Official Luthiers Forum!

Here's a fun little guitar I recently finished and wanted to share. I built a concert uke a while back and love it, but as a guitarist I usually find myself wanting another string or two when I play it. 'Well, why not make a 5 string uke or a tiny guitar then?' I asked myself. I twisted my own arm a bit and soon was convinced to give it a try. This is the result: a little 16" scale Euro spruce/cocobolo... ukitar? guitarele? I don't know what to call it but it's somewhere between a concert and tenor uke in size and the nut and bridge are set up for either 5 uke-spaced or 6 guitar-spaced strings depending on the day.

Specs:
-Bearclaw Carpathian spruce top
-Cocobolo back/sides/headplate
-Spanish Cedar neck (flatsawn!)
-Pau ferro and Spanish cedar laminated fretboard
-cherry bindings
-semi-gloss sprayed shellac finish

More pics:

The neck and stacked heel are flatsawn giving it a unique look:



The fretboard was made from half pau ferro and half cedro... this was to save weight to try to keep it from being too top heavy:

Some unique features...
Bracing:

The laminated fretboard gived the headstock join a unique look:


The finish is shellac sprayed until it has the right sheen. Open pores are not filled. I absolutely love these finishes... it is silky smooth to the touch and you can really see and feel the texture of the wood. I find myself disliking 'dipped in plastic' finishes more and more every day, though I know I am in the small minority

The bridge and nut were made to accept either 6 guitar-spaced strings or else 5 uke-spaced strings. I have not tried the 5 string uke setup yet; I will finish the uke nut slots then. It was lucky that the spacings worked out pretty well with very little compromise.

Oh, and here's what it sounds like:

nice sounding little guitar

That's an awesome little Guitulele you've got there James. How fun!

How did you attach the neck? (Butt, M/T, Dovetail?)

First, that coco is killer. Awesome job, sounds nice, looks amazing.

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Love the finish, the beautiful sound, and your amazing playing.

_________________
wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

I say that's outrageously cool and pretty! Now...personally, I would like to see those open pores in the wood filled before finishing, but that's just my personal preference. You mustn't take that as a criticism. It's not my little guitar. It's yours and it's a beauty. I think it's a very cool concept for an instrument and I think it is very well executed. Well done!
Patrick

WOW! That's amazing! I'm building a small guitar at the moment - baritone uke sized - May I ask how you went about compensating it?


Plan on my 1/2 size classical thread: http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=41311&p=555716#p555716

Hi Beth, it's a simple butt joint with a single bolt + threaded insert. I calculated the string tension at 40 lbs total... with such a low tension pretty much any joint would do.

Nylon strings aren't nearly as stiff as steel strings, so they generally don't need anywhere near the same saddle compensation. Even with pretty high action, I set the center of the saddle back only about one mm from the scale length and it seems to intonate just fine. If I were super nit picky I would compensate each string individually - and there's plenty of saddle to do it - but I am happy with it right out of the gate. Good luck with your build... I hope it's as fun to play as this one!

Edit: well I just measured with a nice tuner and it is a few cents sharp at the 12th fret. I guess the string size relative to the scale length makes it need more compensation than I had assumed, and the exact amount must depend on the strings. If I could back and do it again I might move the bridge back 2 more mm or I might try using much smaller gauge strings. I am using a set of D'Addario requinto strings btw.

For what it is worth, I use the fret-calculator on the Stumac site for saddle location on weird scale lengths.

Bob

Hi James, I thought of another question: What thickness did you take the top down to?
Cheers!
Nick

Lovely!
I've made a few of these based both on the Martin Concert uke size and the Martin 1/4 size guitar.
These have been strung with steel, Nashville style, and are very effective in an ensemble.

Beautiful James! Looks like the perfect little travel companion.

Shane

Very cool indeed! The look is great, but ...



... at least the rosette, which looks out of place against the rest of the top, which of course doesn't need the same filling. Again, overall, very nice.

_________________
Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Quite thin... I thinned not to a predetermined number, but by feel. It ended up at .075" off the thickness sander @ 80 grit, and I probably took another .010 off with final sanding and surface prep. I figured it would take a max 50 lbs of string tension so I went a little thinner than I normally would. I'd give you an exact final number, but the soundhole is too small for my caliper to fit!