Quote:
Originally Posted by Truckjohn
The back set is well quartersawn on the sap and moves to flat sawn in the middle. Jointing the back at the sap wood will give you a more well behaved back with humidity swings.
On the top bracing.
1. Replace the finger braces with new ones that butt the X-brace tightly. This is especially critical on a thin top. If you don't - you will end up with funny humps and dips.
2. Instead of the flying brace from the X down the center of the bridge - if you are really worried - consider a brace running straight across the back of the bridge plate that joins the X tightly.
Most likely you won't need either the flying brace or the PMTE across the back of the bridge plate. I would start off with 1 conventional tone bar. This is a very small guitar. If you want it to have some bass - it has to be built pretty lightly.
Another opinion. I personally do not like to see scalloping on any braces between the bridge and the neck. You need a stiff upper bout structure so it doesn't do bad things across the soundhole. It's such a small guitar that it will probably be oK... Just keep an eye out for the neck angle shifting over time.
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Cheers for the detailed input John, always appreciated.
I spent ages considering the additional braces and struggled to make my mind up. The single tone bar just seems a bit odd on this tiny body, the distances between the x brace tails and the tail block just didn't seem to lend itself to this traditional bracing, I can't tell you why, it just doesn't feel right. I do however like the idea of the straight brace below the bridge, there are a few examples of parlour guitars over in the custom area using this. I haven't glued down those extra braces yet, so, I shall make some new ones and post a few pics.
Also, do you think I could put a tiny notch into the x brace tails to accept the new straight brace under the bridge plate or will this introduce unnecessary weakness?
Thanks again
Ps what's PMTE?