Ladder Braced Grand Concert, Build #7

[Joe Sustaire]

Well I started another one. Something kind of addictive to this, you know?

This will be a 12 fret, slot-head, what else would I build? This is my Stella inspired version of the 1930s blues guitar. I've used this mold to build a 12 string, ladder-braced, 26 1/2" long scale guitar, and last time I built a cedar topped x-brace with it. So, this time it's going to a genuine 6 string, ladder-braced blues guitar.





As you can see I've got my sides bent. I used my propane fired pipe bender. These are ribbon sapelli, same as the little parlor x-brace. These are ebay specials, cheap because the sides were warped, but they bent fine.

And the top is a lutz special, quite a bit of color, with a little bearclaw.



Joined and sanded.



Maybe you can see the bearclaw?



Rosette installed and sanded.



And a close-up. This was a $3 special on ebay, I got 3, thought they looked pretty nice. As I was trying to get it to fit though, I found that it wasn't the same width all the way around. So that's why it was so cheap, no doubt, rejects. I added some b/w plastic perfling inside and out, and with a lot of tedious sweating and cussing, got it to work. And it turned out much better than I expected.

Much relieved,
Thanks for watching,
Joe

[Eben]

Hey, lookin' good, and a guy could have worse addictions!



Nice vice! That don't look cheap!

And, even more important, live plants in your work space - Now there's something I need!

You need to do up a little thread in the show us your shop thread, Joe!

E

[Joe Sustaire]

Thanks Eben,

The vise is from the stew-mac catalog, works nice. Made in China copy of the old USA made pattern makers vice, so it's a lot cheaper. My guitar building has taken over my old artist's studio, so there's a huge skylight overhead, great for work and plants, does make a nice environment. Most of the plants are avocado trees Patty grew from avocado pits. Good mexican food, great greenery, can't beat it.

I'll try to take some photos of my studio and workshop and do a thread.

Joe

[Garry Hallam]

Oh man, Joe

How do you work so fast. You blow me away with your building.

Now that rosette is truly a great piece of artwork.

wow!

Garry

[Joe Sustaire]

Yeah Garry, I'm sure speedy, finally I'm getting back on this.
Time does get away!

Here's a photo of the new bracing scheme.



A variation on the ladder bracing that I just did on the Ditson.
You may recall I had some top dipping in front of the bridge on that one, but the sound is incredible so I decided to just watch it closely and see how it develops. Todd Cambrio of Fraulini guitars advised me that my top was too thin for that simple bracing, it was 0.10" at the thickest, live and learn.

Now this top was already thicknessed down to around 0.11" so here we go again!
Now seeking advice from Nehemiah Covey on the Ditson, he said that he runs two small braces from the neck block to the end block about 1/4" wide x 1/4 to 5/16" tall, on each side of the soundhole with the transverse bracing notched to fit over them. This stiffens the top lengthwise. He also brought up another thing he does, which is to use seam reinforcement on his tops instead of the back, which of course is where most of the stress is. I had wondered about that before, why the back seam needs reinforcement but the top doesn't, but had just followed tradition. I suspect it has more to do with seeing the back through the soundhole. Nick says he will sometimes use some cross-grain buttons on the back, as is sometimes used on the top.

So this is what I've tried to do. Two small lengthwise braces on each side of the sound-hole with the traditional ladder bracing notched over them. A maple bridge plate, center seam cross-grain reinforcement, and a short popsicle type brace under the neck overhang. The bracing in the upper bout will notch into the kerfing, while all the bracing in the lower bout will die into the top before the kerfing. I also plan for the end-block to sit under the kerfing, so it won't touch the top. The wider cross-grain patch at the end-block is because I started a little crack there while testing the rigidity of my bracing.



So this is what I've got and we'll see how it works.
Feel free to critique,
Thanks for looking,
Joe

[whitespruce]

Joe, I can't critique cuz I ain't heared it yet

But it looks like a worthwhile experiment.

G

[Dennis Leahy]

Hi Joe,

I am of the school that says there is no "best" or "perfect" guitar; they all have moods and personalities and voices, that's all. Are you inviting critique only from those who know what the hell they're talking about, or can any ol' Monday morning quarterback make a dumb comment? If so, read on. If not, skip this conjecture. She looks very heavily braced, which I would expect would give her a treble-y voice and quick note decay (short sustain), especially in bass. Again, pure off-the-wall conjecture on my inexperienced part, and even if I'm right it is still going to be a guitar with her own mood and personality and voice, and she may indeed be *perfect* for what you're looking for this time. She might be the belle of the ball for blues slide work.

I definitely want to hear her when she's done!

Dennis

[DaveWhite]

Hi Joe,

This is going to be a fun and interesting instrument. I loved the 12 string ladder braced guitar you made. I've become fascinated with ladder bracing since John How made a replica of an Oscar Schmidt guitar he had. Ladder bracing seems to get a bum rap but I think it has a lot of possibilities using modern methods and I've been experimenting with it on harp guitars and Weissenborns.

For the size of guitar I agree with Dennis that the bracing looks a little heavy but there's only one way to find out. I've made a couple of Concert sized (about 13" lower bout) ladder braced guitars based around an early 1900's all mahogany American guitar I have. I adapted the bracing from that along similarish lines to yours. I put some A frame braces around the soundhole with a cross grain soundhole re-enforcement plate. The A frame ends lock into the neck-block. I also used carbon fibre flying buttress braces that take the neck string load into the rimset and off the top/soundhole area. The bridge plate is spruce with a rosewood inlay where the bridge-pins go. The ladder bracing was thin - about 5mm wide - and tall and the A frame braces about 5mm square:





The guitar is nearly 18 months old now and the front of bridge/soundhole area is rock solid. I don't mean to hi-jack but thought this may be of interest. I'm looking forward to seeing your guitar progress to completion.