anyone daft enough to have built a fan fret tenor guitar?

[martinedwards]

I have a hankering for a tenor guitar.

I'm at the thinking out loud stage.......

I'll probably shift the soundhole to the top edge rather than on the front to give more top surface while still keeping the actual instrument small bodied.....

pinned bridge and tuned GDAE so my tiny brain doesn't melt trying to work out chord shapes. (I can manage regular guitar and mando tunings!)

scale length in the 22" ball park......

so why not fan it too?

say 22" for the low G and 21" for the high E with the perpendicular fret at the 9th....

Anyone hear of anyone doing anything as stupid as this?

[mrmando]

Yup.

The late Steve Parks (http://web.me.com/sparks62/steve/blog/blog.html) built several. At least three that I know of. Played one a couple of times.

Nice photos here:

http://www.elderly.com/vintage/items/80U-2043.htm

[Charles E.]

Thanks Martin, for mentioning Steve. He was a good friend and a fine builder.

[martinedwards]

Nice looking instrument, thanks!

Now I'm going to HAVE to build one....... it'll look a LOT stranger than that beauty though.......

I'll post pics when I get it going.

[martinedwards]

so.......

teaser anyone?






http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/80-89/80%20fan%20fret%20tenor%20guitar/Picture205.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/80-89/80%20fan%20fret%20tenor%20guitar/Picture206.jpg

[mrmando]

Um ... are those frets fanned? They don't look it.

[martinedwards]

they are from this angle!!

scale lengths 560 & 530mm.....

thats 22 and a hair under 21" for those still measuring in the 18th Century:grin:

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/80-89/80%20fan%20fret%20tenor%20guitar/Picture202.jpg

[delsbrother]

Seems like a lot of work just for an inch, but whatever floats yer boat. :)

[rico mando]

I like it . and that is all that matters . are you making this at school ?

[martinedwards]

its not a lot of extra work at all. I'd need a new bracing pattern for that body whether it was fanned or not and hand sawing the slots..... well I do need to mark two scales rather than just one, so thats about 15 minutes extra.....

as to JUST an inch?

an inch an make ALL the difference.... or so I've been told anyway!!!!

I've made guitars with a 36mm fan (thats the first fret on a strat) and while it ticked all the boxes, it was too much for me to barre comfortably.

my main acoustic guitar has a fan of a hair over an inch and it's subtle and lovely to play..... which is what I'm aiming for......

and yes, I do my building in my workshop in school. I even have a couple of pupils who come on Monday afternoons to build too..... here's the display from our recent open night.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/misc/Picture190.jpg

the completed Les Paul was built by Glen in 1st year.... that's aged 11/12 years old.... he's now 13 and working on the explorer. Emma is 14 and is building the acoustic as her practical piece for her GCSE exam

[rico mando]

Sounds like the Kids have a cool teacher !

[Beanzy]

What a bonus for those youngsters to have access to this.
It just makes the whole idea of luthierie so accessible for them going forward.

I expect to see a hotbed of talented builders coming out of Ulster in the next few years.
I wish our lot in Cornwall had a few teachers like this.
..... now back to the guitar. :popcorn:

[martinedwards]

well,PART of running the after school club is justifying me cluttering up the place with my own builds......

we also tend to specialise on woodworking projects rather than CNC Laser cut acrylic projects that other schools seem to focus on.....

as to Ulster being a luthier hotbed...... well I guess SOMEONE has to take over from Lowden, McIlroy, Avalon & Emerald!!!

[Charles E.]

Martin, wow, you move fast! That looks pretty cool, and yes, an inch can make a big differance, esp on the A string and the C string. Post some sound clips when you are finished.

[martinedwards]

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/80-89/80%20fan%20fret%20tenor%20guitar/Picture210.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/80-89/80%20fan%20fret%20tenor%20guitar/Picture211.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/80-89/80%20fan%20fret%20tenor%20guitar/Picture212.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/80-89/80%20fan%20fret%20tenor%20guitar/Picture213.jpg

the headscratching over string gauges continues.

my regular acoustic has a scale length of 645mm like a martin dread.....

I have a supply of D'Addario strings that I got bulk a while back for pennies, with the gauges:

13 / 17 / 26w / 35w / 45w / 56w

the tuning is standard E A D G B E........

now, the tenor has a scale of (lets average it) 550mm

tuned GDAE

so.......

the G string is just about right at 56 as the open G on the tenor is almost exactly the same as an E on a regular guitar fretted at the 3rd fret (a G!!)

the top E is 100 mm or so shorter than on a regular guitar, so it SHOULD go thicker.....at the minute I have the 13 on there, but I MIGHT just try the 17 ........

and in the middle?

well. I put the 45 on as the D. its 100mm shorter than it would be on a regular, but its tuned two semitones higher than the 3rd fret...... it'll do......

first attempt had the 17 on the A position but that meant it was loose.... regular guitar on a 3rd fret it'd be a C, but here its only an A..... it was loose, floppy and just not as nice as it should have been......

but with the 26 on there its a lot nicer on a regular guitar, that string would be playing at Ab on the 3rd fret so it's only a semitone away.......

so, all in all I THINK I'm sorted... at least I will be tomorrow when I swop the top E for the 17 just to see.....

I'll play it in for a day or two and then decide for certain, and sort the intonation and fit the pup

[martinedwards]

Sorry for my bad playing, I haven't had a tenor guitar for very long!!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObX-j6_TtWA