View Single Post
  #21  
Old 08-07-2010, 08:46 AM
Neil K Walk Neil K Walk is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Pittsburgh suburbs
Posts: 8,309
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by mhammond View Post
I think you mean 5/16" braces and yes I started out with them per plan dimensions widthwise. However, I strongly triangulate my braces and leave them a smidge taller than plans to start. The tops are thinner if the individual piece will allow and the braces are stiffer ( ala Somogyi), this seems to be working out for me. I also used the radial back bracing on the two best ones (maybe a coincidence, maybe not)
Mikey

I've been putting some more thought into this and your comments above have me intrigued. By "radial" bracing do you mean that funky combination of X-bracing and ladder bracing on the back? I see that Paul Woolson does something similar on his builds. If so how does that affect the tone? Would it "muddy" up the tone of a cedar top - especially if I consider using lighter (1/4") braces on the top?

Yes, I said 1/4" braces. I've long been enamored with the tone of the HD-35 with its full undulating bass response (that I attribute to the bracing and not the EIR) but also the sweetness of the trebles of cedar-topped mini jumbos. I was hoping to find the best of both worlds.

Oddly enough, my local store has an A/E Martin M (or is it J or 0000?) 36 series with cutaway and I don't like the tone of it at all. For starters, it has that heavy dual source Aura system with the barn door electronics, non-scalloped 1/4" braces and from what I can gather it hasn't had the opportunity to open up. I wanted to like it but there just seemed to be too much of something and not quite enough tone.

I can sense I'm going to be doing a LOT of tone tapping. Well, YJ says that he expects I'm gonna be taking my time. I truly want this one to both sound - and look - good.

Speaking of looks, I'm finding that I love the look of EIR with mahogany. When I got my D-16GT I was surprised to see that the endcap on the heel was EIR and not black boltaron like the body binding. Then I saw a pic of that R Taylor Style 1 (yet another guitar I can't afford) on the classifieds here and I knew that that was a nice "palette."

I haven't gotten into the headstock inlay or rosette yet. Being a former graphic artist I've got ideas on THAT too, but I'll save that for another time.