Toddler Guitar

   There is a need for tiny acoustic guitars. I am talking about a toddler size, playable guitar. The closest thing in scale is a ukulele. I purchased a package deal that included a mandolin and a ukulele. Both items were pretty poor quality. I am not a guitar snob, I strictly judge instruments on their sound quality and ease of play.    
   After coming to the conclusion that the Ukulele was useless in its standard form, I decided it was time for a proper modification. I converted it into a four string "tiny" guitar. The best part is that my son recognizes a guitar sound, that is similar to my full size acoustic. He is twenty-one months old now and really enjoys strumming.

 

  This is an invasive, irreversible conversion. I will state again that this Ukulele was garbage as far as I was concerned. Any modification the reader chooses to do is their responsibility. I do not like that I even have to state that on this post. You screw it up, then you screwed it up. That would make for and interesting Judge Judy case.
   Anyways, here are the necessary mods, this is not a tutorial. I started with D'addario EJ15 Extra Light strings and modified the bridge to accept the ball ends. There is a significant increase in tension when moving from nylon to steel strings. The bridge started to pull away from the body, so I screwed and glued the bridge to the top. While the glue setup overnight, I shaved down the bridge saddle by 3/32" in order to lower the action.
   I finished off the guitar with strap buttons and an old strap that I cut short. It plays surprisingly well and sounds decent. As you could imagine, the projection is nill. Most importantly though, it gives my son the ability to share in an activity that his dad loves.