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Hi everyone!

My career orientation becomes more and more clear lately... Among other, I chose to concentrate myself in Steel string, and etablished that I want to offers only 3 to 4 models, that I will fine, refine and improve. I have for theory that specialization is better than scattering.

Anyway, all that to say:
I have my OM model that I'm building, wich is a 14 fretter.
I have my parlor model in planning, between size 1 and size 2 (12 3/8''), wich is a 12 fretter.
I will surely do a large body, such as a Dreadnought or a Grand Auditorium.

For the 4th model, I'm thinking something between the Parlor and the OM, I first thought of a triple-O, but found it to close to OM. I'm more considering something like a OO, and I had this weird idea: why not 13frets for this one, between the 12parlor and the 14 OM?

So, my questions:
-Did some of you experimented that?
-How about the market for that?

Thanks,
Francis

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

L-OO 13 fret ???

Why don't ya try a 12-1/2 fret,
then ya don't have to line it up so carefully?

Well i'm doing it on my current Friederich replica... He does that to reach a 20th fret that is not in the soundhole area.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

I would agree on the L-00 style. 13 fretters are awesome

Also, not to come off as rude, but what do you mean by "My career orientation becomes more and more clear lately"? Didn't you just finish your first guitar?

Lol, yhea. I'm in a lutherie school, and i'm in my 3rd year now. When I began there, I wanted to do electric guitars, 'cause they are cool, then I discovered the fun of acoustic... so I decided that I would do everything: electric, classicals, steel string, and arched-top... Now I have 4 instruments on the go (1 OM almost finished, a friederich replica, a parlor and an electric), and now I realize that my big fun is the acoustic, the bracings, the scientific aspects, etc. I'm not interested in electric anymore, I find them annoying. I really want to concentrate in one type of guitar to be able to understand it completly, to push the model one step forward each time. So, since a while, I knew I had to make a choice. And... as the classical world doesn't really attracts me... I decided the follow on steel string.

Maybe instead of ''My career orientation becomes more and more clear lately'', I should have said: I took some decision about my future career, lately.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

I actually thought of that too... a 12fret neck but the body more like in between the 12 and 14.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

here is a 12 string I am building...13 fret , 24.9 scale , own design , cocobola back and sides, adirondiack top, amazon rosewood bindings , honduran mahagony neck , macassar ebony fretboard..

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MK5acoustics.com

Pretty cool. What is the body? Seems like a 14 fret body.

What about the bridge position?

When I was drawing different bracing scheme for my OM, I told to myself many times that the bridge would be at his ideal place if I was doing a 13 fret..

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

I did 2 off the GAL Gibson O plans, a 12 and a 13 fret version, I really like the 13, the 12 runs out of room without a cut away. Congrats on the clarity with your direction. I agree with your thinking of working a model for a while until you get some real comfort with it. I think the exercise of trying a 12 or a 13 on the same body adjusting scale length and bridge placement is worth while and not too difficult. Personally I plan on staying with this one model until I have my processes down cold.
The other thing I like about the 13 fret is the uniqueness, if it is in a music store on display, it has a good chance of being the only 13 fretter in the shop, not that I have any experience selling guitars.
Rob

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http://shastaguitar.com/
http://www.kalimbakit.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/comfyfootgr ... ature=mhee
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my own design, MK5 Grand, drawn out on CAD so I can easily change bracing positions, I have been studing Trevor Gores books and incorporating some of his design aspects into this guitar...most notably the 13th fret, moving the bridge in hopes of improving the top monopole mobility..bracing is somewhat copied from Taylor 12 string with 3 lower tone braces, but all the braces are scalloped and shaped to a triangle . nut position moved in 1.5mm . The top was very stiff!!!! first time I have used adi spruce...

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MK5acoustics.com

Small bodied 13 fret steel strings are fairly common. I've made a number of them using the Torres FE19 plantilla, this is a 14" lower bout so is close to the Martin OO size, but with a more fluid shape.





I currently have an all mahogany one being finished.



As to whether there is a ready market for them is something you'll have to research, on this side of the Atlantic there is no problem, but then we are not so in thrall to Martin/Gibson idea of what constitutes a guitar.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

That is a little beauty Collin

I salvaged a plywood Maton F11 from the 70's a while back. Re-topped with lightly braced lutz, gave it a 24.9" scale with 13 frets to the body, addressed built in structural issues related to a very poorly designed heelless neck, and added an adjustable truss rod so it could be setup properly.

It had been a crap plywood guitar to start and its only redeeming quality was that it was an Aussie made early 1970's model of which only 1600 had been made, most of which had simply folded up in few years to ended up in landfill..so they really are quite rare, if not, all but extinct and that is a very good thing and shows how clever Charles Darwin really was.

Eventually my spontaneous pity buy for a few bucks at a local swapmeet had been sitting around for so long as an unplayable wreck gathering dust that it became time to either throw it in the bin, or fix the bloody thing...I could not bring myself to ditch it just because its a guitar and I love them all .....so on the bench it went.

Must say that it was a worth while exercise though as it turned out quite well eventually opening up to sound a lot more full than its thin body would suggest it could. Its especially good for just noodling around or passing about on a thirsty afternoon. The short scale, heelless neck and 13 fret body configuration is very comfy to play making it quite the favourite amongst the regulars. I would certainly not hesitate to use those same aspects again in my own design at some stage, perfect for a smaller body guitar.

Cheers

Kim

There is an example of a 13 fret in the Martin museum .

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I've done several 13 fret guitars in what I call "jumbo parlors" of my own design. They have a 25.4" scale and are 14" in the lower bout. I like where the bridge ends up with this configuration. As many have said, guitars this size have a lot of power and are very responsive. I made one 13 fret guitar based on a Rodriguez classical guitar but didn't get good pictures of it before it sold. It was a little larger. Here's one of the jumbo parlors.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

I have built alot of 13 fretters .. and my students like them also ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"