Official Luthiers Forum!

Sorry to revive this old thread (below) but I had a similar question but a little different. Does either of the MacRostie (Herringbone plan) or the Antes plan have the bracing already forward shifted? And they both have scalloped bracing correct?

viewtopic.php?f=10102&t=5595&hilit=MacRostie+Antes

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Bro. Matthew A.
Oklahoma

Are you referring to an actual Martin ? While both plans are reasonable they are not 100% . The one thing is that pre war Martins had a wide tolerance compared to todays . I have seen as much as 1/4 inch variance between guitars on older martins. Macrostie is closer to the Martin than the Antes from what I can see. These are the ones selling at Stewart MacDonald and CF Martin. The scalloping was done at Martin by hand and this can cause a bit of variation .
Over scalloping and scalloping in the wrong area can cause structural problems. My best advice is to pick one and us that as a base to start . Note changes as you go and dial in what you are looking for.

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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

The McRostie's plan is a good plan. I have a few of Antes plans that I bought at once mail order and they all miss a lot of the details.

So, is there a plan that is the closest to a pre-war Martin? Is there a lighter braced plan out there?

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Bro. Matthew A.
Oklahoma

I haven't seen one . The MacRostie plan is as close as you will get. Remember that the only thing that was consistent on pre war martins was their inconsistency . I have seen older martins that were as much as 1/4 inch different from one another. While some things were pretty constant , there were things that shifted a good bit.
I agree with Todd's assessment of the plans and others. It is a good place to start .

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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

MacRostie (Herringbone plan) it will be!

I decided to go with the martin styl 14 fret instead of the 12 fret sloped shldr due to it being more of a "bluegrass guitar".

I should order the wood in the next few days!!

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Bro. Matthew A.
Oklahoma

I've put a lot of thought into the 12fret sloped dread and would love to build one some day, but since there are really no plans out there yet (someone should ....and i am trying a scratch build, I decided to go with the 14 fret dread.

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Bro. Matthew A.
Oklahoma

In regards to the question about forward shifted x-bracing, Stew-Mac gave step by step instructions in one of their newsletters called 'banjo killer' or something like that. Every change was diagrammed and you can use the MacRostie plan as the starting point. Hope that helps.