Half Size Replica Guitars

[Leevis]

Hi All

I am trying to work out whether it is possible or not to make a half size guitar for art purposes on a cnc or manually. I own lots of guitars and a few of those plastic 12inch high copies of classic guitars (frakenstrat, red special, that kind of thing).

What I want to see is if it is possible to create something that is around half the scale of a full size guitar. With a CNC I could probably create most of if ie mill out the bridge, trem and all of the wood work but not too sure what I would do about the strings, would rather not use wire but might have to.

Has anyone ever seen these anywhere (half size copies?) Would be a good thing to make 

Lee

[Bizman62]

Half size... Was it you or someone else that made me look for the actual measurements for fraction sized guitars not too long ago? That was a hilarious journey!

Anyhow, so called half size guitars have been along for several decades at least. As a full size one is about 100 cm/40", the small ones are about 75 cm/30" so in accurate terms they're rather 3/4 sized. Bear in mind, though, that the headstocks can't be made much smaller because the tuners are full size. The 6 string ones I've seen also have full size pickups and bridges so the instruments should rather be considered as short scale guitars than actual miniatures. But they're fun to play! One thing to remember is to use heavy gauge strings to make the bending and vibrato feel similar to a full size guitar just for accuracy. With a set of 10s it's easy to bend several full notes on such a short scale! Oh, and the scale length of those minis is usually about 22" instead of 25-ish. Here's some examples: https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/news/140549/

If you really want to go small, take a look at ukuleles! Their full length varies from a dozen inches of a sopranino to the 25" of a baritone - which already is about the same size as a "half size" guitar! The scale lengths vary accordingly from 11 to 20 inches and as you may know the fretting follows the very same math with guitars. Basically you're just cutting the first five or more frets off! That's similar to permanently using a capo. And that means you can use a pre-slotted fretboard if you wish. Just move the fret markers. As long as the 12th fret is halfways the scale you should be in tune.

 

[Prostheta]

The main trick is the hardware. You're not going to have the easiest job scaling an OFR down, or tuners. In that respect, it really depends on whether you're scaling the physical outline of the instrument down, or every last part.

[Leevis]

Yeah I'm thinking that this is not going to be something easy but might make an interesting collection to have. Don't get me wrong here, these are not going to be playable guitars because I really don't think it is that possible (not impossible) to reduce one in size to the size I want without it losing its guitar charm. What I think I am going to have to do is make one half size (or smaller) as a peice of art using wood for the body and neck and then something else to make up the trem/pups/switches/tuners etc either metal or maybe 3d printed and then painted. Not too sure at this stage what to do about the strings still though

[mattharris75]

If you're not going to make it playable, then you can use just about whatever you want for the strings. Any kind of thin metal wire will do...

[Bizman62]

Ahh, true half size wall hangers! That can make many things easier as you don't have to worry about structural integrity. No truss rods or carbon fibre inserts, no carefully dried dedicated wood, no pondering whether to use nickel silver or rather stainless steel for longevity...

As a reminder, you can still use all available fret calculators to get the frets right. Just choose 12.5" or 320mm (a little less or more depending on model) for your scale length and the desired amount of frets and you'll get the exact numbers. Some tools even let you print a full size picture of your neck including string spacing to use as a template. -Further thinking any copying service should be able to make a 50% copy of freely available blueprints which you can then cut and and glue for templates.

3D printing may work, there's special cameras that can copy even a standing person to be copied as a miniature statue. Casting is another way, you can carve a mold even out of a potato.

Choosing suitable strings is no problem. As @mattharris75 said, any metal wire will do. For more authentic looks ultra light strings (7-36) might look half-size, at least compared to 12-56s. Tightening any wire can be tricky if you can't make turnable tuning pegs - speaking of those I already have a vague idea that might do the trick.

 

[Leevis]

Sounds great, I think with careful painting etc it would look good, I will post once I get there. When I get to the string bit I will be back lol. what did you have in mind for that

[Bizman62]

16 minutes ago, Leevis said:

When I get to the string bit I will be back lol. what did you have in mind for that

My idea was to simply take a machine screw, cut the end off and carve the other end to an hour glass - a simple task using a drill and a half round file. Drill a hole for the string. Either use a nut and mask it or drive threads into a fake tuner. The screw can be tightened by sticking a needle trough the hole. Thread-locking fluid should then keep it stable.