My First Guitar-OM Blog

[ruby@magpage.com]

Diane

I could never figure out why people did so much brace shaving after installation. I have done 90% of the shaping before I glue them on on the 4 I have built.

fI am right now repairing a pretty damaged 1933 Gibson L-00 and I had to put a new back on it so I can inside easily to see details. The original braces still have the circular saw (table saw) marks on both tapered sides, and of the 8 original brace ends on the 4 braces each have a pretty distinctly different end shape - almost like the janitor stopped in each evening and shaped the brace ends. This confirmed for me that it is not necessary to do much shaping after brace installation - other than it is fun.

Ed

Hey Ed,
Perhaps that Gibson would have enjoyed an improvement in sonics had the braces been shaved.
-tommy

[MaineGeezer]

I think the roughness of the Gibson braces is probably more indicative that the guitar was built "good enough" rather than indicating it couldn't have been improved by paying more attention to the details.

[Diane Kauffmds]

Diane

I could never figure out why people did so much brace shaving after installation. I have done 90% of the shaping before I glue them on on the 4 I have built.

fI am right now repairing a pretty damaged 1933 Gibson L-00 and I had to put a new back on it so I can inside easily to see details. The original braces still have the circular saw (table saw) marks on both tapered sides, and of the 8 original brace ends on the 4 braces each have a pretty distinctly different end shape - almost like the janitor stopped in each evening and shaped the brace ends. This confirmed for me that it is not necessary to do much shaping after brace installation - other than it is fun.

Ed

As far as I can tell, the only way to properly voice a new back and/or top, is to shave the braces after they're installed.

The braces were preshaped, but preshaping is only a close approximation of the final shape. It takes fine adjustments, to properly voice the top and bottom, and the adjustments are made by shaving mass off of the braces. I replaced the tops on 2 old guitars; even when I used the existing bracing as patterns, I had to voice the tops. I was able to save the back and sides to one old guitar, which had rough bracing. After cleaning up the old bracing, it sounded better than it originally did. All wood sounds different, even within the same species. I used engelmann spruce for both old guitars, but each sounded different when tapped and required voicing by shaving.

This may explain better than I did:

[ruby@magpage.com]

Diane

I am aware that many will voice the top after bracing. Martin and Gibson and other big names do not as a rule, relying on the law if averages. Even if you intend to shave braces later, you can still shape them before they are glued in.

Ed

[Diane Kauffmds]

The braces were preshaped before I put them in. I shaved the braces to voice the top, which brought out really exciting tones and sustain.

[mnmusic]

Diane
...

This may explain better than I did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNchJIfT2O8

Thanks for the link to that video. Very interesting.

Ed

[mnmusic]

...
Also, Martin does shape their braces AFTER they are glued in, as is shown in this video (JUST AS I DID):

Another interesting video. Thanks!

Ed

Diane

I am aware that many will voice the top after bracing. Martin and Gibson and other big names do not as a rule, relying on the law if averages. Even if you intend to shave braces later, you can still shape them before they are glued in.

Ed

A primary reason why we are building our own guitars. Who wants to get stuck with a big dollar Martin or Gibson that falls in the 'average' or below category?

[MaineGeezer]

That's even better than doing the actual tour!