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I did the whole trail. All 2,189 miles of it. It was an adventure. I didn't think that 1/8th inch gap would be a problem but its good to have confirmation.

Congratulations on completing the trail.

Ed

Wow! Completing the trail is a heck of an accomplishment.

Kudos on your epic hike, and your guitar project!

So I removed the old bridge plate and only have the one cross brace on the top still on. I want to prepare the x bracing before doing this so I can put it on right away and not risk the top splitting from some accident. So I need to pick a technique thats good for a first timer. I've watched quite a few Youtube videos and I've seen some people cut the braces to size then glue them on and others doing a lot of carving after they are glued. Cutting to size before hand seems easier, are their drawbacks? Also should I do scalloped or just tapered braces. I think tapered would be easier, seems like you need to know what your are doing more with scalloped.

My plan right now is to precut the braces almost to the size and shape I want then glue them on. I was going to do tapered braces rather than scalloped. Attached is a pattern that seems pretty common. I over laid it over a picture of the existent guitar top so you can see where they go. This will be the plan pending any feedback I get about it.

Preshaping is easier just simply because you won't have a bunch of wood to remove by chisel after gluing. When you say "cut the braces tobsize", I'm not sure if you mean preshaping, or cutting them to the actual size of your finished top. If you're talking about the size of your finished top, I'd advise against it. Every time I've tried it, I've come up short when a brace needed to be tucked. Unless you own a template and halo system, like the one John Hall sells, you run the risk of a brace being too short to tuck. So leave them a little longer. The excess is easy to mark, cut, and pop off with a chisel.

Whether to taper or scallop is a personal choice. Usually scalloped bracing adds a bit more bass and it projects a bit more in my experience. It's not difficult to scallop if you want to do it. Go to the area of the forum called the Library of Guitar Tops. You'll find drawings of real tops, along with measurements as to where to put the scallops, how high, and how low.

I was talking about the general shape of the brace but also planned on cutting it to size. I have seen in many videos the bracing were larger than necessary when putting on but I thought that was because the top was already oversized and this had something to do with it.

since you advise against it I'll leave the braces longer and trim them once they are glued in place. After looking into scalloped bracing more I think I will give it a try. More projection would be nice. And even if it is more difficult the whole point of this project is to learn.

After 8 guitars, I don't have enough experience to know if scalloping, tucking, or shaping a certain way has any bearing on my finished sound. I have been following proven examples and each of my instruments has their own sound and all sound pretty good with 2 being quite good. I find it easy to shape the profile of the braces before installation, then just cut off and shape the ends once installed.

Ed

You have the choice of tucking the braces or allowing them to go through the sides. The only braces that are tucked ( or put through the sides) are the x-braces and transverse brace, to ensure durability.

I went through the sides with my first couple of guitars. Now, I tuck them into the kerfing, but don't go through the sides. It doesn't affect the sound. But, if you go through the sides, you have to make darned sure that the braces aren't any thicker on the ends, than your binding is capable of covering. Since the binding has to cover the edge of the top, as well as the ends of the braces if they go through the sides, it doesn't leave much for brace height, especially if you're using ivorid or another Martin style binding. This is why I tuck my braces.

Either way, you have to remove some kerfing to allow room for these braces, I just choose to stop there, and not go through the sides. I'm sure John Hall has a video on this.

Okay So i Cut the two x braces to the general profile, leaving a little extra meat. And as suggested I did not cut them to length, I will trim them once on the guitar top. I decided to go with tapered bracing because of its simplicity. One thing I read stated that the x braces should be quarter sawn. These are not, at least I don't think it is. The grain looks like its running like a normal piece of wood. I bought torrified wood from StewMac meant for guitar bracing so i should be good?

As I stated a few posts ago i'm going to reuse the old ladder bracing for the smaller pieces of brace. Those have not been pre shaped yet. On the picture below the two on the right are the torrified stew mac braces i roughly shaped. The ones to the left are the old ladder braces and the scraps from the two x braces. I think I should have enough material even if i mess some of the smaller pieces up. Hopefully I don't with the X brace.