Lehtela Guitar Craft

Gallery II
Here are some miscellaneous photos of various instruments. If you would like your Lehtela instrument featured here, please contact us.

This is the first instrument I've built with fanned frets. I built this one for Mark Robinett, a great 8 string player out of Florida. Mark is also an old friend of mine and the two of us did quite a bit of playing together back in the 80's. The body of this instrument is of Mahogany with a Koa top. Inside are two small chambers which lessens the weight of the body and contributes to some airyness to the sound. Played through an amplifier this 8A has strong, focused sound with evenness of sound in all parts of the neck.

As an experimental version of the Baby Tango, this baby includes two courses for the first and second string yielding a total of eight. With a 17" scale it tunes nicely to a 4th or 5th above the high E of a full scale guitar. The pairs can be tuned in unison or a specific interval apart which allows for some interesting chords with other strings combined. To further add to the confusion, the lowest string is slotted to accept a high E string also. In addition, an extra high E string slot was added beside the lowest string allowing the two high E strings in place of the lowest string. Conversely the first two pairs become singles and in the end the instrument becomes a soprano Sitar with two chikari drones! Either way, it's a fun instrument to play.

Going back a few years, this is more or less a traditional carved-top with a couple of small changes. First, the body is somewhat smaller than a typical jazz box. Second, the floating neck pickup is movable allowing the player to position it to their own sweet spot. The carved spruce top was left relatively thick by design. Combined with rigid back and sides, the instrument is free of excessive feedback while maintaining a fat jazz tone.

Built in 2004, this is my first ever thin bodied jazz hollowbody. The parabolic top is Redwood and it has two crescent shaped f-holes near the rim of the sides. Included with the instrument is one ebony cover for closing one of the f-holes which changes the resonant pitch of the body. The instrument has a warm sound with good cut in the upper registers. This quality can be further accentuated by cutting one of the coils of the Seymour Benedetto pickup.
Owner: Jon Hallman

Tango Petite

Built in 2004, this 7/8 sized Tango Petite is truly one of a kind. First, it's neck is built from a single piece of Macasser Ebony. There is no truss rod as there is no need for one. In addition, the body with its Redwood top is finished in transparent black. In the black are some nice hues of burgundy. Outfitted with two stationary Kent Armstrong pickups, this instrument has a very edgy sound with lots of sustain. Very much like what a thick hollowbody tele might sound like. A warm jazz tone can also be dialed in by scaling back on the tone knob with neck position pickup engaged.