Question for all on Brace shaving

[Guitar Hack]

I am working on build # 2, 3 & 4 and was wondering what your collective opinion was on shaving braces more than they are in the kit. I have a nice kit that I got from John at Blues Creek. (A great source by the way! No sucking up intended). The braces come pre-scalloped and I was wondering if anyone has done any additional shaving on the scalloped braces and what the result was. I put too much money into these to experiment too much. The first build I didn't change anything and it sounds great.

What are your thoughts?

[Freeman]

I've scalloped my 000 and 0 quite heavily and they are very responsive guitars (and the 000 is now 5 years old with no issues). I had my 1974 D-18 aftermarket scalloped (mildly, plus the bridgeplate was replaced) and it became both more responsive and louder (it was pretty meek before, now it compares nicely to both a GE and a 1939 D18). I have not scalloped either of my 12 strings - mainly for fear of top damage.

The one comment I see over and over again at luthier forums when newbies show pics of their bracing is "looks over braced". So my humble council is "shave, baby, shave"

[tippie53]

I wouldn't lighten up the braces more than they are. You can sand them and make the sharp corners softer , As Running Dog ( Rick Davis ) points out , braces are a part of the scheme of things and to just attack them thinking you are helping , you may be hurting .
There is a post on another forum where a building is having a hard time controlling the top as the it bellies after a year of so . He had a picture of his braces and they are so over scalloped . Think of how the top is affected by the loads. The neck block wants to roll over from the string tension. The bridge is trying to torque the area under it and compress the top between the bridge and neck block. The top is getting a shear force from the fret board extension and then the lower part is under tension from the pull of the strings on the top.
I don't like to scallop braces until I am behind the saddle . I also do not take more than 1/3 of a brace when scalloping. Also wood is stiff in its height not the width. You still need some width for glue surface area , so I won't go below 1/4 ".

[kencierp]

Ditto Rick and John's comments -- something I've obsereved as a trend by some manufactures and builders is to completely feather out the ends of the long X brace legs and the tone/bass bars were they interesect the kerfing, in others words they stop short of the rim. I believe this should/does free up the soundboard around the perimeter and does not affect structure. Taylor even has an option for a routed perimeter channel believed to do the same thing --- as to whether tone is improved and who could hear the difference -- Who knows?

[Guitar Hack]

Thanks,

I've seen it done quite substantially on a couple kits posted here. I thought I would ask the experts before jumping off that bridge.