??????

[ken cierp]

Personally I was having a problem accepting that this was a back brace clamp -- so I contacted Dick Boak (an acquaintance who has been at the Martin factory for a very long time) Anyway he stated that he had a clear recollection of the clamp being used along with a contoured and profiled back plate support. The deal is, and this made sense to me, the cauls are turned perpendicular to the frame and clamped both of the upper braces at once.

[Tim Benware]

Personally I was having a problem accepting that this was a back brace clamp -- so I contacted Dick Boak (an acquaintance who been at the Martin factory for a very long time) Anyway he stated that he had a clear recollection of the clamp being used along with a contoured and profiled back plate support. The deal is, and this made sense to me, the cauls are turned perpendicular to the frame and clamped both of the upper braces at once.

Ken, would that mean they used two clamps, one on each side?

[ken cierp]

There was a second frame -- much larger inside opening -- same set-up with the long caul perpendicular to the frame, it would press down on both the lower bout braces. Dick indicated that the process was rather "clumsy" and not very efficient.

[Tim Benware]

Yeah, that makes sense to me. Seems like even back then they could have found a better method, of course maybe that's just what got them to where they are.