A little acoustic for little people

Andyjr1515

And so, bringing it pretty much up to date, I sorted the neck angle, levelled and recrowned the frets, fitted the neck, made a bone saddle and intonated it, then did the final sanding and lightly varnished it with good old Ronseal Hardglaze, applied with a watercolour artists' No 6 fan brush.  It will now harden fully over the next week or so before I give it the final polish.  

I've done a short sound file that I will post later if I can remember how

Andyjr1515

If the link works, here's a short sound file of varying styles.  As always, best heard through headphones.  Guitar is tuned 3 semitones higher than standard pitch (G C F Bb D G)   

https://soundcloud.com/andy-rogers-6/little-swift-sound-samples-1/s-7yC2RLrzFcI?si=6579889b0bb14539bdf9511737b7dfed&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

DartmoorHedgehog

That's fantastic. Surprisingly sounds neither like a uke nor a guitar capo 3 - it's got its own sound.  First sound clip is very Nick Drake-esque.

impmann

Wow - that is gorgeous, Andy. I'd love one of those for my home studio - what a beautiful sound!!!
You have very lucky grandchildren.

Roland

I like the offset sound hole decoration. It makes it look like a design in its own right, rather than a shrunken version of a full sized guitar.

TTony

That's an impressive amount of work for a young person's tennis racquet!

Andyjr1515

Thanks, folks! 

Andyjr1515

DartmoorHedgehog said:

That's fantastic. Surprisingly sounds neither like a uke nor a guitar capo 3 - it's got its own sound.  First sound clip is very Nick Drake-esque.

It's a poor-man's version of Angie by Davy Graham.  Bit like 'Smoke on the Water' in electric circles, no-one is allowed to play it in a folk club because EVERYONE learnt and bored people with it in the 60's and 70's

Andyjr1515

impmann said:

Wow - that is gorgeous, Andy. I'd love one of those for my home studio - what a beautiful sound!!!
You have very lucky grandchildren.

Thanks, Tim!  Hope all is well with you and yours

Coincidentally, I received a query about your Alembicesque build a couple of days ago from a chap in the States.  He was asking about the fitting of the Hannes piezo bridge and that splendid preamp you had installed.  He's bought the same set up and was intrigued how to fit it.  He found one of my build thread of yours on another forum from 2017!

Small world, as they say 

Winny_Pooh

Fab little build, amazing how fast it can go when you have know how and tools. 

Andyjr1515

Winny_Pooh said:

Fab little build, amazing how fast it can go when you have know how and tools. 

Thanks

Well, not so very fast, although faster than my recent full size acoustics.  It took me around a month and a half...hmmm...thinking about it, more like two months  

sev112

Man , this build is fantastic, I’m so impressed.  I’m even more impressed with the sound , and it looks great

great job 

Andyjr1515

enjo said:

These are what I use:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01M9DT28L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

The little beauties arrived this morning.  They look great and match the fretboard to a T! 

And yes - the treble strings certainly rang out clear and true even at standard pitch - MUCH better than the strings I originally fitted, at that same pitch.  However, the bass strings - while nowhere near as floppy as my originals - just didn't cut the mustard at standard pitch on this particular guitar.  But were OK at 2 semitones above standard...

Anyway, I had a thought and rooted around in my bits box and found an unused pack of Savarez mixed tension nylons - normal tension for the trebles and high tension for the basses.  At 2 semitones higher than standard - absolutely super.  But at standard pitch lost a lot of depth.  So I'll leave those on for a while and will refit the red ones at some stage for a '2-semitone high' shootout.  Because it WOULD be nice to have that colour   

Andyjr1515

sev112 said:

Man , this build is fantastic, I’m so impressed.  I’m even more impressed with the sound , and it looks great

great job 

Many thanks, @sev112 ;  Much appreciated

Jez6345789

Lovely work and sounds nice

Andyjr1515

Jez6345789 said:

Lovely work and sounds nice

Many thanks!  Much appreciated

DartmoorHedgehog

Andyjr1515 said:

DartmoorHedgehog said:

That's fantastic. Surprisingly sounds neither like a uke nor a guitar capo 3 - it's got its own sound.  First sound clip is very Nick Drake-esque.

It's a poor-man's version of Angie by Davy Graham.  Bit like 'Smoke on the Water' in electric circles, no-one is allowed to play it in a folk club because EVERYONE learnt and bored people with it in the 60's and 70's

Bit off-topic, but thanks for the tip-off. Just had a listen to some of Davy Graham's stuff and I think definitely worth looking for more. Reminds me very much of Nick Drake's style (and funnily enough I know the song "Cocaine" from Nick Drake's cover - same song, although ND called it "Cocaine Blues").

Andyjr1515

DartmoorHedgehog said:

Andyjr1515 said:

DartmoorHedgehog said:

That's fantastic. Surprisingly sounds neither like a uke nor a guitar capo 3 - it's got its own sound.  First sound clip is very Nick Drake-esque.

It's a poor-man's version of Angie by Davy Graham.  Bit like 'Smoke on the Water' in electric circles, no-one is allowed to play it in a folk club because EVERYONE learnt and bored people with it in the 60's and 70's

Bit off-topic, but thanks for the tip-off. Just had a listen to some of Davy Graham's stuff and I think definitely worth looking for more. Reminds me very much of Nick Drake's style (and funnily enough I know the song "Cocaine" from Nick Drake's cover - same song, although ND called it "Cocaine Blues").

I used to be able to play River Man by Nick Drake.  Love his music, but devilish to play!!!

Andyjr1515

Andyjr1515 said:

enjo said:

These are what I use:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01M9DT28L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

The little beauties arrived this morning.  They look great and match the fretboard to a T! 

And yes - the treble strings certainly rang out clear and true even at standard pitch - MUCH better than the strings I originally fitted, at that same pitch.  However, the bass strings - while nowhere near as floppy as my originals - just didn't cut the mustard at standard pitch on this particular guitar.  But were OK at 2 semitones above standard...

Anyway, I had a thought and rooted around in my bits box and found an unused pack of Savarez mixed tension nylons - normal tension for the trebles and high tension for the basses.  At 2 semitones higher than standard - absolutely super.  But at standard pitch lost a lot of depth.  So I'll leave those on for a while and will refit the red ones at some stage for a '2-semitone high' shootout.  Because it WOULD be nice to have that colour   

Now they've settled in, the Savarez's  sound splendid at two semitones up.  If I get a moment, I'll repeat the sound clip - I'm pretty sure the difference would be discernible even at MP3 quality. 

sev112

You’re allowed to play Bert Jansch’s version