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A Couple Pics of Todd Rose's Alto Guitar
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Author:  Steve Kinnaird [ Sat Jun 21, 2008 11:06 pm ]
Post subject:  A Couple Pics of Todd Rose's Alto Guitar
Amid all the lovely--but predictable--things seen at luthiers' conventions, there's always a few surprises. As a friend of mine says, "a jelly doughnut nestled among the glazed plain". There were several of those at the GAL convention, and one was from our very own Todd Rose.
He calls this an alto guitar, tuned like a tenor guitar (a third higher, Todd?), with doubled courses.
Beautiful little instrument, and loud as a mandolin.

Here's a frontal view, displaying some lovely bearclaw, and a not-too-shabby rosette!

Attachment:
A 001.jpg


Here's a side view--ash body w/ bubinga bindings.

Attachment:
A 002.jpg


And finally a shot for Evan. This Mallard proved elusive, but we were able to catch a stern shot:

Attachment:
A 003.jpg


Thanks for looking,

Steve
Author:  joe white [ Sun Jun 22, 2008 1:26 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A Couple Pics of Todd Rose's Alto Guitar
Thanks for posting Steve! It looks great! The bridge looks nice Todd. Very nice indeed! [:Y:] [clap]
Author:  Sam Price [ Sun Jun 22, 2008 3:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A Couple Pics of Todd Rose's Alto Guitar
An extremely beautiful instrument!
Author:  martinedwards [ Sun Jun 22, 2008 4:14 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A Couple Pics of Todd Rose's Alto Guitar
VERY pretty.

I'd love to hear it.......
Author:  ChuckH [ Sun Jun 22, 2008 5:27 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A Couple Pics of Todd Rose's Alto Guitar
Nice shot of that Mallard drake. Speaking of nice shots, if he flys down here to Oakwood Bottoms in December..........
Author:  Arnt Rian [ Sun Jun 22, 2008 5:38 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A Couple Pics of Todd Rose's Alto Guitar
Todd, that looks great (can I have it? :D )!

So how is it tuned; in fifths I assume, but what are the pitches? What string gauges did you use? And you made one of those 'on-pin-per-course' bridges, how do you like it?

We need more detail, more pictures!
Author:  Evan Gluck [ Sun Jun 22, 2008 8:19 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A Couple Pics of Todd Rose's Alto Guitar
Todd's instrument was great and it was a lot of fun discussing it with him.
As for the duck, thanks Steve. I tried to take that things picture everyday and it
was either not there or would fly away when I pointed my camera at it. [clap] [clap]
Good job
Best, Evan
Author:  Dave Anderson [ Sun Jun 22, 2008 9:40 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A Couple Pics of Todd Rose's Alto Guitar
Very neat guitar Todd, It looks loud ! That's
some sound port you have there. Really nice job and
Thank You Steve, for posting the pics. [:Y:]
Author:  Chansen [ Sun Jun 22, 2008 2:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A Couple Pics of Todd Rose's Alto Guitar
I had the chance to play it for a while and it sounded great. It was extremely clear with lots of volume. It was a little difficult trying to remember to only play the top four strings though. Awesome little guitar though!
Author:  Todd Rose [ Mon Jun 23, 2008 5:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A Couple Pics of Todd Rose's Alto Guitar
Steve, thanks for posting this, and thanks to everybody for your supportive comments.

The tuning I designed this instrument around is GCEA (low to high). In other words, it's just like a standard guitar, capoed at the 5th fret, with the bottom two strings removed. The double courses are unisons. It could be tuned other ways, of course, but a radically different tuning, like tuning it by 5ths, would require different string gauges and a different set up. At one point during the exhibition, I retuned it GCDG, which is analogous to DADGAD - again, eliminating the lowest two strings and capoing at the 5th fret. Nancy Conescu (who's married to Mike Doolin; the two of them played one of the evening concerts) plays mostly in DADGAD. She and Mike were at the table next to me, so I tuned it that way for her to play some tunes on it.

