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hello friends
please can tell me
can i use spanish cedar of necks for bracing engleman spruce and indian rosewood backs???
i have many extra cut pcs of spanish cedar. how it will help in voicing?
waiting for ur repliesss

I think an engelmann spruce back will make a much bigger difference than changing the bracing material on a rosewood back! You should be fine, Spanish cedar back bracing is quite common in classical guitars, as is mahogany in steel strings, which is even heavier. Considering those are the most common neck materials, respectively, I'm guessing the practice originated as a way to utilize all those wasteful neck offcuts

Depending on who you ask, back bracing material may be practically irrelevant. But I suspect that's mostly from people who make heavy backs that are designed not to move much. Spruce works for me, but I may try putting some of my neck offcuts to use one of these days as well. In fact, I may even try mahogany bracing on a mahogany top, just for the novelty.

I've also been thinking about trying western red cedar and redwood, for darker color against rosewood backs, although those do split more easily. Not sure it's a big issue on a back, since the only thing I'd really worry about splitting braces is hard percussive techniques. And of course dropping the guitar, but that never actually happens, right? ...maybe I should stick to spruce.

I love it. Use for kerfed linings. I've thought the same, but one thing holds me back... sap or oils coming to surface.

Mike

Nearly all of my back braces are Spanish Cedar from neck stock. Light and stiff. I probably would not use it as a top bracing material, but I don't know why!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I've used spanish cedar to brace all of my backs and have been using it as the lower transverse brace on my tops for the last few I've done (I build classicals). I think it was from seeing a Byers guitar that I got the idea of using a fairly massive lower transverse in order to isolate the lower bout (kinda the opposite approach as someone like Jeff Elliott and others who use open ltb's in order to use more of the top in sound production). I believe Greg Byers actually uses hard maple for his, though.
I've been very pleased with the guitars I've done this on.

The stiffness to weight ratio isn't as high with SC as most Spruces. I've used (and still use)Spanish Cedar, as well as Mahogany for back braces on some guitars too. A couple grams added to a guitar isn't a big deal, but I think a couple grams added to the top's weight is.
I know (less than) nothing about Classical guitar construction though, if that's what we're talking about.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

Good, stiff spruce seems perfect. Why use Spanish cedar?

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

And it's so easy to work with......

I like to split my braces.
Try to split spanish cedar.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

I've split all of my spanish cedar braces with no issues whatsoever.
Also, I've found spanish cedar incredibly easy to work with-one of my favorites for sure. In fact, I have a couple of builds in the planning stages now using it for back and sides.

As for the "why?," on the back I use it because it matches my linings and I don't think it makes that much of a difference (at least with my design). On the top I'd say that most designs would be better off with all spruce bracing. My particular design incorporates a fairly massive lower transverse that is left full height all the way across, the idea being that it more or less isolates the lower bout, preventing loss of energy to the upper bout. It is the only brace on the top that I'd consider using sc for and, again, I wouldn't suggest it for most designs but it seems to work well in mine.

I guess I've been unlucky

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

really really thank u all of friends for ur replies.
one more question arises
can i use it for kerfing???
and also can pine used for top bracing. because in india spruce is not available.
waiting again for replies

Certainly. It is the preferred wood for kerfing for a lot of builders, including Martin.

Pine is OK for bracing, as long as it is stiff and light. Some of the pine here in the US is too dense.

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John