bracing design question

[Dave Bagwill]

Peter - I've been 'enlightened' several time myself lol.
I've tried 4 or 5 different brace patterns and they all turned out well. I'm sure that I'm not experience enough to squeeze every last bit of tone out of a piece of wood, but it does seem to me that any tried and true bracing pattern will work equally well. When I purchased my first kit from Ken, I asked him how I could treat the braces - which were normal scalloped things, nothing fancy at all - to get a 'better' sound. He wrote back that the braces he provided would work just as they were. I had been so dazzled by fancy-looking patterns that I just assumed a normal looking pattern couldn't provide peak sound. But they do.
I had a very close look, over a period of two days, into my friend's custom Goodall. I looked inside the box with a mirror and flashlight, looking for the magic. There was none - it was an x-braced top, slight scalloping on the X, and that was it. Just like a million others. So the magic was in a number of smaller things done exactly right.
The Lowden system looks a bit ham-handed, but works a real treat, as does Lowden's and as does ladder-bracing. Good wood, good gluing practices, light and tight seems to be the formula. For me at this time, anyhow.

[John Parchem]

Peter that bracing design as Ken has it will work. Their are a lot of bracing patterns that people use to make fine guitars.

[peter havriluk]

Year before last I made a visit to a luthier in Madison, Wisconsin, Brian Fuller, building as 'Yahara Guitars'. I asked Brian whether any elements of construction would go unnoticed if they were skimmed. Brian's answer: They're all important. I've been holding that thought - - -do the best you can at every task. And Brian's guitars, I've heard the angels sing. And seen woodwork as an art form.

[Dave Bagwill]

Yikes - guess I had that ol' senior moment up above, repeating 'Lowden' twice in sentences. I mean to say that Larrivee's braces look a little clunky, but they do yield a sweet sound.
I'd better take a nap.

[peter havriluk]

Dave, I'm a regular expert in 'senior moments'. Sure helps keep life interesting.