Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm about to start building forms for a 000. Wondering how true to the
Martin 000 body shape the Antes drawings for OM and 000 are? Thx.

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

   The old martins vary as much as 1/4". The Antes plan is a bit different across the board in everything but close enough.
     It is like hand grenades and atom bombs , close may be good enough. If you are a stickler for the Martin shaper let me know
   john

Todd and John,

Thanks for the input, gentlemen.

I didn't know there was so much variation. I'll go ahead and use the Antes plan, like on my first, an OM. I did have the presence of mind to use much lighter top bracing. It looked way beefy to me too. Came out sounding fine.

As an aside, I just compared the Antes OM and 000 drawings. The bodies are identical in shape. The 000 is a 2005 drawing, perhaps it was changed from an earlier version?

_________________
now known around here as Pat Foster
_________________
http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Todd,

It looks like Antes did exactly what you described. With the drawings laid one on the other, everything but the fretboard and one end of the neck match exactly, even the dimensioning.

I'm thinking this over because my "customer" (nephew) wants a "Martin 000", and he seems set on the Martin shape whatever that means. when building my OM, I had one of John's molds, drawings from Antes and Kinkead, and pre-bent sides from LMI. Of course, they were all different, but the guitar turned out great. Knowing now that there is so much variation, I'll just do what I did for my OM, which is to use John's mold with the Antes drawing but with lighter bracing and reference the location of the braces and soundhole from the body/neck join.

Thanks again.

_________________
now known around here as Pat Foster
_________________
http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Thanks, Todd. If you met this guy, you might think it was I who made a
good choice in nephews.

_________________
now known around here as Pat Foster
_________________
http://www.patfosterguitars.com