Wenge as a back brace?

[Dave Bagwill]

Is there a good reason why wenge could not be used for back braces? A friend gave me a bunch of wenge in 8' lengths but 1" x 2" only. My newest student Michael has a wonderful set of cocobolo, and the wenge would make a really nice visual impact. But I haven't heard of its use as back bracing.
Any ideas?

[John Parchem]

If one wanted an active back, Wenge is heavy for its stiffness. But building an instrument with a reflective back I think it would be fine. When I build a guitar with Cocobolo I tend toward making a reflective back as it is dense as well.

[Dave Bagwill]

I may do 3- brace back with the wenge, instead of 4 braces as I would with spruce.

[peter havriluk]

Dave, no doubt fewer braces of stiffer material will be mathematically valid, but I think the possibility of the back sinking between braces rises with fewer braces. I've been tempted to use more and thinner braces just to avoid the back sinking between braces.

I think (no proof whatsoever) that the all-wise saints at the Pennsylvania monastery used four braces because they could and didn't use three because they couldn't. That monastery is a factory and keeping the parts count down makes for happy accountants (and owners).

[Dave Bagwill]

I know of a few good luthiers that, on smaller-bodied instruments, use 3 braces as a rule of thumb. I'm not unaware that 4 is the generally accepted number, or that Larson Bros. ( I think it was) used 6!
I don't know if 4 is felt to be best for warranty purposes, or if it is the sagging issue that Peter refers to. However, 4 seems to be a good safe number.

As it turns out we will be using 4 mahogany braces on the back.