Finally starting to brace my first build

[darren]

I hate chiseling things off, always afraid I would cause more damage then I am planning on fixing. I think I would make a bigger (than a bit of kerfling) triangle brace and glue it to the side and the transverse brace. It is in an area of the guitar where the added mass will not really do anything bad. You could curve the hypotenuse side of the triange such that it looks like a carefully designed structural feature. You could also fill in the gap with a bit of brace in addition to the oversized kerfling if you like.

To tell the truth I did do this on one of my guitars. Up to now I never told anyone.

John

good advise there. and extra points for using the word 'hypotenuse'.

[nkwak]

I decided to try option 1: side braces. I cut a housing for the braces to sit both between the UTB and the sides as well as on top of the UTB. Now it's just a matter of getting everything to fit correctly.

[tippie53]

I think your top right now is way over braced . These machines can be a lot lighter than you may think ,

http://theunofficialmartinguitarforum.y ... rPRb3KLOhM

here is a library of bracing off different Martin tops.

[kencierp]

Ditto John -- what are the dims of those braces X and tone bars? They look to be .375" wide which is an over kill.

For a non scalloped braces configuration 1/4" wide x 5/8" tall shaved to a tall triangular shape will work fine as long as you'll be using medium or lighter gauge strings. I personally disagree with the idea that over building the lower bout is a good thing -- Heck McPhearson does just the opposite but in my opinion either way is fine as well as the more traditional LB bracing schemes used by Martin, Gibson and most the rest of us.

[Darryl Young]

Yeah, I would cut the height of the peak on the finger braces at least in half then taper from there. I would take down the height of the tone bars to and taper them significantly more........and take even more off the lower tone bar. Finally, I would taper the lower X brace arms more then re-profile. You are detailed and do nice, carful work so someone like that can push things further.......and it will make the guitar open up considerably more so will sound better (my opinion of course).

How thick is your top?

[deadedith]

I bought a set of top braces for a d-35 from John Hall, just to have as a template and to see what Martin uses.
Gads! The things are so light and thin - probably 1/2 the weight of what I normally end up with after all the chiseling and sanding and shaping I do.

Really opened my eyes to how light you can go with bracing and still be safe.

[nkwak]

Last night and today I started whittling away at all the braces across the lower bout. They were indeed only roughly chiseled to a semi-rounded profile with a negligible amount of height taken off. Based on observations you made, I took some measurements with both a rule and a digital caliper:

The X braces are 5/16" with about 5/8" height but I gave them a slight taper toward the ends starting about 3" from the ends of the bridge patch. The lower face tone bars are .24" and .22" but slightly taller than the X braces. I planed them down to be flush with the X braces. The finger braces are .28" and also have been planed flush with the X braces. Since my last installment I've also begun scalloping them and have a Martin template to compare them against:





I also was made aware that my lower tone bars were shifted a little too close to the tail block, so I also chiseled a bevel across the top surface:



I must add that I've been tapping on the top like a giddy fool. I even got my 4 year-old in on the act but was sort of relieved when he asked for the bongos instead.

[David L]

Did you chisel a bevel across the top surface of the tail block? From looking at the picture it appears that is what you are referring to, am I correct?

David L

[nkwak]

Did you chisel a bevel across the top surface of the tail block? From looking at the picture it appears that is what you are referring to, am I correct?

David L

Yup. I stopped well short of the kerfing and actually could bevel a little more. The issue was that the plane kept coming in contact with the kerfing beside the block. Next time I'll be sure to bevel all 4 edges before gluing it to the sides.

[David L]

Neil, the reason that I ask is concern for loss of glueing surface, also I have never seen or heard of anyone else bevelling the top (or bottom) surface area of a tail block or neck block. (I'm not saying that nobody else does it, just that I'm unaware of it). We did have an extensive (and interesting) thread about bevelling the sides of the tail block (the verticals) and the pros and cons of doing it, a couple of issues covered in that thread were weight reduction and loss of glueing surface (among others). I'm not very good at building guitars but I am good at making mountains out of molehills so this may not be an issue at all. I would like to hear some experience chime in with .02 cents worth.

David L