Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi all,

Well, I'm building two 12 fret 000's from the stewmac plan. I decided on going with Colins advice and put the Euro top on the Sapele, and the Adi on the EIR. I started the sapele one first and made extra linings, head and tail block for the second one. Can't believe how much more efficient that made my work on the second rim. The second one went from rough sawn sides on Friday to finished rim on Sunday, it's nice to finally not have to refer to a book every five minutes (these are #3 & #4). Plus repeating a task without a gap of months in between really helps speed up work with nice clean results. I've now got two nice rim sets awaiting top and back plates.

The mahogany guitar will be a modernised version in terms of appointments (thats the plan today anyway), and for the EIR I'm thinking of going more traditional, actually sort of a replica with pyramid bridge, slot head, etc.

My thinking now is about scale length, the old pre war 000's, as far as I'm aware had a short 24.9" scale length, but the stewmac plans call for a 25.4 (25.35?) scale. I'd prefer a shorter scale at least for the more traditional EIR version, but nothing is set in stone. These will be finger style guitars.

What is the general consensis regarding short scale Vs long scale 000's? Which would be better for finger style playing with a bit of light strumming thrown in?

Is there anywhere on the net where various versions of the 12 fret Martin 000 guitars are compared head to head, or somewhere with technical info like bracing differences between the two scale lengths?

Thanks guys, nice to finally make some progress on guitars over a weekend instead of working on the house flat out. That's one thing I like about plastering walls in the house, leaves you time to do other things while the plaster dries