Acoustic Guitar Construction

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.

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

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.

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.

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