Tacoma Clone Tenor Guitar

[Granger]

A little tenor guitar cloned after the Tacoma Papoose. Sports a 20 inch scale and tuned GDAE. .014; .024; .034; .049 strings make her ring. Build used all of the design characteristics of the Papoose: Reverse heel bolt on neck, one piece mahogany neck, A-Frame bracing, Western Red Cedar top, Offset Wing sound hole, pin-less bridge. I have built a number of small bodied tenors using the A-Frame bracing and find it to be very stable, easy to build and produces consistent and very good volume, tone and sustain. Although Taylor is crowing about their V class bracing, I believe Tacoma had it figured out years before. Anyhow I love the 20 inch scale for picking fiddle tunes, the frets fall right under my fingers with little need to shift the hand. This is like a single course OM. Body is a blown out Baritone Uke, 11 inch lower bout, 8 inch upper bout, hardly any waist- Dreadnaught like, 3 3/4 inch deep, 14 inches long. The bolt on reverse heel neck makes it dead simple to set or reset the neck angle for perfect string setup. The bridge is pin less, using some parts from an old "Bridge Doctor", makes for a rock solid bomb proof bridge that will never fail with a great string angle.
Some won't care for some of the aesthetics such as the lack of a heel or the offset sound hole, but this design is extremely novice luthier friendly! Also these design elements add up to putting more of the sound board into play, a very real benefit on a small top. Also with 14 frets to the body and no heel on the neck, it is like having a cut away on those upper frets without the fuss of making one. The Tacoma Papoose has a very well deserved reputation for tone, volume and playability.
Any novice luthier seeking to do a similar build can PM me for details on brace sizing, top thicknessing, and so on.

[PT66]

Just curious. Why dreadnought shape? Original papoose had more of a waist. I get the simplicity but not a fan of dreadnoughts.

[Granger]

Dave,
I had the bending forms, etc. for this shape and decided to go with it rather than drafting out a Papoose shaped body and building the forms. I am sure it probably influences the sound and certainly the look. Since I only intended to build one of these it worked for me. I think for picking fiddle tunes this shape works fine and i am pleased with the tone, volume and sustain for a small instrument. I am still trying out different string gauges on it and it seems to want to go up in gauge a bit.
I agree that Dreadnaughts are not as aesthetically pleasing, I was trying to keep as much of the sound board active as possible on a small body and I was thinking this shape might help with that, of course I am an novice builder so perhaps I am wrong!
Tom

[PT66]

I understand the use of a mold you already have. I have built four different instruments from the same mold as the tenor guitar on the right.

[Granger]

Beautiful Work!! Love the oval sound hole rosette. Not easy that. The middle instrument is also particularly nice and the slotted headstock, I like that very much. All above my abilities for now. My shop is very humble, i do much work by hand with simple tools and try to keep as things simple as i can. How is the middle instrument braced?

[PT66]

I took several design clues for that instrument from the Selmer Gypsy Jazz guitar. Including the bracing.