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Hello sir.
i want to try to build marting back packer.
does anyone has plan for it. or can u post some of ur pics of building it?
wat should be thickness of soundboard for sitka spruce?
waiting for ur reply

First, to answer your request for help, here is the Martin website page on the Backpacker. It contains a lot of the relevant specifications:

https://www.martinguitar.com/guitars/gu ... uitar.html

However, I used to own one of these things (a gift from my wife some years ago). I didn't find it to be all that much fun to either play or listen to. I didn't like anything about it, to be honest, other than the nice gesture from my wife.

If you really wanted one just like what Martin sells, I am fairly certain you would be better off just buying a used one. They cost less than $200 new. Building one is going to cost more in materials and time than 3-4 times that amount.

If I were going to hand build a travel guitar, I would put some effort into making sure I was going to like it when I am done, and that would mean building it differently from what Martin designed. Maybe a detachable neck, thin but closer to real sized body, short scale but not too short, etc.

Finally, for top thickness, it really doesn't matter. Make it as thick as you want. These things are not built to sound good; they are built to hold up to being backpacked. I would go at least 1/8" thick.

Funnily enough I came across some plans for a backpacker guitar with a link to a video here
http://www.johnanthonyguitars.com/store/p23/Backpacker_Guitar_plans_P014.html
He suggests starting at 3 mm and ending up around 2.5 mm after final sanding (S/S)

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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.

That's a handy set of plans! If Rahoul wants to put the effort into it, maybe he can fix some of the things that Martin got wrong with mine:

1. It was a steel string, but the fingerboard was completely flat. Just so, so wrong feeling!
2. Intonation was bad.
3. Action was too high, due to both nut and saddle issues.
4. There was a bow in the neck, and no truss rod to adjust.
5. The neck was too heavy for the body.
6. There was no way to play it without a strap.

I might be happier with a guitar/uke hybrid.

Make it out of carbon fiber and you might get more use out of it as a paddle

I thought about making a travel guitar once, but ended up deciding it wouldn't sound good enough to be worth the effort. I definitely wouldn't copy the Martin backpacker design, since those can be bought for so cheap and a handmade one probably wouldn't sound much better. I was thinking more of a normal guitar shape, but squashed and elongated. Reasonably long scale, maybe 24.75". Joined at the 7th fret, but with a deep cutaway to give reach comparable to a 12 fret neck. Soundhole in the bass side shoulder area, to leave as much useful vibrating area around the bridge as possible. Bridge near the tail, to keep the overall length as short as possible. 9" or so lower bout width. Top thickness probably 2.5mm center, 2mm perimeter for spruce.

Here's the picture I was doodling around with for it. The headstock is just pasted from another guitar; this one should have a more compact headstock. And the bracing is tentative. Could do ladder bracing instead. And even with the X, it would need some thin cross grain reinforcements for crack resistance.

If you build one like it, I'd love to know how it turns out My harp ukuleles do ok down to the guitar A string pitch, and they're 9.25" lower bout, and a lot less active length than this, so it may actually work. Use a riftsawn top if you have one, for lower cross grain stiffness.

I'd have to agree that the back packers are pretty awful sounding instruments. They are good enough for practicing on the road I guess but not so great to listen too.

Might as well make a solid body out of redwood or cedar.

Not to pile on but. . . I had my hands on a few and didn't like them at all. A friend asked me to make him one once. I started to think about what I would do differently to make me actually want to do the project. It didn't take long before I had arrived at something totally different. I told him no. If he really wanted one for camping, he could buy one or get a small cheap guitar he didn't care about. I'm getting ready to make him a "real" acoustic as a gift; so it's not like I'm a jerk, I just couldn't justify the time and effort it would take to be unhappy with the results. He never did end up buying one.

If you did go with that design, I would think you would need very little bracing and the top could be very thin since it is not spanning much width. Of course a thin top would be likely to crack if used as a backpacking guitar. I might consider some very thin plywood from the hobby shop. That stuff will be better suited to humidity swings. You might end up with a slightly banjoey sound but with the bridge that close to the tail and such a narrow box, you aren't going to get a full sound anyway.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I bought one for my brother. Of course I didn't expect it to sound great. But the shape makes it unplayable without a strap. And the action is unnecessarily high. No excuse for this. They really went out of their way to ruin it. So if it were me I would make the shape a little different so it would at least sit in my lap.

Someone had to have done it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veXkQvsCZ28
I'm sure most guitar makers would be resourceful enough to set one up and put together fomething from, say, thin birch ply?

_________________
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.

Personally - a size 5 guitar makes a much better playing and sounding instrument than one of those.. I made a 4-string tenor in size 5 - and that thing was a hoot to play... Sounded pretty darned good too... You won't ever get the bassy "Whomp" of a Dread - but you also won't be trying to carry a refrigerator box around with you either...

Thanks