Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi Guys

I wonder if you can help me I am trying to establish the original fingerboard radius of a Martin O-17 from the 1930's, anyone know or would they just have used what they thought felt right.

Hi Russell!!
If my memory serves me well...I remember running into some old Martins when I was younger and they were around in great numbers then.
Some had hardly any radius at all. I can't be sure exactly but I know for sure they did not always have much of a radius. We are talkin about freboards right??
Many of the old timers had a flat top too!!
Martin Co. would have the best info on the specs. Write to them and I'm sure you will get a good response.

Walter

I have a old O-17 that will be in my shop soon for a refinish, when it comes in I can tell you what it has. The board has never been touched, i'm told.

The radius of martin fingerboard is 16 inches. The classical model was 18
john hall

Russell, I've got three 1930s Martins and they all have radii that 'approximate' to 16". I think however that they weren't always consistent but often relied on the eye of the chap doing the job.

Colin

_________________
I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

The old days they used a radius block but they were hand made. Things weren't a accurate as today
Yours
john

I had a 0-28 in the shop this week. It was about 100 years old ... I forget the exact year. I am going to copy the profile of that neck for a 00 that I am going to make. We looked at the fretboard radius and while I did not measure it, we decided to use a 16" on the "new" one.

One thing that was really intersting about profile of the Martin's neck is it about .875 thick at the 3rd fret and it swoops (my term for getting thicker at some french curve) up about .150" toward the nut and the volute. We are going to duplicate that too. It had 1.875" nut width 2.375" string spacing johno38696.3607060185

Fingerboard radius is usually around 16" on old Martin steel strings, except the ones that were designed to be played hawaian which sometimes have a dead flat fingerboard and sometimes have a hint of a radius like over 20".

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

I have a couple friends with old Martins, one a 1929 O-18K, the other a 1917 0-18. Neither have a radius on the FB.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

The Martin Size 5 I measured and a couple of 0 models had a 20" radius. They were all quite old although I don't know exact dates. I've built with a 16" radius and a 20" and most people can't tell the difference

I belive most of them were actually compound radiused
16"< 20" from what I understand they switched to a straight 16" much later, like during the 70`s.

I might be wrong, but you should definitly get a radius gauge and measure what you have before you replace the f-board.

Matt

   The radius intended fo that fingerboard would have been 16 inches, but the tools that they were using at the time could vary as much as four inches in the final radius result so many ended up with as much as a 20 inch diameter. The operation was done in two steps back then...first, the radius was roughed in using a heavy scraper with the desired curve cut into it and then finished with any of a dozen or so wood radius blocks that were on the benches of the workers doing it.

   I have a box full of old tools from Martin that were being thrown away during a cleaning frenzy at the old North Street facility when I was working for the compny back in the early 90s. It is amazing how much a tool could be worn from its original paramaters and dimensions and still be used on the guitars, but the guys doing the work were skilled enough to make it all work and the guitars were of very high quality overall.

    I have the opinion that the 30s and 40s yielded some of the very best guitars that ever left the Martin factory. They were still in an era when many in management and at the benches were still players and really understood what was needed to produce a guitar for players. It's always surprizing to me that only a handful of employees actually play the guitar at the plant there in Nazareth, but many specialize in only one step or process in the construction of the instrument so the need to understand or perform more isn;t necessary.

   Things have gone up and down over the years and alot of guitars have made it to the open marketplace that I would think Martin wishes they could take back. The 70s saw the worst of it as the company seemed to fall into a state of disarray with the misplaced bridges that were common among other problems with the guitars, but things have been much more tightly controlled and monitored since. Many a repair preson can tell you about a D-35 with impossible intonation issues coming into their shop. They were the reason for the introduction of the saddle forward and saddle back bridges for replacement. It offered the repair person the ability to replace the bridge in the original footprint while relocating the saddle slot for intonation correction.

   Part of the charm of those older instruments is the variation in dimensions and construction that came from the use of handmade tooling and fixrures and the different ability and skill levels of workers. The guitars they're building now are incredibly consistent with the wide use of CNC machinery and machine assembly and the broad application of very accurate jigs and fixtures in every possible department and operation. Taking the human element out of the assembly as much as possible was the only option that could have made it possible to achieve that consistency and to meet the huge demand that exists for Martin guitars.

   They've done it well as they've reached amazing production capabilities. When I left in the ealry 90s, they were producing more than 250 guitars a day and that has nearly doubled since from what I see and hear from current employees who are friends of mine.

Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars

   Kevin Gallagher38698.3127893519