restoring a Stewart 21" scale koa tenor

[ombudsman]

Hey folks, I just picked up an old S.S. Stewart koa bodied tenor and would like to see if any experienced short scale tenor players would care to offer any advice about a restoration strategy.

The guitar is actually more or less playable now but the neck angle is shallow enough that I think it makes sense to go ahead and do the reset now, rather than waiting a couple of years (by which time I may miss not having it to play for a while).

The original fingerboard has a couple of old cracks and some of the frets are marginal, so I was thinking of doing the whole nine yards on this instrument and having a truss rod and new, slightly radiused ebony board installed.

New Schaller banjo tuners are on the way, and it will need a new bridge (the original saddle is in rough shape and the bridge has been crudely shimmed already).

The initial cost to me was low, and my repair guy has reasonable rates, so with all of the above plus what I paid for the guitar I think I can end up at about $900-1000 which I have no problem with for a good playing instrument with a nice vintage look and sound. (I sort of have a "thing" for old koa due to a pair of old Oscar Schmidt hawaiian acoustic guitars.) The 21" scale length works for me for CGDA tuning, I think I will get more mileage out of it than my 23" Kay Kraft tenor (which I love, anyway, for simpler parts).

Does any of this sound questionable or trigger any other thoughts ?

cheers

[billhay4]

I love Koa, too, and this should make a nice instrument at the tuning you suggest. I'd like to see some "before" pictures.
Bill

[ombudsman]

I haven't taken any myself Bill but the auction pictures should be available for a little while. It's a cute little thing.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/antique-teno...vip=true&rt=nc

[fox]

I restored my Harmony myself, never restored a guitar before but, I am a boatbuilder by trade.. http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...Harmony-guitar
I love it now, I like the fact it is 50 odd years old but in as new condition.
I have a 21" scale Tenor as well, it has taken me a long time to find the right strings that ended up being .10 .16 .28. 36.
My point is there is a lot of tension on those strings & perhaps a truss rod is a good idea!
The short scale is great although I still struggle with fast stuff compared to my 20" scale banjo....

[icuker]

Hey, that is one really nice looking tenor. Should be a worthy project. Not a bad price either.

[ombudsman]

thanks folks.

Yes I was pretty happy with it. Sometimes auction pictures make the instrument look better than it is, but in this case I was pleasantly surprised by the condition. I wasn't sure if it was even koa from the pics, I thought it might be mahogany, which would have been fine at that price.

Of course, it will be more expensive by the time the work is all done, but I'm really enjoying CGDA tuning and so I think this will be something I can use for decades.

[ombudsman]

I have a 21" scale Tenor as well, it has taken me a long time to find the right strings that ended up being .10 .16 .28. 36.
My point is there is a lot of tension on those strings & perhaps a truss rod is a good idea!
The short scale is great although I still struggle with fast stuff compared to my 20" scale banjo....

Yes I think I'll go with having the rod installed, the neck is nice and straight now but I don't know if the instrument has been strung continuously over the years, and when the board is off anyway is of course the time to do it.

Those gauges sound about right. I went a bit lighter on the Kay (which takes ball end strings) but I had to with that scale length, particularly for the A.