Pete Seeger Tenor (IW#045)

I have been getting a lot of mileage out of old number 38, the first Punch tenor.  The box is a good size, it sounds pretty good, it is a nice size.  So I went back to the smoke shop and asked if they had another of those boxes.  Took them a while to get one empty (something about cigars not selling as well.  A health risk, apparently.  Who knew?), but finally one came free and they called me.  About that time I found out that an old friend named Lance from New York had a connection to Pete Seeger and said that if I could get a box over there that Pete would sign it for me.  Holy jeebers.  Thanks to the USPS and Lance I ended up with a cigar box with Pete's autograph  so clearly had to make another tenor.


This one has been an interesting process.  Not only is it more fraught for me because I damn well better not screw it up, it is the first time I am building something I have built before, with the possibility of building it better.

That is Seeger's autograph below the bridge.
For a neck I got out some black locust that had been a tree in our backyard.  We took it down a couple of years ago and I had some of it sawn into lumber.  It is about ready to use, so I took a chunk of that.  I have never use black locust before, it is kind of stringy with an open grain.  Looks an awful lot like red oak, actually.  For a bridge I used a scrap of Corian, a countertop material.  I got that idea from my friend Steve Wishnevsky. He told me that Corian transfers the sound to the tone wood better than a lot of woods, so I have been using that.

All in all, it came out pretty well.  I have a new favorite instrument.  And if anyone wants the first Punch tenor (the one that is linked above) drop me a line.  I'm looking to sell it to a good home.  I can't play two of them.

It being autographed by Pete Seeger, I had to have the first song be a Seeger tune.


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