Small Sized Guitar Project from 2015

My grand daughter is named Taylor Nichols. She was 12 years old in 2015 and she developed an interest in playing guitar. I thought about buying her a small sized Taylor guitar for Christmas that year (since her name is Taylor). After looking around at the small sized guitars on the market, they all looked pretty cheaply made to me. I decided to build her a small sized guitar that she could reach around and play easily. I wanted it to have the same scale as a Martin Dreadnought, but I wanted the body to be thinner and narrower. I also wanted the neck to be slightly narrower than a standard Martin or Gibson. I often take pictures while I’m building a guitar, but this time I didn’t take any pictures until I was nearly finished with it.

I had some Indian Rosewood that I made the back and sides from. I took the dreadnought body and scaled it down to a size and shape that I liked. I used curly maple for the body and neck binding. The final size of the finished guitar was small enough to fit in a slightly modified Les Paul case.

The picture above shows the size of the body compared to a dreadnought. It is roughly the same overall length but is is narrower and thinner. This picture is before applying the bridge. I’ve learned to put the bridge on after finishing the top. It lets the finish stay smoother around the bridge area. I apply my plastic template and carefully scrape the finish off to glue the bridge onto the top. Taylor said she liked a sunburst or shaded top so I complied with her request.

 

The soundboard is spruce and it is X braced similar to a Martin style.

The neck is mahogany and it has a 2 way truss rod. The fingerboard is rosewood and was included in a bunch of parts I acquired several years ago from Larry Mathis. This fingerboard was a Martin factory “take off” from years ago.

I like to leave a volute on my necks. It strengthens a weak area of the neck. It is a bolt-on neck design.

 

A Nichols shaped-bound peghead, rosewood overlay, polished bone nut, pearl truss rod cover, and some Asian made 12/1 tuning machines decorate the peghead area. The Nichols name is painted on and the truss rod cover is hand engraved mother of pearl. So, instead of having a Taylor Guitar, she has a Taylor Nichols Guitar. Nobody else in the whole world has one of these.

The inlays are the Martin pearl dots that were on the fingerboard originally. I used a Martin style bridge, polished bone saddle, and a custom shaped, beveled edged tortoise style pickguard.

I like the curly maple binding. This project was not an attempt to copy any guitar I’ve ever seen. This is my design for my grand daughter. I hope this little guitar will be a reminder to her in years to come of her old pawpaw. This little guitar turned out to have quite a bit of sound especially for a small sized body.