Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm interested in doing an Advanced Jumbo-like build at some point and was hoping to get my hands on some historically accurate plans. I did a search here and on Google and it doesn't look like there is anything readily available, although it seems a set of plans was available through OLF at one point. Are those OLF plans still available anywhere now? Is anyone aware of a source for plans or tracings, brace layout and profiling elsewhere. Any info would be much appreciated.

TIA

Good thinking Charlie, I'd love to have "The ole Banjo Killa". I'd also be interested.

Hutch

_________________
"After forty-nine years of violin building, I have decided that the search for a varnish is similar to the fox hunt. The fun is in the hunt."
Jack Batts Maker and Repairer of Fine Violins

Not sure what an "Advanced Jumbo-like" guitar is, but there are three OLF plans available from Stewmac, and I'm guessing you'll want the medium jumbo one:

HTH,
Dave F.

_________________
Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Here's some info on the Advanced Jumbo: http://home.provide.net/~cfh/ajumbo.html

I do have the Mike Collins J-45 plans from Stew Mac (they are excellent), and I believe the body shape is identical, or almost so. However, I know there were bracing differences and it's the AJ bracing I'm most interested in, although full plans would be ideal

Someone please correct me if I'm mistaken about the similarity in body shape to the J-45.

Thanks!

I just learned a lot about what an Advanced Jumbo guitar was!

When you find out about the bracing and other details Charlie, let us all know - sounds like an interesting project.

Cheers,
Dave F.

_________________
Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Will do, Dave. Thanks.

I just did a copy myself. The body is the same as a J-45. However the AJ only has 19 frets so the soundhole is farther towards the neck joint, as of course is the xbrace intersection.

I didn't know that about the # of frets and the soundhole placement. Thanks for that info!

How did yours turn out? Got any photos?

It turned out great. It's an awesome design I think. The Gibson would still win in a fist fight having a touch more clarity. Mine breaks up when you really really dig into it whereas the Gibson has unlimited headroom without losing focus. But mine has a fuller bottom when given a more gentle hand, so it's kind of a matter of taste. One thing that surprised me was that the Gibson's top was .140 measured at the soundhole.

Here is some info and bracing plan of the AJ http://theunofficialmartinguitarforum.yuku.com/forum/viewtopic/id/56912
I have no idea if accurate or not.

I've always wanted to build an AJ and I grab as much info as I can on that model. A while back I saved a thread from the Vintage Corner on the UMGF:
http://theunofficialmartinguitarforum.y ... Jumbo.html

The thread is about seven pages long and it is packed full of good info including bracing and neck measurements, pics., etc. It's a pretty good read.
I have the OLF AJ plans as well as the J-45 plans that are available from Stew Mac and the body size is slightly different. The soundhole and bracing locations are different because of the different scale lengths, but I expected the outside dimensions to be the same. Turns out the AJ on the OLF plan is slightly larger than the J-45. I won a NOS AJ body on ebay earlier this year and when I laid the body over the two plans it matched the J-45 perfectly. I'm pretty sure modern Gibsons use the same body size for all the slope-shouldered J-sized guitars.

Oops. Didn't see Alain's link. Posted as I was typing.

Here we have another reference to the OLF AJ plans. Where do I get these?

John Watkins prepared them, and they were purchased here quite awhile back, now that I think about it.
Coe franklin

_________________
Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,

You ain't gonna believe this, but about a year ago I got a package of wood in the mail from Brock. He had used these AJ Plans as packing paper. Lucky for me he had used all three pages of the plans. I took them out and saved them. They were indeed prepared by John Watkins, so I emailed him and asked him if he had made the plans from a vintage guitar. Here is what he wrote back. Hope he doesn't mind me sharing what he wrote to me in an email. If it isn't politically correct for me doing this then forget you read it.

"Chuck,
Regarding the AJ plans, I received a pencil drawing from Brock that was supposed to be a tracing of a J45 which was supposed to be the same shape. A few other specs such as bridge plate placement and X-brace splay were taken from a couple of articles I found about the original AJ. The rest of the specs are a combination of educated guesses based on pictures and common practices. An actual guitar was not used for any of it. I don’t know how it was marketed, but those are the facts.

John"

So, I was hoping the drawing was from an actual 1930's AJ but they arn't.

Hutch

_________________
"After forty-nine years of violin building, I have decided that the search for a varnish is similar to the fox hunt. The fun is in the hunt."
Jack Batts Maker and Repairer of Fine Violins

Alain and Kevin – thank you for the information and the link. There’s a lot of good info in the thread!!!

Chuck – that’s good to know about the source of the OLF plans. I would still love to get my hands on a set if anyone has one they would be willing to sell me.

Too many dang jumbos around here...

If they are anything like your's, can't be too much!

_________________
The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

According to Mark Swanson, these are suppose to be the closest plans to an Advanced Jumbo. They're sold by Guitar Plans Unlimited. link below. R.M.

http://www.guitarplansunlimited.com/J45.htm

I have that plan. It'll give you the outside shape close enough, but the guts of an AJ are much different. Notably the bridge does not touch the x- braces...

Hi meddlingfool,
Mark said that "It's not the same guitar". I guess he saying that the plans from
GuitarPlansUnlimited.com are better than other j-45 plans If you want to use that as a guide for an advanced jumbo. Below is the link to the thread.

http://www.mimf.com/cgi-bin/WebX?50@50. ... @.2cb6e67f

R.M.

They're pretty good plans, and the ones from stewmac are really good too.

It may be just me but the placement, angle and spacing of the tonebars in the Guitar Plans Unlimited J-45 plans don't look quite right to me based on photos I've seen of actual AJ and J-45 bracing.

You can't compare the AJ to the J-45, they are different animals. The only thing they have in common is the shape of the body...