3/4 size guitar?

[Jack Lord]

I made my grandson a OO Grand Concert size guitar that he loves.  It's too valuable though to take camping or put into the belly of a plane, so I want to get him a cheap guitar for those occasions.  Amazon.com has a lot of 3/4 size guitars that look right for this, but none give specific dimensions.  What are the dimensions of a 3/4 size guitar, or is it not that well standardized?

[Greg Mirken]

No, there are no rules about the dimensions of fractional guitars. You realize most of those things on Amazon are GSOs, right?

You might consider the Art & Lutherie Ami from Godin, and the Baby Taylor. They should both be in the $300 range.

(GSO= Guitar Shaped Object, btw)

[Mark McLean]

Greg is spot on. The size/shape is not important, the issue is the playability. The problem with most cheap and small guitars is that they will have terrible set-up and action and they will be a misery to play. If you buy online you won't know how awful it is until it is too late. If your grandson doesn't enjoy the feeling of playing it, he just won't pick it up.

You can't beat the Baby Taylor for this purpose. They are well made and are a joy to play. It might be a bit more expensive than the one you are looking at - but spend the money and you will both get the pleasure of seeing him play that thing a lot.
cheers
Mark

[Jack Lord]

I want to be clear again. The guitar that I built for him will be his main guitar, and it is well built and set up well. I just want something for knocking around at camp, etc. I know that you can't tell much from a picture, but I feel like showing off the one I made anyway.

[Arthur Sweeney]

beautiful guitar!

[John Schmidt]

Are the plans available?

Thanks

John

[Jack Lord]

I just noticed that I took the picture before I trimmed the fingerboard to match the hole.
I got the plans from Dave Yelverton on this forum. I added the cutaway and made it a little deeper to make up for the loss of volume of the box (4-1/2" max, 3-9/16" at heel). I bolted the neck on using barrel bolts in the heel. You can take the pdf file to Kinko's or someplace and get a hard copy, but be sure to tell them you want it full size. - Jack

[John Schmidt]

Jack,

Thanks so very much. You are a real gentleman.

BTW, I have had some Rosewood planks stored in my garage for 20 years. Maybe this will motivate me to make a guitar. Currently, I make violins and violin maker's knives.

[Tom Krebs]

Yamaha FG JR1 is a decent cheap 3/4 guitar.

[Jack Lord]

Thanks Tom. That guitar received the best reviews I've seen yet for an inexpensive smaller guitar (or GSO as Greg would call it).

[Paul Hostetter]

My kids grew up with a Baby Taylor, it was terrific.

[Grahame Myers]

Talking about kids and Baby Taylors: A Father brought his kids BT in for repair last week. It'd taken a knock on the back upper bout, which caused a small crack in the top, and the top had separated from the side over a distance of about 25cm. Easy job to glue up, but I did notice that the top/sides are not bound, and the top itself seems to be glued together from 4 pieces, the 2 "wings" being somewhat lighter than the middle pieces.I'm not sure they're the right guitar for kids, knowing how careless kids can be, but of course it all depends on the kid :-)
I certainly wouldn't advise using them as school instruments, when I think about the condition of the school instruments I get in for repair...with a BT it'd be firewood after the first semester :-)
Great sounding little guitar though, unbelievable how nice they are to play, just like their big brothers.

Grahame

[Christian Johnson]

I've reglued the backs and tops together on baby taylors. They come apart easily.