$95 Steel String Baritone

Here is a inexpensive way to add a steel string option. I purchased a Oscar Schmidt OGHS kids guitar. This guitar has a 1.5" nut width with a 20" scale. I reworked the nut and left the bridge pin position as is and strung up for Low G - C tuning at .024W, .018, .013, .010 and was happy with the result all in for $95 via Ebay. I then chose to have a bone nut and saddle installed. Yes this is a kids guitar but the quality is suprisingly good and the nut width made it a good candidate.
Stu

This is a pretty ingenious idea. Nice!

How clever! I got a tenor guitar but this is a great idea. Was the nut glued, if so was it hard to remove?

I first reworked the existing (plastic) nut until I was sure the idea would work then spent the extra money to have a pro install a bone nut and saddle so I don't know what was involved.

posted this before in another thread...its less work to make it into a slide guitar!

studemobile said:

Here is a inexpensive way to add a steel string option. I purchased a Oscar Schmidt OGHS kids guitar. This guitar has a 1.5" nut width with a 20" scale. I reworked the nut and left the bridge pin position as is and strung up for Low G - C tuning at .024W, .018, .013, .010 and was happy with the result all in for $95 via Ebay. I then chose to have a bone nut and saddle installed. Yes this is a kids guitar but the quality is suprisingly good and the nut width made it a good candidate.
Stu

Click to expand...

This is a great idea and project and one which I would like to replicate, but I would really appreciate if you could (please ) measure (in mm) the string-to-string spacing at the saddle and report back.

These are also on Amazon for ~$100, and will ship free with Amazon Prime.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NRVMNI

I want to get a tenor guitar, but all of the ones within my budget range (~$100) have a 30mm or (1.18") nut width, which I expect to be near impossible for my to fret comfortable (I find normal acoustic and electric guitars have strings much too close together at the nut for my comfort level, and play only 6-string classical-style guitars with a full 2" (51mm) nut width when I play a guitar).

It dont have to be fancy tonewoods nor master-luthier-grade assembly, I just want to put a set of D'Addario J66 strings on it and call it a day after modifying the nut and/or bridge to suit, and will also likely remove the 2 extra tuners and fill the holes with cuts from a dowel rod like yours.

Thanks in advance for any other info you can offer.

With light strings, a new nut, and some modifications to the bridge, I'm wondering if this might make a spiffy little 6 string tuned like a uke?

Just an FYI for anyone else interested, of the dozen or so web sites selling this guitar, and even on the OS web site itself, there are NO specifications for the dimensions of this instrument.

I found it for sale on Amazon, jet.com, Reverb.com, instrumentalley.com, and newegg.com (just search each for OGHS). I clicked thru the Reverb.com listing to the vendor Zorro Sounds (zorrosounds.com), and after signing up to receive their emails, got a coupon code for 10% off WELCOME10.

FINALLY when I was on NewEgg, saw the specifications, which I have copied below to save you the trouble:

Model: OGHS

Oscar Schmidt by Washburn
Handcrafted Quality
Select Spruce Top
1/2 Size dreadnought style
Catailpa sides & back
High gloss finish
Rosewood fingerboard & bridge
Mahogany neck
Fully adjustable truss rod
Color: Natural
Total length: 34.5"
Lower bout: 12.5"
Upperbout: 9"
Depth: 3.5"
Scale Length: 22"
Nut Width: 1.5"

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from http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2WZ2SF1005&cm_re=oghs-_-9SIA2WZ2SF1005-_-Product

I ordered direct from Zorro Sounds, with discount and NJ sales tax, total was $96.

My plan is to replace the nut like the OP, and string it with the D'Addario J66 tenor guitar strings and tune it CGDA in fifths as a tenor guitar. One might ask, why not just BUY a tenor guitar, well nearly ALL of them have a 30mm nut width which I expect to be mighty uncomfortable for me since I have been mostly chording on my 5ths-tuned ukes and need the space of the string spread otherwise I get hand cramps.

