1950s Vega Arthur Godfrey Solo Lute Tenor Guitar Conversion

A customer of mine saw the last Solo Lute I modified from a baritone ukulele into a tenor guitar and said to himself, "hey, I want some-o-that!" -- so sent it here to get modded-up. This was a quick job I could do between other instruments with more serious wounds, so it got turned-around faster than average.

Like the last one, it needed a neck reset, new saddle, and fretwork -- but that was it. Now that it's done-up it's chimey, sounds amazing as a fingerpicker, and has a new lease on life. I find this model of instrument really appealing visually and also appealing neck-u-ally (look at all that fret access... and the 21" scale!), but sonically when strung as a baritone uke they're only so-so. They're kind-of stiff-sounding and the long scale puts a lot of tension on the average bari-uke set with its double-wound low strings. They feel stiffer to play than your average steel set because of it.

I strung it up DGBE (bari-uke-style) for its owner, but that may change.

Vegas were made in Boston, MA at this time.

Repairs included: a neck reset, fret level/dress, new bone saddle, cleaning, and setup.

Setup notes: action is low/fast at 1/16" at the 12th fret. Strings are 30w, 20w, 16, 12 gauges. In the clip you can hear that poor 20w get slapped-around by my super-heavy pick a bit!

Scale length: 21"

Nut width: 1 1/2"

String spacing at nut: 1 3/16"

String spacing at bridge: 1 3/4"

Body length: 13"

Lower bout width: 9 3/4"

Waist width: 6 1/2"

Upper bout width: 7 3/4"
Side depth at endpin: 3 1/4"

Top wood: solid mahogany

Back/sides wood: solid mahogany

Bracing type: fan

Fretboard: rosewood

Bridge: rosewood

Neck feel: medium C-shape, flat board

Condition notes: aside from the saddle, it's all-original and in good order. The finish shows normal heavy weather-check throughout but it's still nice and glossy and relatively unblemished aside from that. It's interesting to note that while the last one of these I worked-on had pearl block-inlay in the fretboard, this one has celluloid blocks. Odd!