Carbon Fiber for Falcate Bracing

[MaineGeezer]

The 00 Project guitar does indeed sound good. Jud brought it over a couple of weeks ago so I could fix a section of binding that had come loose. The sound balance from treble to bass is still excellent,
Looking it over, I should have put some bracing just in front of the bridge. It's developing a very slight dip there. The falcate bracing patterns you show should take care of that. I omitted the braces across the bridge plate because they would make changing the bridge plate virtually impossible; in retrospect, probably a poor decision on my part, though if the dip doesn't get significantly worse it won't be a problem.

I don't have any thoughts on using carbon fibers for bracing, I'm afraid. The carbon fiber Does.Not.Stretch, at least compared to wood, so I assume the idea is putting carbon fiber on the top and bottom of the brace will make it stiffer. It makes engineering sense, though how much you would gain I have no idea.

[scamp]

The 00 Project guitar does indeed sound good. Jud brought it over a couple of weeks ago so I could fix a section of binding that had come loose. The sound balance from treble to bass is still excellent,
Looking it over, I should have put some bracing just in front of the bridge. It's developing a very slight dip there. The falcate bracing patterns you show should take care of that. I omitted the braces across the bridge plate because they would make changing the bridge plate virtually impossible; in retrospect, probably a poor decision on my part, though if the dip doesn't get significantly worse it won't be a problem.

I don't have any thoughts on using carbon fibers for bracing, I'm afraid. The carbon fiber Does.Not.Stretch, at least compared to wood, so I assume the idea is putting carbon fiber on the top and bottom of the brace will make it stiffer. It makes engineering sense, though how much you would gain I have no idea.

I also am a bit concerned with putting the braces over the bridge plate. On the Gore/Gilet design, they actually run the braces in between the bridge pin holes. This requires quite a bit of accuracy in locating the bridge on the top before it is glued on and also on properly aligning the top and neck.

On an X braced guitar the main structural X braces cross just above the bridge plate so I assume the top is very stiff here and you don't get any dipping of the top at that location given the significant rotational force of the bridge/bridge plate with 150 lbs of string force.

It really is a difficult trick to get the guitar top to withstand that much string force trying to rotate the bridge/guitar top with 150 lbs on a 0.5 inch lever arm vs. making the top vibrate up and down as much as possible from the string vibration. I can see how the curved falcate braces are better at this but it sure increases the complexity.

[carld05]

Use a pinless bridge.

[MaineGeezer]

Use a pinless bridge.

Well, that would certainly solve the problem. There's a pinless bridge on my old 1964 Harmony Soverign, and after 60 years there is absolutely no sign of any problem with it. It's certainly a proven design for steel strings. WIth a pin bridge, however, the layout precision required seems pretty daunting. If the string spacing at the bridge (1st to 6th) is 2-1/4", the free space between the pins is around 0.26" to slip a brace into.

[phavriluk]

In the past I bought my carbon fiber stuff from 'Aerospace Composite Products'.

[scamp]

Thanks for all the help.

Found the following rather local source which seems reasonable so I thought I would share it.
https://sollercompositesllc.com/product ... huge-sale/

Also...
Seems like some people don't use carbon fiber on their falcate bracing at all and some don't use the carbon fiber between the brace and the top but use it on the top of the brace only.

Received feedback from Trevor Gore that he uses carbon fiber between the braces and the top on the basis that the neutral axis of the beam will move as the top wood creeps and then the carbon fiber between the top and brace starts to become useful.

Not sure yet exactly what I will do but it's certainly a learning experience.