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Thread: At long last, Davey Stuart custom tenor

  1. #1

    Default At long last, Davey Stuart custom tenor

    18 month wait, worth every minute.

    This is the first truly irreplaceable instrument I have owned, not priceless, but priceless to me.

    It is an 18" scale OM, it's basically his 18" flattop mandola design with a deeper body and lighter bracing so it can be strung as a tenor guitar in either GDAE or CGDA. The design allows for most of the short neck to clear the body while still getting the deeper tone of an OM.

    The 18" scale is the magic golden length for me, as it's the longest scale I can play comfortably with mandolin fingerings of two fingers per fret. I am playing both grass and classical literature on it. I have to substitute chop chords with barre chords but everything else works really well and the speed is there. I always felt encumbered on the 20" scale OM, and put that instrument on the shelf as a result.

    Also part of the comfort package are 15 lb strings for my aging hands, tall frets, and Grover 309 tuners, just in case I want to string it up with 8 very light strings.

    I had to talk him into this build, he wasn't sure that short of a scale would sound good tuned GDAE, and by his very high standards he gave it a sound rating of just OK.

    As for me, with the right strings and pick (15 lb set with Ultex .88 triangle), I get a wonderful sound out of it. I would characterize my desired sound as the classic Taylor guitar sound, and that's what it does, with a little more bass. I chose the brightest pick I could stand, since I like the shimmer of a Taylor steel-string for strumming vocal accompaniment.

    It strums quite well as a rhythm machine too (using open and barre chords), and capoed at C it sounds like a decent CGDA tuned instrument. So this may have cured me of MAS for a while... :-)

    So here it is, a custom made mandola/tenor guitar that chances are only a weirdo like me would want.

    I love the mandolin world. :-)

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    Davey Stuart tenor guitar (based on his 18" mandola design).
    Eastman MD-604SB with Grover 309 tuners.
    Eastwood 4 string electric mandostang, 2x Airline e-mandola (4-string) one strung as an e-OM.
    DSP's: Helix HX Stomp, various Zooms.
    Amps: THR-10, Sony XB-20.

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  3. #2

    Default Re: At long last, Davey Stuart custom tenor

    I know what you mean about a comfortable scale length. Looks pretty!

    Enjoy the neck out of it!

  4. #3
    Registered User John Kelly's Avatar
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    Default Re: At long last, Davey Stuart custom tenor

    Looks great. Beautifully built. How about a sound clip now to let us hear it?
    I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. - Eric Morecambe

    http://www.youtube.com/user/TheOldBores

  5. #4

    Default Re: At long last, Davey Stuart custom tenor

    OK you made me do some work to get an mp3 posted. :-)

    I had a Schertler resocoil pickup installed, which has worked well for me with mandolins, but for an OM it is surprisingly awful, I hadn't tried it other than to plug into a tuner.

    So I did an emergency pickup replacement with an LR Baggs Radius M I had laying around and now it sounds good. Ready to play out now, so was a worthwhile exercise.

    I admit I kinda like the radius sound with this instrument, it's a soundboaard mic like the resocoil, so no piezo quack or tinny sound.

    The sound is slightly EQ'd, mostly to take out the overpowering bassiness. Clean other than a reduction at 250 HZ.

    The bridge isn't properly compensated yet so intonation isn't quite what I'd hope for up the fretboard, but it's not too bad.

    In the recording I do a lot of barre chords walking up and down the neck, I made it to the A minor just above the octave G.
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Last edited by kurth83; Dec-15-2020 at 12:24am.
    Davey Stuart tenor guitar (based on his 18" mandola design).
    Eastman MD-604SB with Grover 309 tuners.
    Eastwood 4 string electric mandostang, 2x Airline e-mandola (4-string) one strung as an e-OM.
    DSP's: Helix HX Stomp, various Zooms.
    Amps: THR-10, Sony XB-20.

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  7. #5
    Registered User Mike Buesseler's Avatar
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    Sep 2002
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    Whitefish,MT
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    Default Re: At long last, Davey Stuart custom tenor

    That MP3 does not open on my iPad.

  8. #6
    Registered User John Kelly's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Ardnadam, Argyll, Scotland
    Posts
    2,280

    Default Re: At long last, Davey Stuart custom tenor

    That instrument has a great sound, Kurt. Good balance across the strings and range. Hope you really enjoy it - you play rather well too!
    I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. - Eric Morecambe

    http://www.youtube.com/user/TheOldBores

  9. #7

    Default Re: At long last, Davey Stuart custom tenor

    Sounds great. A unique instrument.

    I know what you mean about loving the mandolin world. So many choices in scale length, courses, tunings, tops, sound holes, etc. It's fun finding your own sound. Congrats on the purchase!
    Girouard Concert A5
    Girouard Custom A4
    Nordwall Cittern
    Barbi Mandola
    Crump OM-1s Octave
    www.singletonstreet.com

  10. #8
    Registered User
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    Chicagoland north
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    Default Re: At long last, Davey Stuart custom tenor

    Very nice! Congrats. Nice sound - we'll look forward to more. I had thought about trying to string my mandola as a tenor guitar but never got around to trying it. I completely understand wanting the shorter scale length. It's very cool that you've got it set up for multiple uses.

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