For sale, I have a 3 string Cigar Box style Short Scale Tenor guitar made using a Quality Street Tin, several lengths of pine and several guitar parts.
1st, a Tenor guitar is a relative of the Tenor Banjo and is a 4 sting short scale instrument typically with a scale length between 21 and 23 inches with Tenor Banjos having even shorter scales as low as 19 inches. you will most commonly find Tenor guitars an banjos used in Jazz, Irish Folk, Bluegrass and Country but they have a habit of popping up in a variety of genres such as Blues and Rhythm and Blues. although a niche and older instrument like its long scaled cousin the Plectrum guitar, Fender has recently made a solid body electric Tenor in the shape of their Telecaster and hollow bodied Tenor guitars are still in production now for modern players to experiment with.
The overall length of the guitar is 30 inches and as a maximum scale length of 22 inches. This scale can be shortened by moving the large nut and bolt that serves as the bridge piece about the body. at this time. The body is made using a large M&S Chocolate biscuit tin (delicious BTW, I am partial to the milk chocolate covered crisp biscuit) which is 10 inches long, 8.5 inches wide and 2 inches deep. The tin is equipped with a Single coil pickup that I have mounted in the neck position on the lid of the tin and is wired into a standard electric guitar jack socket which is also mounted on the lid of the tin.
Also, I am experimenting with wooden floating bridges instead of nuts and bolts made of my off cuts of hard wood, much more akin to that you would find on a banjo, if you wish for one of these instead of the nut and bolt, let me know before purchasing.
The neck is made up of several lengths of pine and a dark hard wood, which I have planed, sanded glued and screwed in order make a neck that most suits that tin. on the headstock I have mounted 3 standard guitar machine heads in a 2 and 1 arrangement. the neck is also equipped with a single 4mm bolt which serves as the nut. the neck is secured to the tin using a pair of long screws at the rear of the tin through the large steel hinge which serves as the tailpiece of the guitar and an even longer screw through the back of the guitar.
CHOOSE YOUR STRING: as pictured, there are no strings on this guitar and I leave it up to you to choose what gauges you would like. As this is a Tenor scaled instrument, there are particular sets of gauges most suitable for it. typically, the lighter gauges strings of a 6 string guitar are used such as the 8, 11 and 14 at their lightest and as heavy as 13, 17 and 24w however the gauges selected such reflect the tuning that is desired. a Tenor Guitar and by extension Tenor Banjo has a few standard tunings including the all fifths DGA, The Irish tuning of DAE and Chicago tuning of GBE, which is the same as a Baritone Ukulele (which also has a scale of 21 inches). it is possible with the right set of strings to have Nashville tuning which is EAD, the same as the low strings of a 6 string guitar, but an octave higher. All strings I use are Ernie Ball Nickel wound strings and I have every gauge suitable for a Tenor instrument including a number of wound strings for the heavier gauges. Do please let me know when purchasing what string gauges you would like and I will string it up myself before dispatch. if I do not hear from you in this regard, I will select a set of suitable strings for this guitar myself.
due to the size, but not the weight, of this instrument, I will be shipping it via Parcelforce 48 in order to ensure a fast and safe delivery. if you have any other requests for postal services or if you are purchasing more than one of my instruments do please let me know before purchase so I may properly quote the cost. if you are purchasing this instrument from outside of the UK or off of the mainland UK, do please contact me before purchase so I quote you the proper cost of postage.
If you like my guitars, but do not see something specific you like, I can, at an agreed price, build something more bespoke upon request. Feel free to contact me with any enquiries, I will be making a listing specifically for bespoke builds in the near future, but please note my building period for the year is April to September, its a bit cold and wet for the rest of the year for me to build effectively.
I have a number of instruments similar to this for sale, do please check them out. if you have any questions about this instrument, do please let me know.
happy shopping.