Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi

Have any of you recently completed a Martin OM kit with plastic binding and end graft?.

I would like to see some pictures of the layout if you have any.

I am about to start the binding on my first guitar and I am not sure of the layout.

Thanks

John

hi John,
there have been many, many OM models over the years. but seriously, you are building your own guitar, make it anything you want.

if you want to copy a Martin model, the best thing I think that you could do is google image search "martin OM" or , ... "OM-18" ... "OM-21" ... etc, and copy one you like. there is no rule that says a Martin OM guitar kit has to look like a Martin OM guitar, though.

http://www.google.com/images?um=1&q=martin%20om

I built a Martin kit recently, and I tossed the plastic and used curly maple instead.

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

Martin,

Here's an OM I finished early this year. It may not be exactly to Martin spec, but I think it's pretty close to what Martin does with their plastic bindings.



Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Hi Pat

Thanks, it looks nice - what is the binding material ?

I have a length of plastic tortoiseshell binding and a length of black and white purfling for the top and a length of plastic tortoiseshell only for the back. They have supplied a plastic tortoiseshell end graft and two pieces of black and white purfling which I assume goes either side of the end graft. It was the layout I was interested in - I suppose anything goes really ?

John

If you are looking for Martin OM binding pictures , go the their website , then look up OM's and you will see detail pictures. As for OM you have so many options . 15 series , 18 series , 21 series , 28 , 35 , 40 , 42 , 45 Lawrence Juber Eric Clapton , and the list continues .

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

John,

The material is curly maple. The gold tone is from Behlen's Rockhard Tabletop Varnish.

The two short strips are indeed for the sides of the tail graft. I would orient them to have the white strip next to the darker material. For example, if the guitar had EIR back and sides, with maple binding, I'd put the white strip next to the EIR, providing the greatest contrast.

Pat

_________________
formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Thanks Pat

I think I am getting there - just need soem glue now

John

Not the best picture, but here's the Martin kit I built in 2009 with tortois bindings.

Chris.

Hi Chris thanks

I managed to get the binding fitted, it wasn't that much of a problem as I first thought - I used the black and white edgingwhich you can just see in this photograph. It looks like you didn't use any on yours?
J

Nope, no additional purfling on mine. Yours looks great, nice work. I found the plastic binding easy to work with.

Hi Chris

Thanks, I would definitely use it again. This was a kit so I wanted to stick to the plan, the plastic tortoiseshell looks quite good.

I manged to get some weld-on cement which formed a skin very quickly, you need three hands for binding !

I also used a hair dryer to remove the tape I used to hold the binding in place. This caused the binding to expand and lift, i was going to re glue but by the time it cooled off it had re shrunk back to the wood.

John