Anyone built a Tres Cuban guitar?

[coachcbg]

Hello all. Bit of a long shot with this one, but thought I would ask and see what this knowledgeable community can suggest. I have an old band mate who has been teaching Salsa dance as a pro for about 20 years. He and his dance teacher wife organise a lot of music nights, and folks (and him) join in with a bunch of percussion. He’s an excellent guitarist, knows I like working on guitars, and gave me an acoustic and said ‘here’s a challenge, could you make a Cuban Tres out of that?’. He wants to move from the percussion to playing a Tres on those music nights. Yes, he could buy one but he might be crap on this, hence asking if I could cobble one together. Pretty sure that’s how they originated in the first place. There is very little on line and not much detail but I have a set of strings ( 3 pairs) and a guitar! Anybody have any advice/ experience or ideas on this one? Interesting project whatever. Cheers all.

 

[Zepfan]

I saw a YouTube video about a guy that converted a mustang guitar into a Tres Cubano inspired guitar and it inspired me to make a CBG version of one. I used 6 strings paired into 3 sets of 2(half a 12 string) and tuned it accordingly.
Having no Latin guitar history, my playing of it went nowhere and it's been returned to a regular 3 string style CBG.
Can't even remember how it was tuned now.
Check for Tres Cubano on YouTube and you may find something.

 

[Freeman Keller]

I haven't built one or even knew they existed until your post. There are a number of them for sale on the internet which would be my advice instead of trying to build one. Wiki has specs on them including tuning (top two courses are paired, bottom is an octave). They list the scale length at 19 inches which is darn short.

If you were trying to rebuild your acoustic you would have to build a new neck and graft it to the body, move the bridge and deal with bracing. Here is someone who apparently did that, it might give you inspiration. He just cuts his fretboard off to make the scale 24-1/8

tres cubano build 1

My newest luthiery project is to build a tres cubano . As the name implies they are traditional Cuban instruments and have three double-cou...

joelpeytonluthier.blogspot.com

 

[coachcbg]

I saw a YouTube video about a guy that converted a mustang guitar into a Tres Cubano inspired guitar and it inspired me to make a CBG version of one. I used 6 strings paired into 3 sets of 2(half a 12 string) and tuned it accordingly.
Having no Latin guitar history, my playing of it went nowhere and it's been returned to a regular 3 string style CBG.
Can't even remember how it was tuned now.
Check for Tres Cubano on YouTube and you may find something.

Thanks for the reply and the ‘Tres Cubano’ tip for YouTube

 

[coachcbg]

I haven't built one or even knew they existed until your post. There are a number of them for sale on the internet which would be my advice instead of trying to build one. Wiki has specs on them including tuning (top two courses are paired, bottom is an octave). They list the scale length at 19 inches which is darn short.

If you were trying to rebuild your acoustic you would have to build a new neck and graft it to the body, move the bridge and deal with bracing. Here is someone who apparently did that, it might give you inspiration. He just cuts his fretboard off to make the scale 24-1/8

tres cubano build 1

My newest luthiery project is to build a tres cubano . As the name implies they are traditional Cuban instruments and have three double-cou...

joelpeytonluthier.blogspot.com

Thank you for that. Didn’t think of looking at Wiki for ideas, that’s a great shout.

 

[SixStringSlinger]

I've been meaning to put one of these together:



The gist of it is a Squier mini Strat, a Gotoh 12-string bridge and a new nut.

I've also seen conversions done with (I believe) some kind of Taylor travel-size guitar.

 

[coachcbg]

I've been meaning to put one of these together:



The gist of it is a Squier mini Strat, a Gotoh 12-string bridge and a new nut.

I've also seen conversions done with (I believe) some kind of Taylor travel-size guitar.

Wow, that looks ace. I’ve seen a few baby Taylors done now so I think I’m vaguely on the right track now thanks to the suggestions on here.

 

[Freeman Keller]

One of the things I always do when I start thinking about an odd ball musical instrument is to make sure I can find a string set that will work for the tuning I want to use on the scale I'm thinking about. I want to calculate the total tension that I'm going to have and make sure that is reasonable.

La Bella seems to have a set but they list different tuning from what I'm seeing in the Wiki article and they don't list the scale length.

 

[Zepfan]

Wow, that looks ace. I’ve seen a few baby Taylors done now so I think I’m vaguely on the right track now thanks to the suggestions on here.

That youth Strat is 24" scale and one of the videos I remember.

 

[coachcbg]

One of the things I always do when I start thinking about an odd ball musical instrument is to make sure I can find a string set that will work for the tuning I want to use on the scale I'm thinking about. I want to calculate the total tension that I'm going to have and make sure that is reasonable.

La Bella seems to have a set but they list different tuning from what I'm seeing in the Wiki article and they don't list the scale length.

The La Bella set is the one I have. I think there will be some trial and error in this build…. probably mostly errors.

 

[Zepfan]

It's funny how the mind works.
I originally said I saw a video on a converted Mustang guitar that turned out to be a 24" scale youth Strat.
Since the Tres Cubano works on a 19" scale, my mind was on the old Mustang/Duo-Sonic with the 22" scale.

The youth acoustic guitars can be found in the 19" scale but it seems that all youth electrics are now 24" scale and would require a custom made conversion neck.

 

[RLangham98]

Never built one but I bought one (in good shape, a very well-done neck repair notwithstanding) for like sixty dollars at an antique fair one time.

Couldn’t figure out anything to play on it so it ended up at the house of a friend who said he’d play it.

Interesting little instruments.