MIMF

Overall, I agree with Brent, but I can offer a couple other things. If you want a pre-war Martin sound, you should probably use advanced bracing. Otherwise, it's really up to you. Variations on X bracing seem to work similarly and work well. Regardless of the position of the braces, their shape, thi...

Like Barry, I use epoxy, and I've also found it's easy to remove parts glued with epoxy using heat. Removal doesn't require as much heat as Titebond or hide glue does. I first learned this when I had to re-glue a fretboard that moved a little under the clamps. Now I always use 3 locating pins in pre...

Darren, I have been following your and Alan's posts with interest. I built a D sized baritone with a 28 1/4" scale, and made the soundhole 3 7/8". I can't tell you if it would be better with a larger or smaller soundhole, however. After building this one, I guessed that if I built 8 or 10 ...

Well, if the joint is perfect, that's probably good enough. : D I've never heard that making the joint in thick wood and planing it down makes it a better joint. I think the practice of joining it a little thick it so leave room to plane if there is minor mis-alignment. Typically backplate joints ar...

How thin you can go before glue up depends on your set-up for gluing and how skilled you are at using it. I can get backs pretty thin before gluing by using my go-bar deck to hold them flat. I hold one side from moving with a batten screwed to the deck, and press the other side inward using eccentri...

I like the Grellier 00 plans and am currently building a guitar from them. I have changed the bracing a bit. We'll see how that works. I agree that 'changing the metric to inches isn't much work. However, if you want to build a Gibson L-00, I would suggest you buy plans for that particular instrumen...

All of the above advice is excellent. I would also suggest that you search the MIMF archives for previous discussions. This is a good one, for example: http://www.mimf.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2002&p=29224&hilit=bending+iron#p18631 You could also benefit from taking a look at typica...

Thanks for this opportunity!
Tim

That's a beautiful guitar. I assume you call it a "parlor" because it's smaller than an 000 or dreadnaught, not because you built it in the parlor. For those of us into guitar history, and/or small guitars, an 00 is a mid-size guitar. Next smaller size is 0. Then there are the parlors, sma...

I have a Martin 14 fret 0-17, and I love the sound. I think a lot of people who like small guitars recognize the 14 fret 0 as a good one. Of course, the 12 fret 0, with its slightly different sound, is also great. IMHO if you want to build a 14 fret short-scale 0, go for it.

Lots of people use Supersoft II (SS2) to bend highly figured guitar sides and binding. I've used it a little. I have very limited experience as a guitar builder, so what I say may be a bit Supersoft. I used SS2 to bend curly maple binding that had snapped w/o it, using a pipe bender. When I painted ...

Great! Have some fun bending sides!

I have the L-00 plans that Mark drew up as well. I don't know if it might create potential for a "pitfall" but that plan does not show bracing around the sound hole. In a previous MIMF discussion, IIRC, Mark stated that he left them off with the assumption that the end user would know that...

For measurements taken from steel string guitars there are a number of sources. A good place to start is the bracing forums at the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum. You go through a lot of pages of pictures of bracing, which are moderately interesting, but lack specifics of interest to builders. As yo...

I have the MIMF plans from the Cumpiano book. They do depict an OM, and it is braced like a factory guitar--rather heavily by the standards of most on this forum, I'd guess. I used this plan as a reference for my first two guitars, though the shape and bracing of my guitars was different. Even with ...

Back for a minute to the question of the best all-around size for guitars: after playing a D-35 as my main guitar for 25 years, I got a 1933 0-17 (13.5" lower bout) about 8 years ago, and have been amazed at how versatile, good sounding, and fun to play it is. Especially in these days where amp...

Claran, thanks for the compliments on the dog and the guitar. Neither are from kits, though both are hybrids. The dog is a cross between two similar breeds (Labrador Retriever and Standard Poodle), both intelligent mid-sized dogs originally bred to be water retrievers and now mainly used as pets. Th...

I think Adam has done a good job of summarizing the benefits of starting with a kit. I can also express it as an analogy: if you build from a kit first, it's like knowing the main streets in an unfamiliar town. As you try to get around to new places, at least some things are familiar and you know wh...

I would also recommend building a kit first. I am close to finishing my third guitar. My first two guitars were built from scratch, with a hybrid body shape I designed, combining 000 and L5 shapes. The bracing and other elements I also designed, combining suggestions from different plans, posts, and...

Following suggestions on the MIMF, I made a bender using an electric charcoal starter as a heat source. A cheapo router speed controller functions to adjust the heat. I suppose you'd seldom forget and leave a torch or heat gun running, but the charcoal starter is pretty much silent, so I have a time...