Official Luthiers Forum!

Long-time lurker here. Talking to luthiers and reading posts on the net I always come across complaints of Gibson braces coming apart. Does anyone know why this is the case. Were they in a hurry and didn't let the glue dry? Poor clamping? Too much dust? All of the above? Just curious if anybody knows. Thanks. Jorge Schwarz

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For a while in the 70's Gibson used a three piece X brace, much to the detriment of stability and longevity.

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- Louis Freilicher

Oh No! Not another learning experience!

I was in a friends repairshop today, and every guitar on the bench was a gibson 4 in all in various stages of repair, the worst being an acoustic with several splits in the top 2 split braces and the bridge came off that must of been the straw that broke the camels back for the owner to have left the other so long! Good enough for a Gibson!!! I though you guys had a downer on gibsons as I've been to his loads of times and there was only 1 or 2, the one above he was blaming on women working in factories whilst the men went to work I don't know nut sound a good theory

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Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes

There were a lot of loose braces in the 50's but it turns out they had recently hired a few ex-postal employees who had just been licking the braces.

Seriously though, there are all sorts of different eras, adhesives, construction styles that fall under the name "Gibson", and it would be a pretty broad generalization to group them all with similar traits or properties. The only era I know of with a chronic problem is the RF glues of the 50's, primarily used on archtops. Other than that, yes, braces come loose, but I would say not more than would be expected. Perhaps more details on the era and location of the theorized trend would be useful.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.