bracing analysis paralysis

[blnote]

First time builder, been researching bracing to the point of now just standing there looking at the top with a chisel in my hand. I'm building a D-18 kit from blues creek and I hestitate to even ask what's been asked and anwered a million times but.......Tapered vs. scalloped vs. leave it alone and move on. I love Guild dreds and was thinking tapering the somewhat pre-shaped braces that came with the kit. While I don't prefer bright dreds I dont want to make a muddy one either. I'm using Cory's book and the link he refers to for his bracing pattern (Vanlinge Guitars) is dead.

Any input would be appreciated, for now I'll just keep sharpening my chisels.

[tippie53]

Bracing is an art but here is the best advice I can give you. Start somewhere and keep serious notes of each build. Try not to get too many chances between builds.
The most important thing I can tell you is this , Get the joint integrity as perfect as you can. Clean tite joints are more important that what glue you are using.
These 3 rules will get you a good result.
1 clean joint no gaps
2 no sharp corners
3 Any brace not inletted should be feathered to the top. Follow glue clamp time .

[Ken Hundley]

Welcome! You are definitely not the first to ask this question....may help to search the forums and see previous responses. Something else that would really help is posting a picture of your top, showing us what you have. It would be hard to make any comments on your progress this far without seeing it.

That being said....my suggestion would be to leave it alone, and build the top as is. There are over a million guitars out in the world today, and I would guess a very small portion of them have shaped braces at all, and the bulk of them sound decent, if not down right great. I would follow a plan, and stick to it for your first one. My guess is, if you are like the rest of us, there will be more than one. Don't deny it, just accept it, and make your family accept it too....there will be more. So build this one straight from the plans as far as structure is concerned. The object is to make a good instrument...if you build even adequately, there is a good chance you will build something that sounds better than you had imagined it, scalloped braces or no.

Once the instrument is complete, you can do some brace shaping after the fact if you are not satisfied with the sound after a few months of playing it in....the sound will definitely change over those first few months. It is harder to do after completion, but it can be done, and you would have a better idea of the "before/after" for your first. There are also other ways to change the sound of your guitar after completion...change to a different type/brand of strings, change your pick, consider adding a sound port, etc. Build the first one right, and don't get stuck over bracing subtelties until you understand what it is you are impacting by making that change. Get more creative on the next one. Whatever you do, keep us posted, and take pictures! Welcome again!

[David L]

I would like to welcome you also. I am about to complete my first, HD-28 from John, I glued the braces up just like they came out of the box, didn't want to try to get to fancy on my first. I can't comment on how it sounds as I haven't finished it yet.

David L

[Ben-Had]

This is the pattern I used on my D-18 and it sounds great.

[deadedith]

My first was a 00 from KMG; I lightly scalloped the braces, did not thin them at all - if you look inside the guitar it looks -now that I've built a few - clunky - But it actually is very loud, has kick-*** sustain, is musical and a joy to play. I used the typical bracing pattern as shown above.

[Darryl Young]

I love Guild dreds and was thinking tapering the somewhat pre-shaped braces that came with the kit. While I don't prefer bright dreds I dont want to make a muddy one either.

I'll go against the grain on this one. I'm not familiar with Guild bracing......but if you like that sound and want to duplicate it, I would try to copy that bracing pattern. Of course that's just me. My biggest fear is putting all that work in a hand built guitar and it sounds ordinary! <smile>

[blnote]

Thanks for the input, I was already leaning on the side of caution and just leaving the braces as is. But since I had already sharpened up the chisels I though I'd at least shave the side/finger braces a little, I ended up lightly? scalloping the tone bars and x brace, was a zen moment.

I don't know how this is going to turn out, probably wont sound as good as my larrivee but should be better than my korean ovation! With each step of this process I know I'm going to build another, hopefully while the lessons from the first are fresh.
Thanks again.

[Tom West]

blnote: A bit late jumping in here and I must be careful how I answer. IIRC the original Martin D-18 did not have scalloped braces but not sure you want to go down that path. I do prefer to scallop lightly when doing mahogany dreads. Far better for you not to do too much on the first few guitars.I hope you followed tippie 53's post on joint integrity,it is one surest ways to get a foundation for a good sounding guitar. It CANNOT be over emphsized.Hope it works out good for you.
Tom

[tippie53]

My best advice is to not do much on the braces , and as you build more guitars keep a building log so you can learn the cause effect relationship of what bracing modifications do . You need a base line to start and this bracing scheme has been proven with CF Martin for a long time.
Please anyone is free to post thoughts and opinions .