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Early Romantic Stauffer style guitar

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2022 8:19 am
by martintaylor
We all owe so much to Stauffer! This build is based on what I could find by trawling the internet. I couldn’t find any plans so drew up my own and just went for it! The top is Engelmann Spruce, QLD Maple back and sides, Mahogany neck, Ebony fretboard, bridge and bridge decoration. Rubner tuners and key mechanism.
The back has a 6 1/2 foot radius.

The adjustable neck was challenging as all I could find was an X-ray of a Stauffer and one or two random pics. I’d change my process if doing another one. But now she’s strung up, the ability to adjust the action so easily is just inspiring. I think I’ll probably try to incorporate this into a steel string build in the future.

I’ve used strings that closely resemble what would have been used at the time around 1820-1830) La Bella ERG#1 as they were recommended in one of the FB groups.
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Re: Early Romantic Stauffer style guitar

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2022 11:49 am
by lamanoditrento
Beautiful Martin! How does the neck adjust? I like your depth of field with the tools in the background.

Re: Early Romantic Stauffer style guitar

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2022 12:40 pm
by martintaylor
Hi Trent,

I'll try to take some photos of the system. It is so simple. There's a "nut" (threaded pice of brass) that has a square plate on one end that gets inserted into the internal neck block. It has a ring that locks it in place. Then the neck has a brass "long washer" that a bolt with a square head goes through that connects to the internal bit previously mentioned. There is a pivot in the neck that consists of two screws that rest on something hard (I used recycled piano key ivory as ivory was originally used). It might make more sense with images. I'll see if I can take some tomorrow and post them.

The depth of field is just good ol' iPhone trickery

Re: Early Romantic Stauffer style guitar

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2022 2:07 pm
by Bruce McC
Beautiful replica Martin. A couple of questions please,
did you reinforce the heel/neck mitre joint in any way?
Was the bridge decoration hand cut or by CNC?

Re: Early Romantic Stauffer style guitar

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2022 3:35 pm
by kiwigeo
This link might answer a few queries about the Staufer neck hardware:

https://www.mimf.com/library/Staufer_ad ... -2011.html

Re: Early Romantic Stauffer style guitar

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2022 3:42 pm
by martintaylor
Bruce McC wrote:
Thu Aug 11, 2022 2:07 pm
Beautiful replica Martin. A couple of questions please,
did you reinforce the heel/neck mitre joint in any way?
Was the bridge decoration hand cut or by CNC?
I used part of an ivory piano key to reinforce the mitre join. I also added in the ability to adjust the neck sideways as well as the normal adjustment by adding 2 small screws into the neck that for the pivot on the ivory.
kiwigeo wrote:
Thu Aug 11, 2022 3:35 pm
This link might answer a few queries about the Staufer neck hardware:
https://www.mimf.com/library/Staufer_ad ... -2011.html
Yep, that's the one I used.

Re: Early Romantic Stauffer style guitar

Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2022 11:25 am
by peter.coombe
Nicely done.