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I am ready to build my first acoustic guitar. I have two Weissenborn copies and three Ukulele's under my belt now.

Has anyone built the small concert, parlor sized guitar off the Scott Antes plan? I decided on this style of guitar as they are a very simple design and an uncomplicated bracing pattern. To me the plan should make a very nicely balanced little guitar. The plan looks like the braces are a little heafty but it i designed for steel strings.

If there is anyone out there with first hand experience I would appreciate their thoughts.

Cheers

Alan

Personal opinion: Every Antes plan have ever seen was over braced. But i am not sure that was not intentional as a safe build design for new builders or dirived form bracing Scott measured off of historicl instruments or historical documentation

Alan,

I concur with Todd and Michael on the items noted. We (a couple of students and I) were just looking at that Antes plan today on a parlor guitar we're building, and were toying around with the X-brace placement, which just 'barely' fits under the wings of the bridge on the plan.

As Todd mentioned, you'll want to either close the X a bit, or slide the whole X-assembly backward. You may want to consider the latter, as it lets you keep the X a bit more splayed, which keeps the lower bout more 'open'.

And the soundhole... definitely enlarge it a tad, to at least 3.5, or 3.6".

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Ken Mitchell
Durham, NC

I've built this guitar three times in the past, and all the comments above are good, especially the scale, 24.9" is good for this guitar.

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https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008907949110

I've built three of these now at 24.9 and left the X splayed and lengthened the bridge to about 6 3/4" to get support. (Pyramid type not belly) 3.5 soundhole. Lightened bracing. Hide glue. They sound great.
http://www.thepodium.com/p-16608-kenned ... arlor.aspx

Time will tell how they hold up but at a year and a half no belly or other structural issues. Cedar Creek has made a custom case for mine. I'm sure they would build off this pattern for anyone desiring a case for a size 2. They are great little guitars.
Terry
www.kennedyguitars.com

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Todd,
My size 2 parlors are 4" at the tailblock and 3 1/4" at the headblock. Same as my OMs. Call Dennis at Cedar Creek and he should be able to tell you if my case dimensions will work. Other than the depth it should be fine and I would guess 1/2" wouldn't make that much difference. It's a nice squeek fit on mine.
A couple of other pitfalls I've had with these little guys. These have been mentioned before but bear repeating. If anyone else has anything to add chime in.

The projection for the top braces on the Antes plans is from the top of the soundboard, not the bottom as is more common. Get that tone bar off the right side of the X !

The short scale length and 12 fret design seems to require a little more compensation and also if you use carbon bars in the neck there is not as much force to pull in the relief. For me it has helped to level the fretboard with some tension on the rod to make sure I can get the relief I need.

Terry

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I got to inspect a Martin 2-18 recently. The braces were REALLY small. I'm thinking of building one like that too. I'm wondering if there would be any benefit from using the Scott Antes plan? I'm thinking that the measurements I made from the guitar are probably enough to go by, but I'm pretty new at this luthiery stuff.
Walter

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Walter Lay
"It's taken me so long, but now that I know
I can see. All that I do or say, is all I ever will be"
- Billy Joe Shaver

The Antes plans are nice to make your bending templates but otherwise I would think the measurements you took should be fine. Probably better.
Terry

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Thank you Terry.
Walter

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Walter Lay
"It's taken me so long, but now that I know
I can see. All that I do or say, is all I ever will be"
- Billy Joe Shaver

Thanks guys for your input. There are some great ideas discussed here regard the plan and some pitfalls pointed out to watch out for. I think I will go with the 24.9 " scale and make the bridge foot print bigger.

Cheers

Alan

Hi Walter,
Keep in mind that most of the original size 2 Martins were built to be strung in gut. If you are using light gage steel you may want to beef up what you measured a little bit. I've had a couple of size 1 Martin's. One took light gage steel strings fairly well and the other would only handle gut (nylon).