A very unusual commission - this peardrop-bodied tenor is for Steve Edwards.
The body is large - 10" across and just over 3" deep. Steve wanted the instrument to resemble a mandola, hence the shape of the body and the soundhole. He also specified a short, chunky neck, which meets the body at the 10th fret.
Steve doesn't like to strum over the end of the fretboard, so the proportions of the body were designed so that the strumming area is well away from the frets.
Woods are all meranti for the body & neck; rosewood for bridge, fretboard and head veneer and the instrument is fitted with an Artec passive pickup and an endpin jack.
It's strung with my regular fluorocarbon soprano strings at the moment so for the video I've tuned it to Bb to keep the string tension sensible. It will ultimately be restrung with Aquillas.
And it sounds huge!
The body is large - 10" across and just over 3" deep. Steve wanted the instrument to resemble a mandola, hence the shape of the body and the soundhole. He also specified a short, chunky neck, which meets the body at the 10th fret.
Steve doesn't like to strum over the end of the fretboard, so the proportions of the body were designed so that the strumming area is well away from the frets.
Woods are all meranti for the body & neck; rosewood for bridge, fretboard and head veneer and the instrument is fitted with an Artec passive pickup and an endpin jack.
It's strung with my regular fluorocarbon soprano strings at the moment so for the video I've tuned it to Bb to keep the string tension sensible. It will ultimately be restrung with Aquillas.
And it sounds huge!