Long scale 12 String

[Don Musser]

27' inch scale on a slightly altered OM shaped body. I have always wanted to build a small body 12 String. This longer scale length placed the bridge more in the center of the lower bout. The overall proportions seem visually pleasing to my eye.

[IMG][/IMG]


Back and sides from "The Tree"


[IMG][/IMG]


[IMG][/IMG]


Customer supplied wide grained Red Spruce


[IMG][/IMG]


This 12 string was built to be tuned down a third - a "baritone " - as the customer says. The smaller body - the Mahogany back and sides - and the Red Spruce all play into keeping the sound focused and together at the lower tunings.


[IMG][/IMG]


Here is a picture of the backs for the next four soundboxes. I like to build in sync with the weather and we have a low humidity Indian summer that shows up here in SW New Mexico in October. Two Brazilian OMs, one Cocobolo OM, and then a Brazilian Parlour.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Cocobolo Kid]

That is one of the nicest looking 12-string guitars I have seen. The rosette looks exceptionally nice, and the overall proportions do look good to the eye.

I think my next custom build will be for a 12-string, but of normal scale length.

What tuners did you end up using? Looks like mini-Grovers from the photo, but hard to tell. Did the guitar end up being headstock-heavy with the extra six tuners on the headstock? In other words, in a seated playing position with the guitar on your leg, does the guitar feel heavy in your left hand?

Thanks for sharing, and I hope you are able to make it to the Santa Barbara Guitar Show next year. I would love to check out your guitars in person.

[guitar344]

Nice work. The back looks pretty nice. I bet the hi g will be impossible to tune with that scale length. The tuning must be lower than E standard. I would like to hear what it sounds like.

[robj144]

Nice looking guitar.

[J-F C]

Very interesting idea and beautiful also.

Could you tell us more about the rosette that is fantastic?

Thank you,

JF

[SJ VanSandt]

That's a beautiful guitar and a fantastic idea. I'm not sure I could handle a 27" 12-string myself, but in the right hands I'll bet it sounds fantastic. That tuning could come in very handy too.

[Don Musser]

Thanks you guys,
I used mini Gotohs with ebony knobs. The guitar is heavy in the left hand and the ebony knobs were installed to cut down on the neck weight.

[IMG][/IMG]

I have built 14 fret - 25 and 1/2 inch scale Parlour guitars and was told they were neck heavy . To compensate I inlaid a lead counterweight in the tail block which balanced things out. I imagine a lead counterweight in the tail block on this 12 would help with that issue.

I have tuned this 12 string up to open D tuning - so the high G string was all the way up to F# without breaking.....
My client wants to tune this guitar in the following way :
3rd lower - (6-1) C - F - B flat - E flat - G -C

I just inlaid two abalone rosettes into tops for those backs in the pictures - sorry I did not take some pictures. Basically the rosette is two bent pieces of purfling glued together with epoxy around the curved and fit abalone pieces. I will take and post a picture tomorrow with all of the jigs and pieces involved in the process.

[guitar344]

Originally Posted by Don Musser

Thanks you guys,
I used mini Gotohs with ebony knobs. The guitar is heavy in the left hand and the ebony knobs were installed to cut down on the neck weight.

[IMG][/IMG]

I have built 14 fret - 25 and 1/2 inch scale Parlour guitars and was told they were neck heavy . To compensate I inlaid a lead counterweight in the tail block which balanced things out. I imagine a lead counterweight in the tail block on this 12 would help with that issue.

I have tuned this 12 string up to open D tuning - so the high G string was all the way up to F# without breaking.....
My client wants to tune this guitar in the following way :
3rd lower - (6-1) C - F - B flat - E flat - G -C

I just inlaid two abalone rosettes into tops for those backs in the pictures - sorry I did not take some pictures. Basically the rosette is two bent pieces of purfling glued together with epoxy around the curved and fit abalone pieces. I will take and post a picture tomorrow with all of the jigs and pieces involved in the process.

The hi g on a 27 will feel like a hi g tuned g#4 on a 25. It's a hit and miss note on a 25 scale.

[6L6]

Britain's Stan Francis built this long scale 12 string that became known as the "Pete Seeger" model when Pete bought two of them. I believe only about a dozen were ever built.

While in college in the 60's I heard Pete play in several concerts and he always had this 12 with him. People remember him most for his skill on the banjo, but he was a VERY fine guitar player as well.

The only one I've ever seen other than the one(s) Pete played in concert was this fine example. It was for sale on London's Denmark St.



It sounded incredible!

Bill

[justonwo]

Looks very cool, Don. Thanks for sharing.

[Don Musser]

Here is a picture of everything involved in the making of the abalone rosette.

[IMG][/IMG]


The inner curvature of the abalone pieces is ground on a grinding wheel dimensioned to the correct radius. The piece is then cut off of the shell blank and the end edges of each piece are trued to the radius so they will butt up without gaps. Afterwards they are matched for color and grain as closely as possible and then fit into the aluminum jig and the outer curvature is sanded.

The purfling pieces are wet, bent, and dried in the aluminum jig.
The two bent purfling pieces are glued up with epoxy to the abalone pieces around the plexiglass circle. Push pins hold things in place.
The glue excess is sanded off and the rosette is inlaid into the top as one piece.

[Steve Kinnaird]

That IS a fine looking guitar Don!
Do you have pics of the top bracing?

Steve

[kkrell]

Classy as always, Don.

BTW, I came across this short recording of Eddie Van Halen playing one of your guitars on Van Halen III, 1st track. Can you recommend any others, mostly solo?

[tadol]

That is a really fine looking instrument, and a very intriguing design - I love my 27" scale SCGC Brozman, and have read about a couple longer scale 12 strings, but have never really heard one. If you could get a good recording of yours it would be greatly appreciated.

I'd also be intrigued to hear what you think of all that in an OM size - does that work well, or would a larger soundboard help? I had a standard scale Larrivee 12 string OM, and while very comfortable, it didn't seem to quite make it - but it was not a luthier-built instrument -

[Don Musser]

Tadol - Or anybody else who wants to advise me - what is the best way to go about posting a recording on this thread of this 12 string being played?

I have a friend who sells guitars at a Tucson store tell me they record guitars for prospective customers on an iphone as an mp3 and then upload the recordings to soundcloud. - But another friend tells me the sound quality is diminished by an mp3..... What is the best way to get a link on this thread to a better quality recording of this 12 string ?


Kevin - thanks for that link. I posted links on one of my other threads to Neil Young playing one of my parlour guitars. He played it for the 2014 LiveFarmAid concert and the 2014 Bridge Street School event.

Steve - I did not take any pictures of the bracing on this 12 string. On 6 string Oms my main X braces are 5/16 ths of an inch in thickness and are a little less than 5/8 ths tall where they cross.
On this 12 string the main X braces are 3/8 ths in thickness and just a bit over 5/8 ths at the X.