Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm curious...and for a good reason...
Many of us make what we call an SJ, or Small Jumbo model. Some call theirs a Grand Concert or whatever.
I'm curious what size your particular model is.
Why? Because I'm trying to save you money!
"What's that?!" you say?
Yes, I'm trying to save you money.

Here's the deal. Many of you know who Tim Flynn is. For those of you who do not, Tim is the owner of Ameritage cases.
I've been emailing with Tim on and off for several months, after ordering my first case with him. Paul Woolson and I have been working on getting some things changed in their designs, and it all happened with great success. Now I'm currently talking with him about developing a case to add to his regular line of cases, for an SJ.
Mine runs about 15.5" wide at the lower bout, and around 4.75" thick at the butt end. Tim and I are making a prototype of this for me, and if it works out well, and if we can get some feedback from others who are looking for a stock case that will fit this size guitar at a reasonable price, he will add it to the line.
Basically, my SJ fits in a OM case, but needs more depth, so that is what we're working on.

Let us know...what size is your SJ?Don Williams38416.3499305556

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Mine is 16" at the lower bout, and 12" at the upper bout, and 4 7/8" at the butt, and 3 7/8" at the heel. I think Bruce's will be the same because my plans come from him. Anyway, will this work?
Tracy

Hi Don and Tracy. I saw this post earlier, but didn't have the dimensions in my head like some others.

Here is the outworking of my first OSJ on the bench, not necessarily what I thought either.

Body length: 19 9/16"
Lower Bout:   15 1/8"
Upper Bout:   11 3/16"
Waist:        9 1/4"
Tail:        4 15/16"
Neck:        3 3/4"

That's my story on the OSJ

Bruce,

5" at the tailblock?????? Man, that's really deep!

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

What can I say, that block was just really tall and I had a lot of rosewood. I may get to carry this one around in a gunnysack.

Deep yeah, I'll just have to call it a Nick Lucas OSJ. (grin) I bet my son Warren can make it howl though. Oh, I forgot, it has a cedar top, well, maybe growl then.Dickey38404.4563194444

I surfed around on the web and looked at a lot of jumbos and small jumbos. What I determined is that there is no concenses on the size and shape of these guitars. One makers Jumbo could well be smaller than another makers small jumbo. With the execption of Martin, most jumbos and small jumbos have a round lower bout but that is not a hard rule either. This was a bit of a suprise.

I had always assumed that a small jumbo was about the size of a 000 or perhaps a little bigger but it had a round lower bout. I would expect a jumbo to have a round lower bout but be 16" across and dreadnaught depth.

I had always assumed that most SJ's followed the dimensions of a Gibson J-185 pretty closely; I think those are 16" lower bout, 20" long body. A J-200 (Jumbo) has a lower bout of about 17" across (though I have never measured one myself).

Somewhat smaller than 16" lower bout (to me) would be a Grand Auditorium; some smaller than that a Grand Concert.

But that's just what's in my head, and sometimes its messy in there.

See, I call my 16" across the lower bout, curvier than a dred but same basic depth a 'Grand Auditorium'; same size as Taylor's, my re-named 'Medium Jumbo' is about 16.7", tighter and higher waist, more rounded out. My planned 'mid-sized' guitar will basically be the dimensions of an OM, but probably more rounded, because I'm just not wild about any of Martin's classic square butt and square heel area designs.

I've got a large-ish Parlour that's 13" across the lower bout, and I'm pondering something in between, at 14.5" or so as well.

5 foot 2 250lbs.

_________________
Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

guys I am drawing the OLF SJ Plan at home. I don't have a copy up here at work with me but I am using Lances bending form as my benchmark. I will post those dimensions in the morning If any one has a disagreement with them lets hash it out, so that the OLF plans serve the community the best possible.

Here are my SJ dimensions:

Upper Bout: 11-1/4"
Waist: 9"
Lower Bout: 15-1/2"
Length: 20"
Tail: 4-1/4"
Neck: 3-1/4"

Body Tapers from bass side to treble 3-3/4" to 4-3/4".

