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Just finished an exact replica of an 1837 Martin Austro-German style guitar. Per Stew Mac plans, with corrections. Had to make the Stauffer style tuners from scratch. Tried to post photos, but did not work. Any help would be appreciated.

Grant Goltz

I use the Tapatalk app and it let’s you load photos as easy as FB or IG…

I have no idea what that is, but thanks for the response.

Hi Grant,
Myself and a few others have made "faux Stauffer style" tuners by adding lengths to the tuner button shafts.
The originals are a bit more complicated:

Get a picture compressing application. I use "Multiple Image Resizer" on my mac. Process the pictures so that they are in a JPEG file format and compressed to 675 x 900 pixels (oriented depending on whether the photo is in landscape or portrait orientation). This should create a file that is less than 200kb in size which is within the max limits of this website. I forget what the maximum allowable is.

Thanks for the help, everybody. Here are the photos.








I changed out the bridge pins later for lower profile with large abalone dots.

Very nice Grant! I made a Stauffer a while ago, and extended the shafts, as suggested by Clay. I would certainly make others like it.

Is that a bone bridge?

The bling on the top is really something, and the rosette matches! The binding, while fancy, has a different feel. But the bling is really of no use on the sides; it is the playing side that people see.

Did you make the hardware for the neck adjuster; or did you buy it? I just used an Allen head bolt. You must have a key.

How about the white/cream binding?

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Why be normal?

I made the Stauffer tuners from scratch, everything except the gears which I scavenged from set of tuners that came apart with screws. I wanted to match the original 1837 guitar as close as possible, including the string pin layout. Note that the low E string goes to the farthest peg, Exactly opposite, for example, a Fender 6 in-line.

The bridge is an imitation ivory. I was going to use bone, but felt it was too dense. I now have a more realistic version of synthetic ivory.

The "bling" and rosette is as close to original as I could make it. Lots of hand cutting and fitting. The original fingerboard was ivory and I plan to do that on the next one (artificial ivory). That one will have nickel silver tuners. Binding is grained ivoroid. The herringbone side purfling has a different look than the original, but was the best I could find. Will keep looking.

We made the neck adjuster parts as the original.

The main difference from the original was using Goncalo Alves for back and sides. Martin used that wood for 19 guitars in the 1830's and an unknown number in the 1840's. He called it "Zebrawood". I can find no record of that wood being used again until I built one from it in 2002.

Beautiful workmanship! Wonderful attention to detail in the reproduction of an early Martin. The Goncalo Alves looks very nice. Years ago I tried sawing some of it with what must have been a dull blade. It produced a toxic smoke that ran me out of the shop and I haven't messed with it since. . Did you use veneer over spruce as many of them did? Do you have a photo of the back of the headstock showing the metal cover plate?
Again, quite a lovely guitar!

I used solid wood for the back and sides.


My first attempt at engraving.

This whole thing is seriously yummy. Amazing attention to detail!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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Interesting, soundboard? Have you played one or built one?

Pat

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Pat

Very, very nice. I like the engraving.


Steve

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

very beautiful!

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Hi Grant,
Very nicely done cover plate, thank you for posting it.




Hi Pat,
Not the soundboard, the back and sides. Somewhere I have an old parlor guitar (not a Martin) that has back and sides of rosewood veneer over spruce, with a spruce top. I don't recall ever playing it, so it probably needs some work. I've read that some of the early Martin's of that style used a similar construction.