Nylon string electric

[Andrew Armstrong]

Hello,

I'm looking to build a nylon string electric along the lines of the Kirk Sands guitars Chet Atkins played. I understand they have a free top braced like a classical and are therefore a thin hollow body with appropriate pick-up. Can any one provide any design information or pointers to information that may assist before I launch into this from scratch? Even some dimensional data would be useful as I don't have an example to learn from. Thanks

Andrew

[Bill Raymond]

I believe Kirk makes 2 versions: one has a solid mahogany plank hollowed out, leaving perhaps 1/4 inch for a back and 3/8 inch around the edge for sides (these are my guesses, I really don't know the dimensions he uses); the plank should be just your standard solid body plank, perhaps 1-3/4 inch thick, with a standard classical guitar top glued on--you could use any classical guitar plan for the plantilla, Torres would be a good start. The other style is built like an acoustical guitar, except that the sides are less deep. Again, I don't know the height of the sides, but again you could make it somewhere between 1-3/4 to 2 inches deep. If you ask questions on the misterguitar.com chetboard, some of the owners of the Gibson Studio Classic (which was developed from a Sand guitar made for Chet) might be willing to give you some dimensions. Presently, I think Sand mostly makes them with the upper bass bout curved down to meet the neck at a higher fret (sort of like a cutaway). You can see photos on Sand's website. Last I looked, there were construction photos, too. He used to use the Gibson CE piezo pickup, but I believe those are no longer available so he uses another brand, probably Fishman. There is a new maker of the Prismatone which had been built by Baldwin and which Chet used on his prototype, Sam Kennedy--and the folks on the chetboard would know how to get ahold of Sam. The folks there hold these new Prismatones in high regard. RMC pickups would be another choice, as they are hexaphonic and would allow for individual string volume/balance controls. Al Baggetta has posted some info on the Gibson CE preamp for the hexaphonic pickup that Gibson used to make on his website, address of which you could find searching the chetboard site. I hope this helps.

[Andrew Armstrong]

thanks bill, that is very helpful. The first approach is where I was heading. Pickup info very helpful too.

[Bill Raymond]

Andrew,
I've been giving this some thought, as I plan to build one too some day. I can't abide the thought of just wasting all that mahogany by routing out a hollow in an 8/4 board. I think that it would be quite acceptable to make a 2 piece body, joined down the middle. Each half, before joining and cutting to shape, could be resawed, taking a 1/4 inch piece off the thickness for a back. The hollowed out portion could then be sawn from the thicker pieces and the whole thing glued up together. The pieces taken out of the body could then be used for other projects instead of converted to router shavings. Also, note that one need not use mahogany, as a number of hardwoods would suit--walnut comes to mind.

[Mark Swanson]

That's basically how I like to make my hollow body electrics. I re-saw the top and back off, leaving the core and hollow that out with a bandsaw. I leave the sides about 1/2" thick, leaving a solid area for the neck and the bridge right down the middle. You can glue a shim of wood in the entry point for the bandsaw, and if you enter right at the end pin, the shim actually looks pretty good in a contrasting wood.

[John Kingma]

Andrew - I built an electric nylon string guitar a year or so ago. It was constructed completely different from what has been described here BUT for the pickup I used one from Schatten Design. I am very happy with the way it sounds. You might want to check them out.

http://schattendesign.com/HFN-CS-Artist.htm

Here is a very short video. It's not the best quality recording but you get the idea. It was recorded on a Vox VT-30 amp set clean, with just a touch of reverb.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn-IE49tX7Y

Here is a picture.