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Old 04-07-2015, 10:20 AM
mc1 mc1 is offline
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i stumbled across this page about floating braces for classical guitars and thought i would post it here.

http://scottclassicalguitars.blogspo...ing-brace.html



I know that the majority of guitarists and guitar makers/repairers haven't heard of it or seen one before, so I took a few photos as I installed the brace into one of this customer's instruments, and will add some back story and pictures that I've taken over the years to see if I can fill you in.

The first time I saw a floating brace was in 2004, inside a 1980 Miguel Rodriguez guitar that I was studying. These photos I took of the brace inside that guitar. The brace appeared to be original and after a little research I discovered that Mr. Yuris Zeltins, a guitar repair/restoration specialist in San Diego, was probably the originator of the idea.

I'm grateful that Mr. Zeltins was willing to speak with me on the phone in 2004 to answer my questions. The way I understood it, Zeltins invented the floating brace in the 1970's as a preservative measure to prolong the life of guitars who's soundboards were seriously dipping between the bridge and soundhole. Rodriguez, during the 1970's, was gradually making his soundboards thinner, and got the idea from Zeltins by about 1980 to incorporate the floating brace into the design of his guitars (I believe Zeltins said Rodriguez instruments were the first ones he installed the braces into - but don't quote me...). It's fairly common to see soundboards of old guitars, and yes, of plenty of new guitars too, with pretty dramatic concavity in front of the bridge. Since Zeltins's solution is non-intrusive and easily reversible, it's an effective, elegant way of keeping some of those instruments playable for longer without diminishing their value. In fact, if done conscientiously, I've personally found that a floating brace may actually improve the sound of some guitars, and can be used to help eliminate wolf notes.

<more pictures and text at the link above>
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Old 04-07-2015, 11:25 AM
Howard Klepper Howard Klepper is offline
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Zeltins invention was also invented by Gibson in 1961. They put it in their J-200s. This became commonly known as the "Tonesuppressor" and most people ripped them out.



Steve Klein invented something similar in the early-mid 70s. He called it a "flying brace."
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Last edited by Howard Klepper; 04-07-2015 at 02:23 PM.
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Old 04-07-2015, 12:33 PM
murrmac123 murrmac123 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Howard Klepper View Post
Zeltins invention was also invented by Gibson in 1961. They put it in their J-200s. This became commonly known as the "Tonesupressor" and most people ripped them out.
If this had been posted six days ago, I would have smiled, nodded my head and thought ... "Nice one , Howard" ...
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