Any Love for STRAIGHT (Non-scalloped) braces?

[SKYHIGH]

Got me my first straight braced guitar few months ago, a Martin GPC-28.
I have since really grown to really like the tone of this guitar. I didn't know when I bought it that it had straight bracing...and I'm not 100% sure if that's why I like the tone but I'm sure it's part of it.

Never the less, this guitar has:
-less scooped out mids your typical rosewood
-less overtone
-less sweetness in general

But that's what I love about this guitar and welcomed additional to my guitar stash. You see sometime too much overtone altough sounds yummy at first gets...too sweet after little while. Sort of like tasty ice cream. This guitar has just right amount of sweetness and overtone that I can play for long time without much ear fatigue.

It also has great string separations when strummed, mid/high thickness, and crisp punch in the Mids that are difficult to find in Rosewood as it's too scooped out at times.

Anyone else love their straight braced guitars?

Cheers

[docwatsonfan]

looks like your guitar is forward shifted

with that said, I love my non forward shifted, non scalloped D28 and D35

congrats on your find !

[DenverSteve]

I would say the majority of people playing guitar who grew up with, and loved, the D-28 would say - yes.

[Mr. Jelly]

I'm not an expert but it seems that the three main bracing patterns of Martin guitars are different from each other but none of them are better. Some give better response in the high end and others give more response of the bottom end and so on. Bracing has become a selling point but the truth is non of them are better. Only different. So what happens is people buy what they came to believe is the best bracing for a good sounding guitar and find out after the fact that it's not the sound they desire.

[saxonblue]

I love the tight, punchy tone of my 2012 standard D-28. I also liked the sound of a HD-28V I played at the same time, more scooped & lusher but not what I was after, probably says it all from my perspective.

[jpd]

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

Bracing has become a selling point but the truth is none of them are better. Only different. So what happens is people buy what they came to believe is the best bracing for a good sounding guitar and find out after the fact that it's not the sound they desire.

+1 Recently tried a "back shifted" scalloped acoustic.....had to add it to my group. Not better, just different!

[Shades of Blue]

The story is that Martin decided to go with forward shifted bracing on the new D-28s because the combo worked wonderfully on the GPC-28. I've wanted to try the GPC-28 for a while now but don't know a place to go try it. I do have a D-28 on order with the new bracing, so I'm looking forward to giving it a shot.

[zombywoof]

I play a 1957 Gibson CF-100E. A clearly defined low end, real punchy mids, and crisp and full sounding trebles. About the only thing is gives up to pre-1955 versions and LG-2s is a bit of volume.

I also play a bunch of non-scallop, ladder braced guitars. Love those as well.

[guitar george]

It seems to me that some scalloping of the braces, when hand done by an experienced luthier, would enhance the tone for each guitar and would result in the best tone for that guitar. This is where the luthier's skill of matching the tonewoods to the construction would produce a guitar that would excel over the usual factory made guitar.

[mercy]

I like tapered bracing, sort of the best of both