extract the best from them.

http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=18711&p=264202&hilit=tenor+guitar#p264202

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.