Mark has begun to brace the top of my Bristlecone. Here is a photo of some rough cut Red Spruce bracing stock, a Sitka Spruce popsicle brace and a Brazilian Rosewood bridge plate ready for use.
Here is the top in Mark’s go-bar deck. A faint pencil layout of the bracing pattern can be seen. A laminated (lower laminate is cross-grain to the top and upper laminate is aligned with the top grain) sound hole reinforcement plate is installed and an angled upper transverse brace to accomodate the cutaway lining.