Side bracing

[redir]

It's a lot easier to repair a guitar side crack if there is no side bracing. So there's that. I have used side bracing in the past and on one guitar I made the mistake of not letting the bracing into the linings to cover the full width of the sides. IOW they stopped at the linings. About ten years later acrack developed there due to the stress riser. If you do use side braces then go full length or at least feather them.

If I were ever to do it again I would use tape because it will give at least a bit of resistance to crack propagation and can still be repaired as the tape will just squeeze out under clamping pressure.

[Frank Ford]

Originally Posted by jdl

yeah, I have to admit it was a humidity issue, when I wasn't aware and didn't humidify. It took a good rap on the side and split.

It cracked because it got hit, not because of humidity issues. . .

[Bruce Sexauer]

Humidity cracks wood for two reasons:

One is because wood shrinks and if it is glued to a piece with juxtaposed grain, such as a back brace is on a guitar, the juxtaposed piece (the brace) does not shrink at the same rate (as the back) causing extreme stress.

Second, a piece of wood dries faster at its ends than in the middle, causing the ends to shrink faster than the rest, causing “end checking”.

Neither of these conditions in present in the sides of a properly built guitar . . . Unless there are wooden side braces glued on cross grain to the sides. Fortunately, the sides are generally too narrow for the stresses to cause them to crack. The stress can be high enough to cause the ends of the side braces to pop off the sides, however, and I have seen this several times in my career, including having the little braces rattling around loose in the guitar.

I use tape to mitigate side crack travel on my guitars. Non-stretching polyester tape in an HHG matrix seems to work quite well.