Lowden braces 2

[Dave Bagwill]

Read part 1 first please.

This pic and another that I've looked at disclosed the following: the tonebars outside the x - are inlet also. I'm surprised by this. And, in an older Lowden, the TONE BARS are inlet as well! This instrument was built in 1987 in Ireland.
The enblock is not as wide as the Martin-style instruments.
Other than that, nothing really fancy - no inletting of the bridge plate into the x brace, for example, or inletting of the tone bars into the x brace. The side reinforcement strips are straightforward, not tucked in or anything, and spaced about every 4-5" as far as I can tell.

Any comments?

[TonyinNYC]

Interesting bracing.
I asked Bruce Sexauer on another forum recently about which braces he tucks into the linings and his reply was, "All of them, why wouldn't you?"
So I emailed him to get more info. He was very nice to speak with and explained his reasoning for tucking every single brace on the soundboard into the linings. He said that if bumped, the brace would either break or peel off of the soundboard if it were not tucked. A "tone bar" is meant to bring the vibrations from the X-brace down to the lower middle portion of the soundboard. If you stop them before the linings, they can't bring the vibrations all the way to the edge of the soundboard. Also, stopping them short of the linings creates nodes, in his opinion, where the vibrations terminate at the end of the brace. Or something like that. I need to read what he said again.
Anyway, I have mixed feelings about this but since Bruce Sexauer makes excellent sounding guitars by all accounts, I also can not argue with his logic. He said it is important to have the braces shaped and tuned correctly if you intend to tuck them all. He has always done it that way so his building technique accounts for the added stiffness tucking would impart. I never tucked anything other than the X-brace in the lower bout. Now, I don't tuck anything but the shoulder brace and upper arms of the X.
It would be interesting to know what Lowden's logic is behind tucking some, but not all braces.

[Dave Bagwill]

Tony I will NOT riff on the tucking bait you have put out there.

[TonyinNYC]

Say what? I would never bait you sir! Hahahaha!!

[ken cierp]

Most/many modern makers don't tuck the braces into the kerfing because at least bench testing indicates that having the sound-board loose around the perimeter allows it to act much like a load speaker cone which is elastic/flexible/responsive all the way around. Take the grille off one of your HiFi speakers and stop the cone in a couple of places with your fingers -- then ask your self what's the advantage of damping the sound-board might be? Taylor and Henderson come to mind when this topic is on the table -- Henderson thins the sound-board perimeter to add responsiveness -- Taylor routes a channel to accomplish the same thing.

Thin -- tall -- light bracing sound like a winner to me!!

To my ear the two Lowden's Alex DeGrassia played in concert were just amazing --- he's not too shabby either!!