Acoustic Guitar Construction

Can't see anything on the drawing regarding that ,
Maybe its me but I find the plan very limited with information on certain things including bracing , so if you could suggest a different approach then I would be happy to do it.
If anyone else has this Scott antes plan maybe they would chime in here as I know you said you didnt have this particular one Ken.
So, are saying it would be better to go with the drawings rather than a deeper body ? Is 28ft radius incorrect for this size body or would be the usual radius for top braces on a parlor ? Thanks for all your help
Rusty

Clarity ---- Scott Antes merely has copied Martin designs and made a few tiny changes as not to be sued for copyright violations. These are renderings, not engineering drawings/blue prints. Some of the geometry does not jibe with the real world. So you are basically constucting a Martin Size 2 using Antes guidelines.

There is no contour indicated because as I mentioned earlier, Martins are flat top guitars -- even modern ones, they do however radius the braces to 52' to prevent a concave appearance. I bet if you look close somewhere on the drawing near the X or tonebar it will say "slightly contour the ends" that is what appears on all the other drawings that I have. A 40' radius or even the actually 52' radius will work just fine.

kencierp wrote:Clarity ---- Scott Antes merely has copied Martin designs and made a few tiny changes as not to be sued for copyright violations. These are renderings, not engineering drawings/blue prints. Some of the geometry does not jibe with the real world. So you are basically constucting a Martin Size 2 using Antes guidelines.

There is no contour indicated because as I mentioned earlier, Martins are flat top guitars -- even modern ones, they do however radius the braces to 52' to prevent a concave appearance. I bet if you look close somewhere on the drawing near the X or tonebar it will say "slightly contour the ends" that is what appears on all the other drawings that I have. A 40' radius or even the actually 52' radius will work just fine.

Yes, it does say something like that but only for the back, and theres no mention of the top.

Ok, so 52 is what I need to aim for and will work on that shortly,

I have now also taken your advise and worked out the numbers for the side profile as per your website instructions so I now have my template. Its an interesting way of doing it and not as hard as I thought at first. So, is it ok to tape the template to the outside as opposed to the inside before I cut around it, and do I cut exactly on the line or do I leave a little to be sanded with the bar afterwards ? You may remember my blocks and kerfing are glued in and thats why I'm wondering would it be easier to tape to the outside but I can always remove the kerfing anytime.
Thanks
Rusty

By all means mark on the outside -- take care however, that you don't cut the blocks too much, they still need to be much higher toward the inside. It is assumed you are going to remove and replace the kerfing.

Yes , I removed the kerfing and taped the outline to the side, What worries me now is that the outline seems to be up and down and does not conform to any particular shape as you can see from the pic , When i plotted the points 2 inches apart some were 85 mm , then 90-94-96-100-102 but it then dips up and down with 102 -90-99
Hope you can see what i mean from the pic as i'm not explaining it very well

Thanks
Rusty

Not sure what you were expecting? You are tracking / graphing a tilted guitar shape on the inside surface of a sphere, of course it will vary in height and have an odd appearance. Double your take off points to get a smoother line. If your tail block and neck blocks height measurements are correct and you followed the instructions the pattern will be correct. I don't see a waist curve line marked on your template. Does your template look something like the one pictured in the instruction set?

It does resemble it but the top line in your picture is smoother and flows more evenly than mine.
As you may see in my picture its an uneven line--up in places -down in other places--so not exactly the same as your instruction set
I was expecting it to be a lot straighter so as i could cut along it
I have the waist curve line marked.

Thanks