Jim Bonnell's electric tenor guitar

[Jim Bonnell]

After some trail and error on the neck angle I got it finished up. It has a 23" scale length and I have it set up for slide tuned to open D. The body is alder with a sapele top. ( the alder was a little thin ) The neck is mahogany with a Pau Ferro fingerboard.

[Jim Bonnell]

Finish is black Target EM 6000 satin distressed. The pickups are two I wound myself. Most tenors I've seen always seemed to use a normal sized body with a little skinny neck and six string hardware. They never looked right to me. I scaled down the body on this one and altered the hardware to four string. I'm very happy with the sound. In another thread recently someone commented that they were surprised at how good hand wound pickups sound even when you're new at it. I have to agree I'm pleasantly surprised myself.

[Jim Bonnell]

And a shot of the neck. Sorry the pictures aren't any better. Time for a new camera.

[Jason Rodgers]

Jim, you are on a roll! That "German carve" stopping at the tail piece is all sortsa retro. Cool! I want a baby guitar, too!

[Randy Roberts]

What a cool intrument!
I really really like your ascetics. That pickguard just has such a sense of grace to the curves. You really do nice work.

[Markku Nyytäjä]

Very retro, very cool! I like the simplicity combined with skilled woodwork. I looks like straight out of the early 50's.
The problem with the pics may lie in the camera, but the high contrast speckled light is also quite difficult to shoot in. It's hard to measure the correct exposure and the result often turns out restless. My advice (photography teacher kicks in) is to shoot in indirect light in the shade and set the white balance of the camera accordingly. Your photos will turn out fine. And those weren't that bad either.

[Dave Anderson]

That is a very cool little guitar Jim! Can't wait to try it..

[Ben Loutrelle]

That is bad ass. And here's why; it looks like something old, something that you only dream of finding in the corner of a antique shop in some tiny town in the middle of nowhere.

[Jim Bonnell]

Thanks a lot Ben.

[Warren May]

Perfect! The hardware, body size and pickups are very nicely proportionate to each other. Do you have a nice close up of the bridge and tailpiece? From the pics, the bridge looks like it might be on posts and adjustable. Great looking little guitar, Jim!

[Jim Bonnell]

Thanks Warren. The bridge is on posts with adjustment rollers. This is the bridge I used http://www.allparts.com/Chrome-Space-Co ... 14-010.htm. I found mine on ebay a bit cheaper. Take it apart, cut the threaded rod to the length you want and remove two of the same sized string rollers. I made the base for it. The tail piece was just a cheap trapeze style tail piece with the two rods cut to the length I wanted and re threaded. I made the cross piece from a scrap of brass bar. I'll try and take some pictures in the next few days and post them. Since I posted the first pictures I made a new pick guard. The first one had an area around the upper left bout that was a little flat along the edge and didn't follow the curve of the body very well. Every time I looked at it I got annoyed. Had to make another. I still want to do a little adjustment on the neck pocket. I have to set the bridge and pickups too high to get the string action right. I'll just glue a filler piece in the pocket re rout and do a little paint touch up ( easy with a distressed finish ) when I get time.

[Jim Bonnell]

Sorry it took so long for me to get the pictures posted for you Warren. Hope these help.

[Jim Bonnell]

Hopefully you can also see the checking in the lacquer.

[Warren May]

Simple but effective. I like the "distressed" look of the whole thing. Adds a lot to the overall vibe without trying to force a relic look to it. Great job.