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I'm building my first cedar guitar right now, and am about to start bracing the top. How do you approach bracing a cedar top?

As far as I understand, cedar sounds darker, more mellow, more open, with a stronger emphasis on bass notes.

Strictly considering the x-brace, from what I've read so far and from what I've seen in the John Mayes videos, it seems that compared to "standard" x-bracing, opening up the x-brace would emphasize the qualities of cedar, while closing the x-brace angle would attenuate those qualities and ...kind of... make the guitar more sprucey.

So how do you approach cedar tops? Do you tame cedar, or do you let it loose (or do you just brace it like any other guitar?)

thanks, Christian

I brace them the same ... gives the same kind of response as a typical guitar then would, but the qualities of the cedar colour that response vs a spruce or redwood or even hawg/koa

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Cedar tends to be less dense and less stiff than spruce, although there's a certain amount of overlap. If you don't have some method of testing the stiffness, I would leave a cedar top about 10% thicker than something like Sitka or Red spruce.

Cedar is not as tough as most spruces; it tends to split. I'd make the bracing a little wider to reduce the per-square-inch load in the glue lines. I also make the bridges on cedar topped steel strings a little wider, say 1-1/2" instead of 1-3/8", to reduce the peeling stress at the back edge.

Otherwise, don't change anything. Just be _real_ careful not to dent it. Check it often as you work, and if you see a little ding in the top wet it right away. The longer you leave a dent in, the more the top gets used to it, and the harder it is to get out.

like Al I leave a little thicker, but feel for stiffness as I go. If asking about brace pattern, same as spruce. I then just feel and listen as I thin down the braces.