Melissa and I are learning Guitar. Teaching ourselves mostly, with the help of online videos and such. A few years ago, with the help of a friend I picked out a larger dreadnought for myself to practice on. The size is great for me, and it’s very comfortable. For Melissa, it’s so large that her elbow is up over her shoulder when she’s holding it on her lap. It’s a bit too big.
I’ve wanted to build a guitar for a long time. It’s actually why I started to learn to play in the first place. A few months ago I bought a kit from Rockler. What it had going for it was that it was very inexpensive, it was getting decent reviews (for the price), it was a different style electric guitar from what I already had, and I had a gift card for Rockler. While my attempt at a dye job came out OK, I was not happy with it. Still the guitar itself was decent. Melissa has been teaching herself on it since it’s a decent size. The downside is that unless it’s plugged in, it’s very quiet. If we’re playing at the same time, mine will drown hers out. A Lot. A lot a lot.
We’ve been looking for an acoustic for her, but the one’s we’ve found have been out of our current price range, or still too large, or REALLY beat up. Split neck, or pulling bridges… We’ve found a few that she liked, but we (she mostly) didn’t feel we could justify it at this time. I also like the idea having a smaller guitar around so that we can take it with us and I’ve been curious about how tonal characteristics and pick-ups are effected when moving from a solid body to a more acoustic body style. I have scrap sheets of wood in the garage I just need a neck and electrical parts. It isn’t meant to be an awesome guitar. In fact I quite suspect it will be more Cigar box sounding due to the nature of the wood.
I managed to find an inexpensive guitar online to use for parts. It’s bare simple, only a single Humbucker pick up and a volume control. The bridge as adjustable an surface mounted. Supposedly the neck is straight. The scrap-wood, hybrid acoustic-electric smaller bastard body project is go.