Official Luthiers Forum!

Ok guys, I did search the archives so don't chastise me for not doing my homework. That being said...

I was wondering if the OLF OM plans conform to the Martin body type. The reason I'm asking this is I do have an OM/OOO mold from Martin, but I don't have plans yet.

I know I doing things backwards, but there is a perfectly good explanation. I was visiting the Martin factory a couple of weeks ago as part of an open house for Martin Owners Club members and everything in the 1833 shop and Guitar Makers shop was 20% off...I couldn't pass up the chance (by the way John Hall is famouse there).

So long story short, I have a mold and no plans. I would like to buy the OLF plans to support my favorite forum, but want to make sure they match the mold (within reasonable tolerances). In a previous thread, John said he was going to compare the plans against the Martin form, but I didn't see an update...do they match?

Sorry for the long winded post.

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

Joe, I have the Scott Antes plans for the 14 fret 000. Except for the neck width at the nut, and the 24.9 scale they are great for building an OM. You can borrow them if you like. (Joe works about 3 minutes from my house)

The OLF plans I drew and donated to the forum were dimensioned off of a Martin OM-14 fret kit I built in 1998 Depth width and length. I adopted this as my OM pattern years ago. The depth is the depth of a Martin OM kit. I too noticed that production OM's are a bit thinner. The bracing on my OLF OM plans is a bit different than Martin. The top X-brace and tone bar positions are same as on the Martin marked up top that came with my kit but they are a bit lighter than what came with my kit. The plans also include my optional "x" back brace as well as conventional Ladder back brace pattern. I built my own mold so I can't say how it fits a everyone’s Martin molds but it should fit very close since the original tracing came off a Martin OM kit buildMichaelP38890.4868634259

Thanks Hesh

Is your mold a twelve fret or 14 fret 000? Stew mac has a nice set of 000 plans for a twelve fretter. I have a John Hall 12 fret 000 mold and these plans work well. John's mold is built on martin spec's.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Mike, I think I'll take you up on your offer. I think I might buy some plans too, just to compare. No such thing as too much information, right? This will be my first guitar thats not from a kit, so I'm trying to get some serious planning into it. It will be a few months before I could think of gluing up wood.

Michael S. I believe my mold is the 14 fret because it clearly states OM/OOO (OM means 14 fret right?). I think John made this mold, so I'll ask him.


JBreault38891.3380902778

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

     Most of the plans out there are close. If you do your bending and keep the sides long you can trim them to fit the mold.
Remember the bracing locations are scale oriented and they are based on where the fret locations to body joint is , so as long as you plot the bracing from that point you will be fine.
   Antes print is close , the curature is off a bit and some of the numbers are not martin spec but again this was documented off a guitar that was built before CNC and Statistical controls .
   Having worked on some old martins I can vouch that there are differences as dependant to what mold was used. The old tolerances were about 1/4" so plus or minus and 1/8"
    ANy questions or you need some help feel free to email or call me
570-682-8046   tippie@epix.net