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Most of the long tone bars I've seen are symmetrically spaced. One of my books suggested a slight off set from parallel, so that's what I did. Having been inspired by another post here on the forum, I've been reading up on the bracing. What effect do y'all think this will have on tone? I'm interested to hear your view on the way the long tone bars are non-symmetricallly spaced. I think it will matter some, but not much. What do you think?

On the same note, does a "forward shifted" bracing make a discerning difference on tone? Can you HEAR the difference or is forward shift just more builders voodoo?

IF the tone bars were quite stiff (which they're generally not), and IF the top surface were uniform and quite flexible (which it's generally not), then parallel tone bars would promote a distinct resonance where a half wavelength (in wood) was the spacing between the bars. Under those conditions, angled tone bars would produce a broader, less pronounced resonance than parallel tone bars.

But none of these conditions are present in a typical guitar, so the impact of parallel vs. angled tone bars is likely to be subtle -- maybe very subtle.