The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #139798 Message #4214730
Posted By: Pappy Fiddle
04-Jan-25 - 11:55 PM
Thread Name: Josh White guitar
Subject: RE: Josh White guitar
Josh White (Sr.) had some influence on me. His guitar was the classical style, because the usual steel stringed guitar has a narrow neck that didn't fit his fingers; but he strung it with steel strings for that sound.
I was intrigued when Ovation started making guitars with a plastic body. One of their models was the Josh White, with a wide neck and steel strings.
I was too cheap to afford an Ovation or any other real quality ax, but I found one at the store which had possibilities. It was a made-in-China classic style guitar with the wide neck, so I could try out Josh's organization - if the higher tension of steel strings busted it, not much lost.
It turns out that the guitar is not a traditional Chinese instrument, and this particular one would give somebody the idea that they did not know what it was supposed to do. It was unplayable. The neck was fastened on leaning back a few degrees so that the strings were laying flat on the frets! The folks at the guitar store were probly amazed that somebody bought it.
After some thinks, I ran it thru the table saw and cut the neck loose from the body. I kept the saw blade low so it only cut the heel, not the fretboard. This rendered the neck so it was pretty much floppy. I put a bolt thru the heel into the body. I figured after I got it adjusted to the good angle and all, I could fill the cut with epoxy or something.
Then I put the strings on and tuned it up. I was a little worried at this point, for the higher tension was pulling the bridge so it was actually leaning over and the top was curled pretty severely, but it didn't break. And it sounded really good. And my fat fingers could get the shapes.