12-string guitalele / guitolin?

[isiton212]

I reckon a small 12-string acoustic guitalele/guitolin type instrument would be awesome for traveling and couch picking. The extra strings should add a bit more volume and complexity, and a mandolin-like sound. Steel strings, normal guitar fingering, obviously a few tones or maybe a full octave above standard tuning.

Does anyone know of anything like this in existence?

Yamaha's 'guitalele' is nylon strung so maybe not the ideal candidate for modification, but if you wanted to hack together something like this, where would you start?

[gitnoob]

I don't want to discourage hacking, but I had a guitalele and gave it away.

Ask yourself "what is a guitar?" What makes it different than a uke, for example?

Ignoring issues of scale and the cramped fretboard of a smaller instrument, you need a larger body to resonate at the lower frequencies of the bass strings. A small uke-like thing simply can't resonate at those lower guitar frequencies.

But if you really want one, I'm sure you can find one or build one.

[isiton212]

Most of that should buff right out...


I realise that it wouldn't be a 'guitar' as such, but it would still let me exercise my fingers, and make some music - and hopefully it would sound nice enough to compliment other instruments if the opportunity arises. I just have zero interest in learning new chord patterns for a new instrument, and I don't see why I should need to really.

Maybe this is a good excuse to get into the shed and start building something!