Nearly ALL other steel string guitars have a nut width of 1.68" or 1.75" which if you put a 4-string nut on like for an electric bass (42-43mm) the strings are oddly spaced too far apart (yes I ALREADY tried this on my dreadnought acoustic guitar) and if you use a baritone uke nut of 1.5" (38mm) it is too narrow for the neck and you have lots of space both above and below the span of the four strings (tried this too on my acoustic guitar as well).

So this AWESOME find by the OP studemobile, gives us the standard 22" tenor guitar scale, and a nice compact size body only a tiny bit larger than most baritone ukes, AND the 1.5" nut width, which to me is just perfect for 4 strings.

Additionally, now that I have the dimensions I have an idea of what case to get for it, but I will wait until I get the OGHS so I can actually MEASURE it and will report back if the dimensions listed above as per NewEgg are accurate.

Kudos to studemobile, even though he has been MIA for the past week or so from this thread, and I fully realize that I am likely just shouting into the abyss by writing this post, but just in case anyone else is looking for something like this, I figured I'd add some additional information.

I dont expect this to sound or play like the Martin TEN15, or one of the BlueRidge tenors, but I cannot afford those right now, and the cheaper Ibanez PFT2-NT or AVTN1-NT as well as the Kala tenor guitar all have the 30mm nut, and the new Pono steel string instruments made by Kilin Reece are also WAY beyond my budget.

All I want is a steel string tenor guitar, true to form in scale length and tuning, so I can learn better to play it, and to incorporate it into my songwriting.

I am NOT afraid of having to do setup work, so if it is not newbie-perfect out of the box, It does not matter, since I have setup at least a dozen of my own ukes and guitars any way and have the necessary tools.

If the J66 strings and the new nut work out, I will next look at the holes in the pin bridge and if the spacing is not to my liking, I will fill the existing holes by gluing in pieces from a dowel rod, sand them and then re-drill new holes (with the proper spacing for a tenor guitar) making this OGHS officially a 4-string instrument at both ends, as well as filling the unused tuner holes as per the OP in his photos.

So a bit of mod-work to what I hope will be a decent instrument to begin with, and I will have a smaller-bodied tenor guitar, nearly custom to my own specs, and something that currently I cannot buy from any maker at this time as per my own research.

Hi All,
Looks like my post generated some ideas. Keep me posted. BTW I think I obtained an older used version of this guitar as the body shape mimics a dreadnought and the scale length is 20" but all is well and I am enjoying it.
Stu

Great idea! Booli, did you get your done? Replacing the bridge altogether shouldn't be too difficult either, that way you can choose whatever string spacing you want!

cml said:

Great idea! Booli, did you get your done? Replacing the bridge altogether shouldn't be too difficult either, that way you can choose whatever string spacing you want!

Click to expand...

Yes, mine's finished. Lots of thinking went into the modifications, more so than I had expected at the start, but in the end it plays like a dream and intonation is near-perfect. Maybe about 5 weeks ago it has been completed, and I played it every day save for the last week due to lack of time.

I plan to make a new thread and include a video sound sample. It is in the queue, but other projects need to be done first.

Don't worry, I will be sharing all the info and the end result, and big thanks to Stu for finding out which guitar to use as the baseline for the mod and also for the inspiration.

Seems like I wont be needing that new Pono Octave Mandolin any more, while also having saved a giant chunk of cash by instead doing the mod to the humble Oscar Schmidt guitar.

