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Yea I noticed this, if i hold the sides while i tap the top, the tone changes and sounds quite dull, a much bigger change than i would have expected.
(As a side point which is just something my brain thinks about, seeing as the guitar would usually be in contact with the guitar player, often on the sides if played sat down, would it not make more sense to make sure the top resonates freely when the sides are being touched? does anybody do this?)
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Don't worry about it. It's not so picky after the back is on.
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Originally Posted by emmsone
I now realise to fix this I should have lowered the bracing height and left the bracing the same width. I hope its not too late and I haven't removed too much that any further lowering the brace height to allow additional deflection will just kill it.
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Triangular braces are almost always a good thing. Short fat braces are heavier for the same stiffness, and in most cases lighter is better. If it still feels really stiff, then it's unlikely that you've gone too far yet.
However, it is good that you haven't triangulated the scooped part of the X intersection, since that's already low. Triangular profile would save weight for the same stiffness there as well, but it would need to be taller to start with.
The current tap tone sounds pretty good, but probably can go a bit further. I'd recommend leaving everything around and above the X intersection alone (aside from adding the soundhole braces), and taking a lot of material off the lower half of the lower tone bar, where it comes close to the tail block. The other tone bar and lower X legs can probably come down a little bit, but don't overdo it. I think you're out of cardboard box territory already, and you can shave those through the soundhole with a finger plane after the box is closed and you can hear the real tap tone (or even after you have strings on it). The brace ends are the main thing you lose access to after closing the box. Also the bridge plate, which still looks rather meaty to me.