A little acoustic guitar for little people

Andyjr1515

I've done a full thread in the 'Making & Modding' section but thought that some folks who are players rather than builders may be also interested in the results.

It is a 17" scale nylon-string acoustic that I have designed and built for my two grandchildren to just pick up and make noise, or to learn to play if they have an interest, or to use as a cricket bat if they don't have an interest.

Yes - for as little as £75 you can buy a guilele/guitarlele - and I know they serve the same purpose and I am sure they are very good.  However, I wanted to use this also to understand better what affects what when it comes to scaling down an acoustic guitar.  My previous acoustic builds have included dreadnought steel strings, OM steel strings, an Irish Guitar Bouzouki...but never a nylon strung guitar and never anything smaller than OM.

So this post, is about the design features I tried and why, and the results and conclusions.

Here's the finished guitar:
 


...and here's a better view of scale:


To the basic spec, it's:

- 17" scale, joined to body at 12th fret
- Sitka spruce top; mahogany back sides and neck; purpleheart fretboard; ebony binding
- through top pinned bridge; solid ebony pins
- Tenor ukulele shaped body; 3" (76mm) body depth
-- X-braced 25' radiused top
- Custom-braced 15' radius back
- Presently fitted with Savarez Corum Red/Blue strings (bass high tension; treble normal tension)
- Tuned 3 semitones higher than standard (G to G)

Sonically, my question was, 'can this scale and size be made that sounds more like a guitar than a ukulele?'

I won't go into the build details here (full build thread link below if anyone is interested) but will post some of the design thoughts and conclusions later in the post - and always happy to answer any questions anyone may have

So, crunch time - what does it sound like.  Attached are some short clips of various styles recorded directly into my little Zoom H2n:
Stream Little Swift Soundfiles - Savarez Strings by Andy Rogers 5 | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

The build thread is here if anyone is interested in more detail: https://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/256191/a-little-acoustic-for-little-people/p1

guitarjack66

Very nice. I am going to get my 3 year old grandaughter a Uke for xmas and when we all go to an AirBnb for a couple of days near xmas I will take my parlour guitar with us and try to pique her interest. I was thinking of a guitarlele but reading other comments it seems that kids move quite easily from 4 to 6 strings.

Andyjr1515

guitarjack66 said:

Very nice. I am going to get my 3 year old grandaughter a Uke for xmas and when we all go to an AirBnb for a couple of days near xmas I will take my parlour guitar with us and try to pique her interest. I was thinking of a guitarlele but reading other comments it seems that kids move quite easily from 4 to 6 strings.

Yes - I think there are advantages to the uke to guitar approach from a physical point of view and, even though it is a guitar I've built, I'm not entirely convinced of the argument that says that starting with guitar is a better route in that it avoids relearning chords.  Let's face it, we spend most of our subsequent lives learning new chords (and learning a new fretboard layout is a darn sight easier aged 10 than at 69! )