The “Minuet”

was created with two things in mind. Sweetness of tone and easing the physical limitations of players due to body size, aging, injury, etc… It has a small body with an arm bevel built into the carve of the top and a 3/4 scale… 24” scale length to be specific… the long end of 3/4 scale and the short end of short scale, but the Goldilocks zone for me.

A fretting hand injury from a few years ago has me gravitating towards the instruments in my collection that have shorter scales, mostly 24 5/8”, and it got me thinking. I had been wanting to do a smaller body for a while and I really like the sweetness of the trebles that you get with a short scale. What if you went a little shorter? Would that make things even sweeter?

24” seemed like a good number and I already had the model name “Minuet” in mind, thinking small bodied. I then discovered that 24” could be considered 3/4 scale and a Minute is also in 3/4… The concept had solidified and I had to see it through.

The result is exactly what I was hoping for. A comfortable instrument with sweet trebles, mellow bass, and excellent note separation. Even though the design for the instrument is centered around the 24” scale, I also made sure that it would be compatible with a standard short scale (24 5/8”"). Nut width and body depth can also be adjusted on custom orders to fit specific physical needs.