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Old 10-02-2019, 02:41 AM
colins colins is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Victoria, Australia
Posts: 3,524
Default Bracing the top

I have a chance to update the thread, so let’s see the top coming together.

Mike uses hide glue to fix the braces to the topwood. He says this glue sets pretty quickly, so the braces have to go on in stages.

Here is the first set, held in place in the vacuum unit while the glue sets...



More braces, and the bridge plate too...



And finally the little ones go on…



Out of the vacuum unit and it looks pretty neat...



I thought the wood for the braces looked a lot like the topwood, which is blue spruce. I asked Mike and he told me that most of the top braces are Adirondack spruce that he selects for this role. The transverse brace (between soundhole and neck) looks a little different for a reason. It is actually a wood called Achihua, which he also uses for the back braces and the kerfing. The bridge plate is different again – this is hard rock maple.

Finally, the Golden Gate Bridge shot…



More images soon!
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