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tippie53 wrote:you can sand that brace to match. I hope you didn't buy off ebay from a none martin source. Many of the kits on Ebay are miss matched parts from people that buy martin scraps and put together kits .

The kit was purchased directly from Martin. It is a Martin Jumbo Kit with Rosewood back and sides. I have been very impressed with the kit quality and craftsmanship, but am puzzled by these back braces with varying radii.

Diane's directions on fixing the one brace is the easiest. I've done similar corrections using the disc sander to sand to the line. Quicker. If the brace is tapered, you'll need to shim up the narrow edge to get the sanded surface square.

the girl that used to work there retired a few months back and they are learning

So, when I bought the Martin Jumbo guitar kit, I actually bought three (I am going to make one for each of my two boys too). I checked the other two kits and they too have back braces of different radii. Should I contact Martin to see if this is correct? Or, should I trim them all to the flatter 25’ radius? I can’t make the longer braces match the 15’ radius.

Thanks to all of you who have replied. I appreciate the tips.

Let's start with the idea that back braces have the same radius. No reason to 'ask', but plenty of reason to request three complete (and accurate) sets of back braces. No reason for OP to spend the effort and materials to correct Martin's errors. He paid for the right stuff.

I sent an email to Martin today. I will wait for a few days for a response. I will let everyone know what they say.

I would like to hear. For all the years I sold martin kits the back braces were always the same

I agree with Peter. Martin needs to correct this mistake.

Still have not heard from Martin about this. I emailed them about 10 days ago. Got a reply that they would get back to me “shortly”. I’ll try again next week.

Suggestion to OP: Pick up the phone. Email is seriously easy to ignore.