A lot of people have asked for info about these guitars and I am sorry that it took me so long to come forth but shop time is my prime focus now as I am trying to do this as my main means of support.
Anyway, attached you will find as close to a plan as you will probably get from me. It is as big a photo as my camera will take and you should be able to use it to create an accurate (size & shape wise) copy of the guitar I copied.
Here are the dimensions:
Lower bout - 13 1/2"
Upper bout - 9 1/8"
Body Length - 17 13/16"
Depth at neck joint - 3 1/8"
Depth at Butt - 3 9/16"
Sound hole - 3 5/8"
Scale - 24.9" Note: the original had a scale of somewhere near 25" but it was hard to tell since the neck had been folded forward into the upper bout and the fingerboard had at some time been replaced as well)
12 fret neck joint
Try to use the stiffest wood you can to resist the potato chip effect in front of the bridge (there may be a reason why they quit building them this way) My red spruce tops typically will end up between .110" and .120".
I cut my braces to a rough tapers cross section on the band saw, 7/16" wide at the base and about 1/16" at the top, the blanks are 3/4" tall then sand the saw marks of using a belt sander which thins then up a little. Then I put a slight radius ~40 ft into the top braces except for the upper bout brace which is flat.
The bridge plate is a piece of spruce ~.120" thick, 1 7/8" wide and 10 1/4" long vertical grain and again, as stiff as you have.
The guitar I started with had no support under the fingerboard extension at all except the one upper bout brace so in total disregard to the grumpy one
, I use a pop-cycle style brace. I may change that some day but in trying to keep the guitar as light as possible, that's what I went with.The back of the original stella had a mild radius across the width of the guitar and a much more radical radius with the grain. I went with my standard 25 ft radius. The back braces are much the same as the top braces and I cut them the same way but radius them accordingly.
Use whatever style neck joint you want, mine is a dovetail as were the old ones. This helps keep the weight down and is a fun joint to do anyway. The headstock is a typical slothead and you can shape it however you see fit as you will no doubt use your favorite width anyway.
These are fun guitars to build but try to keep it looking vintage if you can. I trim mine in various ways and use herringbone purfling a lot by modifying it with colored strips and such or even just using half of the herringbone to make a rope style purfling. I'm doing a style 42 right now on one of my commisioned guitars.
I was just getting ready to contact you. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks. Your little ladder braced guitars are a real inspiration.