GCEA is also a uke tuning, so this instrument could also be called a double course steel string uke. Uke players will adapt to it immediately. A uke maker at the convention was playing jazz on it, which sounded really cool.

The scale length is derived from a standard 24.9" guitar, chopped off at the 5th fret. It comes to about 18.7" with compensation. I have it strung with D'Addario "bluegrass" strings (minus the two low strings, of course), so the wound strings are a little heavier, while the plain steels are light.

I'm thinking about making a mandola with the same box and a somewhat shorter scale length, designed to be tuned in standard mandola tuning (CGDA) - which, by the way, is also standard tenor guitar tuning, but a tenor guitar has a much longer scale length and is strung, accordingly, with much lighter strings than a mandola.

Interestingly, there was an Irish guy, Tony Dunne, at the convention who plays Irish bouzouki. The tuning he uses on his bouzouki is DGBE, which is, again, the top 4 strings of a guitar (and is unusual for Irish bouzouki). So, he was immediately right at home on my alto guitar. He came by a couple of times and played a bunch of traditional Irish tunes on it. That was great. I find that whenever somebody different plays one of my instruments, it's like hearing it for the first time. Each player brings out a different sound. It's delightful for me to hear, and it's informative, in that it reveals aspects of the instrument's sound that I didn't even know were there, thus giving me more insight into what I've built and what changes I might make in future instruments to enhance different potentials.

There would be no reason, IMO, to make the side soundport so big, except that it has a second, practical function - I can get my hand inside the instrument to easily access the neck bolts (it's an adjustable neck joint) or do anything else in there I might want to do. I'm sure the big hole robs the box of some low-end air resonance, but since this is a relatively high-pitched instrument that is designed for a singing, ringing, bright, and cutting sound, not a boomy or rumbly sound, this is not an issue. I am extremely happy with the way it sounds.

Arnt, I'm very happy with the way the bridge pin thing worked out. I would definitely do it this way again. It's a little trickier to change strings, but I'm getting used to it already, and it's not a big deal.

I'll try to post some more pics when I have a chance to take some.

Thanks again, everybody!
Author:  Arnt Rian [ Mon Jun 23, 2008 8:00 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A Couple Pics of Todd Rose's Alto Guitar
Thanks for all that info, Todd.

Did you have any problems getting it intonated properly? It looks like you have a pretty beefy saddle back there, so it should give some leeway to adjust the compensation the between the wound and plain courses.

So what kind of music do you like to play on it? The way you described its tone reminds me of how an Irish bouzouki sounds to me, (and I don’t know if you’re into that kind of thing) but I bet it could be used for all sorts of music in the right hands.
Author:  Todd Rose [ Mon Jun 23, 2008 6:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A Couple Pics of Todd Rose's Alto Guitar
Arnt, as a matter of fact, I still need to work out a couple minor issues with the adjustable neck joint, and that will affect intonation, so I haven't yet finished the saddle. For the time being, I stuck a piece of guitar string under the strings on top of the saddle to give them a clean break-over point. It intonates pretty well just like that. I don't anticipate having any problems intonating it. I think a narrower saddle would have been sufficient as far as that goes. There's really no difference from intonating a normal guitar.

So far, I'm enjoying learning to play some fiddle tunes on it. It can also work well to play chordal accompaniment for singing - cross picking patterns sound especially good, but strumming is cool, too. I also play it at as an old time string band rhythm instrument, just strumming on the upbeat, like a mandolin. I think the possibilities are endless, really.
Author:  LanceK [ Mon Jun 23, 2008 7:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A Couple Pics of Todd Rose's Alto Guitar
Todd, that is a very cool guitar! [clap]
Author:  WaddyThomson [ Wed Jun 25, 2008 10:13 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A Couple Pics of Todd Rose's Alto Guitar
Very cool design, Todd. Nice guitar! [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap]
Author:  Todd Rose [ Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:35 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A Couple Pics of Todd Rose's Alto Guitar
Thanks again for the supportive comments. One of these days I'll get around to taking some pictures of it myself so I can post a few more here, if only to satisfy Arnt...
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