Torrefaction and no tongue brace build

[dekutree64]

Originally Posted by Truckjohn

I think its been pretty well established that ebony fretboards and their forever shrinking nature is responsible for the fretboard edge cracks on the soundboard that the Popsicle brace is supposed to prevent.

Seems like manufacturers have figured out how to work around it by now for the most part... Or they stopped using ebony....

Thanks

Neck joints where you bolt down the fingerboard extension would certainly solve it. But from what I can find, Collings glues it. So I'm not sure how they're preventing cracks, unless they dry the fingerboard out significantly before gluing it down. But I doubt that, because it takes time to dry ebony without cracking it.

My view of the popsicle brace (aside from the crack prevention aspect) is that it is a tall and narrow brace from the perspective of the longitudinal neck compression force. But I prefer the A-frame bracing or L-shaped headblock solutions for preventing the headblock migrating toward the soundhole.

[Bruce Sexauer]

I have possibly never used ebony that I have not had in the shop for many years, certainly not since 25 years ago. It is not my experience that it keeps shrinking. I think it is simply that even in fingerboard size pieces it is not a week or a month to aclimate, it is a couple of years. Most of my ebony has been in the shop over ten years. Once dry, the top and the ebony are grain aligned and should prove little trouble, at least with unaltered natural wood.