The Luthier Community

Great report, Joe! Thanks very much for doing your best to provide a good comparison - and for your candor about your experience with a Bridge Doctor on this guitar.

Another great resource would be John How, because I know he builds small-bodied, ladder braced, steelstring guitars - and everyone who plays them says they are great.

Dennis

Yeah, well,
I revert to my favorite Greven quote again -
"All the great guitars are on the verge of imploding"



Great work, Buddy!

E

Just one more observation and comment. I had missed it before, but you last bracing photo above - do the ladder braces stop short of tucking under the linings? Now, all the old ladder braced Stellas and such that I have looked inside of always had the braces tucked under the linings.

Seems like that might help the problem a bit.

Guess you gotta build one more and make these triplets

G

is it the same wood from the same billet as with the top? just different braces!mm
nice job on the build joe...

Thanks guys,

Yeah Dennis, it was from a photo John How posted on OLF that I copied this bracing. I added the braces on each side of the sound hole since I had run into buckled sound holes on old ones I'd picked up on ebay.

And Grant, Johns photo showed the bracing ending before the kerfing, I assume to "float" the top and allowing more vibes. I see some do that on their x braces also. So yeah, more experimentation is called for!

And Ron, yes, sister tops, same billet. Same back and side woods, but not the same billet.

And Eben, I'd say we can't go wrong following John Greven's opinions.

Thanks again,
Joe

I just got an email from Todd Cambio of Fraulini guitars, he builds a lot of the old style ladder braced 6s and long scale 12s, so I consulted him about the problem I'm having with the top deforming. Sent him pics so he could see my bracing pattern, and he said that with this bracing pattern, you have to go to the thick side on your top, somewhere around 0.135", which as he says "sounds insane by modern standards" but top thickness is all you have to counter the string stress.

So, I guess that shows where I went wrong, my top is probably around 0.10", as I've been using on the light built x braced ones. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing! As I was building just from a picture.

So maybe that is why it sounds so good, it is on the verge of imploding!

Live and learn, don't try this at home!
Joe

I wonder if you started from .0135 at the bridge and tapper down to .090 if it would still hold up.
my last 6 string i did a top at .059 and still holding up...one of my best sounding guitars,..


ill delete this is week ,but just had to show you joe.

Hey Ron, no need to delete, that's a good idea. It needs the stiffness around the bridge area because their is so little bracing, but going thin out at the edges might just be fine. That top of yours is amazing, 0.59", it's just barely there. And this guitar is great sounding, so alive. Bare fingers, it just sings, and when flat picked I usually like a x heavy pick, but this sounds great with a regular weight pick. So far the movement of the top isn't bad, so I'll just keep an eye on it, and enjoy.

Thanks Ron,
Joe