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Heath Blair
PostPosted: Mon Sep 07, 2015 5:25 pm 
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I've been thinking about building a smallish guitar for myself that could also be used to give guitar lessons to my children. I really like the smaller romantic style Stauffer Martins. Can anyone give a recommendation on plans or maybe even just size parameters that I could use to draw my own? I'm thinking size 5, but am open to suggestions. I'd like to string it with light gauge strings and tune it to standard tuning. Is that feasable with the short scale lengths of those guitars? The only Stauffer style tuning machines I found online were far too expensive at around $800. Is there a work around here? Banjo tuners perhaps? I'm just thinking out loud. I'm not trying to build a reproduction. I just want a nice sounding guitar in that style. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

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jack
PostPosted: Mon Sep 07, 2015 7:41 pm 
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http://www.stewmac.com/How-To/Blueprint ... _Plan.html some additional thoughts:
If you are referring to planetary style banjo pegs, I'd say the finished instrument would be way way heavy on the peghead end.... seems that the tuners might weigh more than the guitar...
A guitar built around the size 5 Martin can be a very nice guitar ; I built a guitar loosely based on a size 5 for my granddaughter and am very pleased with the results....
I have wanted to build a Stauffer style guitar , but I have hesitated, mostly because of the tuning pegs also.
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Heath Blair
PostPosted: Tue Sep 08, 2015 5:35 pm 
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Hey, thanks, Jack! Yeah, I was referring to planetary banjo tuners. I had no idea of their weight. Thanks for that insight. Glad to hear that you've had success with the size 5. Does anyone have any suggestions in the way of tuners for the Stauffer style headstock?

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Greg B
PostPosted: Tue Sep 08, 2015 6:09 pm 
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I believe that Rubner makes a set of Stauffers that sells for about $400, if you're looking for bargain priced... Short of making your own, I don't think you'll find cheaper. I don't think you can avoid the cost of these if you want to make an authentic looking Stauffer or early Martin style guitar. If you just want to do something reminiscent, there's lots of options.

You probably know this but just in case you don't: all these guitars used gut strings, not light gauge steel. Not a bad choice for kids actually. If you go with nylon strings, you can just use friction pegs, or maybe planetary pegs. For #5 size, assuming terz tuning, uke pegs would be another thing to consider.

There's always the Fender style inline headstock, which was kind of a copy of the Bigsby Travis guitar, which itself was kind of a copy of a Stauffer - or more likely old Martin.
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Heath Blair
PostPosted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 6:29 pm 
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Greg, thanks for your input! I had considered nylon, but quickly dismissed it because it feels a bit out of my wheelhouse. Not that I have a wheelhouse, really. I think I'll at least reconsider. As far as the headstock design, I think I'll just have to get a bit creative and do a "my version of" the Stauffer style. There doesn't seem to be any budget priced tuners available. I noticed Martin has a set of Gotoh tuners on their Stauffer remake. Those don't seem to be available to the general public though

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SteveSmith
PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 7:45 am 
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Heath Blair wrote:
.... I noticed Martin has a set of Gotoh tuners on their Stauffer remake. Those don't seem to be available to the general public though


Have you checked the Gotoh catalog? They may have them there but you will need to special order them. Shane at High Mountain used to do that for me but he has moved on but I'm sure there is someone out there that can do special orders.

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Clay S.
PostPosted: Sun Sep 13, 2015 5:00 pm 
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You might be able to cobble together a reasonable facsimile of that style tuner using F style mandolin tuners and rearranging the button shafts.
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Raven
PostPosted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 4:26 pm 
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You should take a look at Inventing the American Guitar.

Martin did the Stauffer style guitar with Classical style tuners and their tombstone style head with friction pegs.
So you really can't go wrong.
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David LaPlante
PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 10:38 am 
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Check out the Stauffer (Austro-German) Martin plan offered by Stew Mac.
I consulted with Don MacRostie who drew these and they are expanded luthier oriented versions of what appeared in Inventing the American Guitar.
An effective alternative to Banjo gears or the traditionally designed 6-on a plate would be Chuck Herrin's PEGHEDS which are lightweight internally geared pegs and are effective for nylon or steel strings.
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Heath Blair
PostPosted: Sat Sep 19, 2015 7:17 pm 
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Thanks again to all who have contributed. I wanted to update the thread with an email conversation I had with Thomas Ochs, who builds the beautiful guitars that you can check out here:

http://www.ochs-gitarrenbau.de/english/guitars/historic-guitars/historische-gitarren.html

Thomas was very insightful and was very generous with his knowledge. I asked if I could share his email with the good folks at the OLF and he kindly obliged.

Quote:
Hello Heath,

it is indeed not easy to find tuning machines for the Stauffer headstock. I tried different types: The most authentic are replica of the original tuners as made by Rodgers. There is a company here in Germany named "Rubner" (in Markneukirchen). they also provide a copy of the plate tuners, but they are also about 400$ and do not work properly.

Then I tried Perfection Pegs. They look like wooden pegs for Flamenco Guitars but have planetary gears inside. This is a very good solution, as they work well and look very authentic. The only problem is that they can fall apart if not handled with care, so this is nothing for the ordinary customer.

Also very authentic are the so called friction tuners as you can see on my website. The problem with these is that I got one of the last Sets manufactured a few years ago. The production stopped and until today nobody can or wants to continue.

For me, the best solution are planetary banjo or ukulele tuners as supplied by Schaller an many others. This is not authentic, but they work very well with nylon strings and can not be destroyed by the customer.

If you know another provider for replica of the original "6-in-line-on-a-plate" apart from Rodgers and Rubner, please tell me.

I hope that I could provide some help.

Best regards,

Thomas Ochs

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Clay S.
PostPosted: Mon Sep 21, 2015 5:57 pm 
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I have a set of the original tuners (and the cracked up guitar they came off of). The post spacing is slightly less than today's mandolin spacing.
If I were to want to reproduce the look, I would do it one of two ways - buy 3 sets of cheap F style tuners and use the longer shafts on two cut down plates -or - buy one set of tuners and cut the button shafts and extend them with soldered on hobby store brass tubing. The plates and shafts are buried in the peghead and covered by a plate, so whatever modifications are done won't be seen. Cheap modern tuners will work about as well as the originals did, better tuners will work better.
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