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Old 05-30-2019, 01:00 PM
Jimbo1776 Jimbo1776 is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Roque Bluffs, Maine
Posts: 53
Default Dave's approach to the new build in his search for maximum tone

I want to share some interesting insights from Dave regarding his process in this design. It's very exciting to me.

"
I had written (copied in below) about taking previous learnings from this design and bracing the soundboard to lean toward more midrange articulation. In your AGF thread, you mentioned radial bracing. Instead of radial or lattice bracing, I landed on a unifying, well-advanced X brace (advanced meaning the joint is higher up into the upper bout than on traditional designs). It has a very specific carve profile, and specific tonebar lengths and angles and bridge plate layout, to maximize the advantage of the relaxed soundboard while also emphasizing the frequencies I feel we need to bring back into the mix. I do love the way your radial sounds - but I also think we can do even better with this design. I’m planning to employ this design on all future offset builds.

Design work like this can be surprising. I wasn’t trying to force a specific bracing pattern; instead, I was just paying attention to everything this guitar has already taught us and discerning where it was telling us to go. Sorry if that sounds a bit artsy-fartsy but that’s the process. I wouldn’t have anticipated that an X brace would make its way back into the design but there’s a reason it has been used successfully for over a century - it’s simply the most efficient way to unify the monopole - which contributes power and projection to the bass - without making the plate over-stiff."
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