Vintage Martin OM Fretboard Thickness

[redir]

For the vintage Martin folks, have you measured? I had a '50 OM in for a neck reset and measured the FB thickness in the center over the sound hole of the guitar and came up just shy of .2in. That seemed thin to me and so I was was trying to determine if the board had been resurfaced. It was definitely refreted at some point. Other ones of that era I measured were just under 1/4in.

[JonWint]

My 1953 00-17 measures 0.18". I believe the refret I did was the first.

[redir]

Originally Posted by JonWint

My 1953 00-17 measures 0.18". I believe the refret I did was the first.

Cool! Did you resurface the FB too?

I'm trying to find out the Martin spec on is since I am building a copy. Seems like they may have varied a lot.

[JonWint]

Only a light sanding, a mil or less.

My old ones; 1914 to 1870 vary from .14 to .17.

[redir]

Thanks JonWint. Yeah the real old ones are quite thin.

[John Arnold]

Fingerboards do vary in thickness. In the 1930's, they tend to range between 0.185" and 0.200" on the edge, and 0.215" to 0.230" in the center. Martin did not build OM's in the 1950's. The last original OM was 1933, and they were reintroduced in limited numbers in 1969.

[redir]

Ah yes I meant 000 and always mix them up...

Thanks for the measurements John.

But yes it is the longer scale OM from 1930's plans that I am putting together.