Anyone else want to chime in? Don't forget folks, if you have a guitar model roughly this size, this can save you a lot of money on a custom-made case. And anyone who has ever seen an Ameritage case knows just how very good they are.

Right now, we're looking at an average of:
length: 19.5" - 20"
lower bout: 15.5"
upper bout: 11.25"
waist: 9"
depth at tailblock: 4.5" - 4.75"
depth at heel: 3.625"

Michael, any word on those dim's from Lance's form?


Will this work for you?

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Great!

Don, any idea what the cost of this case might be from the luthiers end.

_________________
Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

John, I won't say here on the forum, because I prefer to keep that out of the ears of the consumers we sell to. Obviously they retail (list) for about $400, and cost us quite a bit less. If anyone wants to know the rough price, just email Tim Flynn, who is the owner. Make sure you tell him you're a builder. Prices may vary depending on how many you buy, or how many guitars you build per year etc.Don Williams38415.836412037

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Don,
The OLF plans for the SJ-14 fret body are as listed
LB 15-1/2 (corrected)
UB 11-5/8 (corrected)
Body length 19-15/16
14th fret to center of sound hole 5-7/8
14th fret to waist valley 6 7/8
LB depth 4 1/2
UB depth 3 7/8

Hope this helps I will be out on the town tonight but will be back late. I will check in to see if you need any thing else.

MpMichaelP38415.8881365741

Michael, do you have any idea when the SJ plans will be available for purchase?

Also, will the OM plans be restocked any time soon?

_________________
Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Hey Michael,
[QUOTE=MichaelP] Don,
The OLF plans for the SJ-14 fret body are as listed
UB 15-1/2
LB 11-5/8
[/QUOTE]
I've never seen a guitar with a bigger upper bout than the lower one....you sure you got that right?
Don Williams38415.8368981481

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Darn.....HaaHaauuuuuu.....I glued the neck on the wrong end

Yes I am sending Lance the reproducables for all the plans this weekend. It was ready but I got caught in a crunch and be darn if I did not forget all about it...My bad..The SJ will ship with it. It got finishedd this past weekend. Hope everyone likes it. Work is finally slowing down a little. So I may actualy get to do some building also. And just what plans does eveyone want next. "D"? "00"? The floor is open for suggestions.

That's great news Michael! Now I just have to decide if I want to order everything listed on the plans page...

_________________
Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

L-00 Gibson
or C10 Collings

Michael, thanks for all your hard work in support of the forum. I know we all appreciate it.

I'm with Bruce. I'd like to see Gibson plans for a change of pace. Maybe an LG0 or LG 2 3/4?

_________________
Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

[QUOTE=Dave Rector] That's great news Michael! Now I just have to decide if I want to order everything listed on the plans page... [/QUOTE]

Glad to here That Dave..If you are including the climbimg rose Inlay pattern . may I make a suggestion and use maple stained with oven cleaner for the stem. I just did a fretboard for a friend of mine about 9 months ago with this pattern using stained Maple for the stem, Green Abalone for the leafs and Gold MOP for the rose pedels. I have to say it was very nice and it is a simple pattern to cut If you ingrave the pedal seperations. It is a bit more time comsuming if you cut each pedal and glue togather with black CA as I did for the pedal seperations

Ok Gibson L-00 sounds good to me. For those that have build one before please post general dimensions and Gibsons scale length. I have not built one. I am sure I can work out the bracing from pic's I saw posted. Here again I will leave the neck and neck block detail up to the individual luthier since most have neck and neck block patterns established. keep in mind guys and gals that It may take a month or so for me to get it going to to work requirments, but things are not as bad as they have been for the past three months. I have been pulled at both ends this winter. But spring and summer is usally not as intense since we tend to consentrate on manufacturing at this time of year and less on new designs.