#147 from blues creek

[tippie53]

Here is a simple Mahogany dred that I did. Sitka spruce top with nice silking , and simple design. I let the ribbon mahogany do the talking. A killer guitar assembled with HHG and forward shifted braces. Dovetail neck joint and killer tone.
Grover open backed butterbean tuners.
Hope you like it

[JRHall]

That is some beautiful mahogany.

[justrfb]

Beautiful guitar John. I believe there is a real beauty in simplicity...
Could you please explain "forward shifted braces" to me as I have heard the term but don't have a clue as to what it means. Thanks.

Sincerely,
Rich

[Ben-Had]

Sweet John, is that tortoise binding?

[tippie53]

yes that is tortoise binding
FORWARD SHIFTED BRACING
After about 1943-44 the X brace on the Martin dred was moved back. This changed the X brace location. Notably from about 1 inch from the sound hole to about 1 3/8 from the sound hole. There were other changes also that happened though the years but this is the era of forward shifted ( original location actually ) to Rear shift . Lower into the body. Also they stopped scalloped bracing and went with straight braces. In 1939 the neck block size was changed from 1 9/16 to 1 3/8 in thick the Popsicle braces was added to help control the shear that developed at the fret board .

[Ben-Had]

yes that is tortoise binding
FORWARD SHIFTED BRACING
After about 1943-44 the X brace on the Martin dred was moved back. This changed the X brace location. Notably from about 1 inch from the sound hole to about 1 3/8 from the sound hole. There were other changes also that happened though the years but this is the era of forward shifted ( original location actually ) to Rear shift . Lower into the body. Also they stopped scalloped bracing and went with straight braces. In 1939 the neck block size was changed from 1 9/16 to 1 3/8 in thick the Popsicle braces was added to help control the shear that developed at the fret board .

John, I heard that the change in the X-brace that occurred during wartime was a mistake. The person that usually made the templates was off to war and the replacement mistakenly made a new template and put the x-bracing in the wrong position, it was quite a while before anyone realized and by that time a bunch of guitars were made so they marketed it as new improvement. Any truth to that?

[tippie53]

I heard a similar story.

[Darryl Young]

I love it!!!

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Awesome John, as usual. You got to love that ribbon figure.
So forward bracing is suppose to give the sound more.............????

Kevin

[tippie53]

I won't say more sound but I think it is a nice sound for a lead or bluegrass guitar. This is the way Martin used to build them