Official Luthiers Forum!

Well, you finally lured this lurker from the shadows. This site is part of my daily nutritional intake of wit and wisdom for like minded folks. I have learned so much here and for that I thank you guys. Does anybody know of a print for an early Martin style O size 12 fret or have the sound hole specs for dia. and placement? Normally, as I do not have vintage instruments to fondle and measure, I rely on the online dimensions for a given instrument and import a good undistorted frontal image into AutoCAD and rescale etc. to get a working print for the profile, bracing, etc. And not having located an available print for this model I am in this process now. But the images are not clear enough for a confident sound hole placement or diameter. I think I am pretty close on the profile though. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Thanks again.

Rico

Get a hold of John Hall he has top outlines and bracing patterns for all of the Martin guitars and he doesn't charge much for them. That guitar in a 14 fret is on my short list guitars I want to build.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

John has been sending people to Waldron for drawings and templates.

http://www.guitartemplates.net/

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"...you have to get over your strict adherence to your largely imagined notion of absolute perfection..."

I won one of the neck template sets at the Blues creek gathering, it is quite good except the peg head angle is not 15 degrees like a martin and what I use.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

G'day Rico

Here's a link to a heap of info on 14 fret 0-18's. There's a few pictures of bracing patterns in there as well.

Don't know if it'll be any use to you but at least the soundhole diameters are in there (which are 3 5/8" from memory)

It may be of use to Fred anyway. I build a few of these. They can be little cannons.

I do build a variation on an 0-16 New Yorker which is very similar to what you want to build. I got the template for that from John Hall and adapted the other dimensions from the information in the .zip file.

http://www.mcguitars.com.au/0-18.zip

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

You can accurately place the soundhole by referencing to the closest fret, if that is your only concern. As long as you have a decent photo & you know the scale length, you should be able to get it bang on.

Wow! Thanks guys. A lot to digest here. More than I could have expected. My wife is a Norm and Nancy Blake fan (as well as myself) and when she made a passing comment that Nancy's little guitar would be nice to play compared to her Dreds and OM's, the wheels were in motion. Say no more, I have a new mission. Thanks again and I am sure others will see this post and will appreciate the info as much as myself. Someday in some small way maybe I can repay.
Rico

I'm now building an O-ish guitar. I got the outline form someone here, can't remember who (Hank, Fred, Todd?).

It's a 12 fretter (20 total). I'm modifying it a bit to use the long scale (25.34). I determined the sound hole placement by laying my fret template along the center seam with the 12th fret at the neck end of the board; then adding a bit past the 20th fret to locate the top edge of the soundhole. In this case, the top edge of the 3 5/8 s.h. is 4 5/8 from the 12th fret. I hope that makes sense.

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

Rico, do consider a 12 fretter...
IMHO much better sounding than the 14. Here's a short clip of my 0-45 copy...

http://www.brentrup.com/page7/files/page7_2.mp3

Thanks to all once again. Haans, it will be a 12 fretter and BTW the Larson style purfling of yours is really nice. I like your style.
Rico