My "beater" classical to Crossover conversion

[Rudy4]

OK, I know it's wacky.

Recently after building and playing a tenor ukulele it suddenly dawned on me that flatpicking (or fingerpicking for that matter...) the uke produced a tonality that I really like, not totally unlike what Dave Rawlings gets out of his Epi Olympian.

I pulled an old classical out of my closet that came to me by way of the garbage when a room mate of my daughter's left an old beat up Karl Hauser behind for her to dispose of. I had never really considered playing it as I really disliked the wide and flat fret board. To make a long story short, I figured this was a cheap way to experiment with owning a "crossover" guitar before putting out any cash.

The original neck needed a pressing, so I installed a 2024-T4 bar reinforcement after straightening. The bar weighs almost nothing, and the neck is now well able to handle any string load I might choose to throw at it. I added a new 16" radius board with side dots and tiny position markers, a hair larger belly bridge to cover the old glue line, pick guard, and Aquila Alabastro strings.

I'll eventually get up a web page for crossover guitar with a few more shots and detailing my forays into the instrument.

Here's a before and after shot:

[Garthman]

Good job! Hope you enjoy playing it.

[Dru Edwards]

Hey Rudy, nice work. Do you have any other projects in mind?

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

Hey Rudy, nice work. Do you have any other projects in mind?

Hi Dru, Thanks for the kind words. I'm enjoying this project, but I've always got things on the burner.

Here is my website link with the whole story of this conversion:

http://www.bluestemstrings.com/pageGuitarCrossover.html