Pono Tenor Guitar

[ponoguitar]

Traditionally a tenor guitar has been a "parlor" size body, with four steel strings, similar to the top four strings of a steel string guitar. And a narrow neck.

We decided to redesign a traditional tenor guitar to accommodate nylon strings. To do this, bracing needed to be a fan style, and for ease of finger style playing, the fingerboard needed to be wider (1 3/4" at the nut).
And then breaking from strict classical design, we decided to radius the fingerboard. To add something interesting, the headstock is slotted.

Tuning is optional, with a scale length of 23"
We set up our tenor guitar the same as a baritone ukulele, DGBE, with the D and G being wound and B and E plain nylon.

The original few that we sold were made of acacia top, back, and sides (BN-10D), or acacia with a spruce top (BN-10DS).

But future production will include the BN-10D all acacia for $899, and BN-30D with rosewood and spruce for $999.

Attached is a video of the BN-10D all acacia, displaying it's deep and warm tone. The other video is a BN-10D but with a Spruce top.
This second video shows the difference when spruce is added.

The Acacia we use is related to Acacia Koa. It's one of those woods, like Mahogany that can be used as a top wood, producing that deep and warm "woody" tone. But the BN-30D rosewood model needs to have either spruce or cedar for the top. Rosewood is much too dense and hard for a soundboard.

A common question is "which is better," ... the BN-10D all acacia or the BN-30D. They both sound good, just different. The BN-30D rosewood model is more expensive due to more costly woods.

We realize that listening to video recordings on the internet may not be perfect reproduction, especially depending on your particular speaker system. But the equipment used for all of our demo recordings is state of the art.

We begin with Schoetes CMC6 Stereo mics, running into an A Design Pacifica preamp, and then to a Lynx Aurora Converter.

http://vimeo.com/86971900 Pono BN-10D Spruce top Tenor Guitar

http://vimeo.com/81702431 Pono BN-10D All Acacia Tenor Guitar

[Mobilemike]

Wow! Sounds awesome!

Are these available now?

-Mike

[TWork]

Hi PG,

Do you guys actually have guitars available for sale? In doing some searching, it seems like there was talk about a smaller size guitar months back with a Feb timeline. Searching your site for some of the model numbers you mention brings up nothing and I don't see anything available from Hawaii Music Supply?

I'm a potential customer -- what's the deal with availability?

[ponoguitar]

Currently we have a few Pono models in stock. Acacia, Mahogany, and Mango parlor size. And a few Concert OOO, and Grand Auditorium OOOO.

In a few weeks the N-10D Tenor Guitar, made of all Acacia will be available, but most are spoken for, unless cancelled. In October another production run of the N-30D rosewood/spruce Tenor Guitar and more of the N-10D all Acacia Tenor Guitars will be available.

As for a smaller size parlor, we recently finished our first prototypes of what we call the Li'i Small Body model. It's 12 1/4" wide, and I was trying to pattern it somewhat like a style 2 from the late 1800's and early 1900's.

Making a guitar that size, with good tone and volume is difficult, with body woods and bracing thickness being very critical. If not cut right, the guitar either falls apart from being too thin, or sounds weak and trebly, being too thick.

Guitars that size are fun to play and easy to tote around. Great to have around the house to quickly pick up and play. But also adequate in tone and volume for performance.

We have a couple of the first ones, which are made of all mahogany, and very unadorned. They sound good, but we decided on a slightly deeper body for final production. Two other prototypes have a cutaway body, which is convenient, but detracts from vintage style.

Along with the Tenor Guitars, in October the Li'i models available will be an
L-20D Mahogany with Spruce, L-30D Rosewood with Spruce,
and a beautiful L-400 made of Ebony back and sides and Engelmann Spruce top.

[NatalieS]

I'm very much looking forward to getting one of these. I'm going for the rosewood/spruce combination. Thank you for being so helpful in your emails, John.