Hi all, sorry for ressurecting an old thread, but thought I'd share some initial progress on my own steel string Baritone conversion project, inspired by this thread. I am converting the Oscar Schmidt OGM8M-A "Travel guitar" instead of the OGHS model. This is because the OGHS only comes in blonde or painted spruce laminate. The OGM8M comes in natural mahgony, which IMO looks nicer, and, of course, looks more like, well, a ukulele. It was only a little more expensive at $130 on Amazon. I couldn't find any measurements online other than it was a "1/2 size guitar", so I took a gamble. It appears to be a little larger than the OGHS (specs as I measured them are listed below), so I'm gonna call the final conversion a "Grande Baritone", .
Thus far, I've drilled two new bridge pin holes, and filed two new nut slots. Due to the "swooped" layout of the original bridge pin holes, it's possible to drill the new ones in more or less a straight line with two outside holes. Currently, I've just reused the bottom four strings it came with (d'addarios of some kind), so I'm using the bottom four tuners. Eventually, I plan to shape a new bone nut and to use the top and bottom pairs of tuners, removing the middle set. I plan to fill in those holes either with dowel plugs, or perhaps metal caps (which would keep the mod reversible). I'll probably fill in the old bridge pin holes with some mahogany pins (also thereby keeping it reversible). I'll probably reduce the string spacing at the nut to 1/2", so the outside string to outside string distance will be an even 1 1/2". I've got wide fingers, so wide string spacing feels comfortable to me. So far, I really like the sound of the thing and it's very playable. The action was set darn near perfect out of the box, with only a very minor twist of the truss rod needed. No buzzing at all after that! Intonation is very good up the neck, and the fret spacing of the 23" scale is so close to what I'm used to that it hasn't caused any issues. Pic attached, and also a shot with the OGM8M-A next to my LU 21-b standard Baritone and my Recording King parlour guitar for scale. It sits nicely between those sizes!

Here is a sound sample: https://soundcloud.com/oneharp/steel-string-baritone

Here are the specs as I've measured them:
Mahogany laminate top, back, and sides. Mahogany neck, walnut fingerboard and bridge.
X bracing inside with adjustable truss rod.
Nubone nut and saddle.
Saddle is compensated.
23" scale.
Width at nut: 1 5/8"
Width at 12th fret: 2 1/8"
String spacing at the nut after new slots cut: ~9/16"
Outside string to outside string at nut: 1 3/8"
String spacing at the saddle after new bridge pinholes drilled: 11/16"
Outside string to outside string at saddle: 2 1/8"

Hmm, like a tenor guitar if you tune it EADG

Sure! A wide neck tenor guitar is not a bad way to describe it at all. What's kind of neat is that it could be tuned a lot of different ways, including tunings that would stress the neck on a regular Bari... I've just got it to standard Baritone DGBE for now...

I have to say it looks really nice!

Thanks! I'm looking forward to putting the finishing touches on it. I think it'll look pretty great when all done up!

I just bought this $80 pawn shop Washburn Rover with the idea of turning it into a 4-string.

As a beginner, my biggest hurdle is pressing down one string without touching adjacent strings and affecting their tone. So I figure wider spacing would make things easier.

This tiny guitar has 23 3/4" scale and 1 11/16"(43mm) nut.

Wanting to do the least destruction to the instrument, but still have optimum string spacing, I came up with the idea to wrap the inner strings, set in the inner most bridge pins, around the opposite bridge pin, to space the two inside strings appropriately. The outer strings will be strung conventionally from the outermost pins. So all I have left to do is file new slots on the nut for the inside strings.

I'll have to do some experimenting to figure out what strings will stay on the instrument long-term. But for now have settled on the four center strings from the guitar, since only the two center strings were long enough to wrap around the opposite pin and still make it to the farthest tuners.

So here's how the final spacing at the bridge turned out.

Looking kind of bass-ish.

I understand that the small body won't have the volume of a jumbo. But usually I'm the only one listening, and I don't want to inflict others with the burden of the noise I make while learnin.

I still have to file the new slots in the nut.

Using a thin stack knife with fine serations, the nut got kinda buggered up on the third string, leaving the action too low and buzzy. So...I stuck a thick piece of old nylon under it...and...voila'!!

Using an eyeball as a guide, final string spacing turned out very acceptable.