#16
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Yes. The downside is the braces would not have the strength as traditional braces because the grain direction would be the same direction as the top. They would probably have to be thicker.
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#17
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Quote:
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{ o}===::: Craig ________________________ 2003 Gibson J45 2021 Furch Yellow Gc-CR MC FOR SALE 2023 Hatcher Greta |
#18
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The Martin X brace pattern has no braces that are close to parallel with the grain in the top. With all the attention paid to have perfect grain alignment in bracewood, it makes no sense to carve braces that are so far removed from being structurally adequate. Another consideration is stability. The cross grain arrangement of the bracing keeps the top from changing width with varying humidity.
The reference to integral violin bass bars is a different story. In that case, the bass bar is essentially parallel with the grain in the top. |
#19
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The bass bar in the violin seems to have started out as an area that was left thick along the joint line; partly to help the joint stay tight, and partly to brace the top against the down force of the bridge. Over time they found (probably by accident) that it worked better to carve the whole top thin and glue in a separate piece. Even later (again, most likely accidentally) they found that it worked even better to put it off center. The only problem with it was that it made the sound 'brighter'.
Meanwhile, on a parallel track, other folks were propping up the stop by wedging in a little stick between the top and the back. It helped structurally when it was centered, but worked much better acoustically if it was off center a bit. It made the sound louder, but more 'bassy'. Apparently, so far as I know, somewhere around 1550 somebody said to themselves:"If the bar makes it more 'trebly', and the post brings up the bass, what would happen if we used both of them at the same time?" What happened was that the modern violin was born. We don't know who did this. Around 1600 Preatorius wrote a book entitled 'Syntagma Musicum', in which he documented everything he could find about all of the instruments in wide use in Europe at the time. He went so far as to include carefully scaled wood cuts of them, with rulers, so you could know just exactly what he was talking about. When he came to describe the history of the development of the violin, however, he just said: "Everybody already knows that, so I won't waste the space". Sometimes the hardest things to find out are the ones that 'everybody knows'. The use of integral bass bars on cheap fiddles is solely a cost saving measure. Fitting a gluing in bass bars is time consuming, and many of those old fiddles were built on a piece work basis. |
#20
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https://youtu.be/czi5aQ2UB40
Just saw this video reviewing a guitar exactly like what the op describes. |
#21
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In the vid, "Not overly bright, not overly loud." To be expected.
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Fred |
#22
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Interesting built and astonishingly sounding good.
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Thanks! Martin D28 (1973) 12-string cutaway ...finished ;-) Hoyer 12-string (1965) Yamaha FG-340 (1970) Yamaha FG-512 (ca. 1980) D.Maurer 8-string baritone (2013-2014) and 4 electric axes |