Several years ago, my Mom told me what my nephew Aidan wanted for Christmas ... "an electric kittar ... a V". He was pretty young ...

This was about Halloween. V's suck, you can't play them sitting down. It's gotta be a Strat or Les Paul ... I looked around a bit and found some cheap kid sized Strat style instruments. I thought I could do better. I figured realistically I had about 6 weeks. So started the 'design trade'. Carved top ... out. Set neck ... out. Slab body, bolted neck, ala Fender, was the only reasonable choice. Scale? Somewhere around 80%. Scale length? Ummmmm, I guess I could do anything I want, either slot them myself or get LMII to do me a custom. No time for that, what's close? Tenor Banjo. Done, and ordered. Pick a tailpiece and pickups ...

I had a slab of Cherry that looked promising for the bodies. Bodies? Yeah, he's got a younger brother, better make 2. It had a knot in one end that looked like it would clean up with the neck pocket. Typical flat sawn piece, I decided to split and reverse it to oppose the growth rings to stabilize it, and pocket it out to save some weight. I ran the rings out to the corners, figuring it was less likely to split off that way if dropped. Splitting it also gave me the opportunity to mill half round grooves for the wiring and jack plug.

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The necks were carved out of Sapele. Some of the contour was done by CNC, but there was a fair bit of hand work getting it right at the heel and headstock. Overlays were bandsawed from a chunk of scrap cherry. Finish is shellac. Quick and easy. They were basically done a week before Christmas.

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My nephew was pretty well wide eyed when he saw this. I went out to my car to get a mini-amp and cable for him to try it, tears of joy running down my face.

Size comparison with a Martin OO-18:

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Need to make another ...