I've been busy working away at making my own bracing when a question occurred to me. I've been using bracing from Martin as my template to make a routing jig to make my own braces en mass. Here's a little army of tone bars I've made - Martin's are the two on the left, mine are on the right :
I'm using Sitka spruce for my braces. What I've noticed is that the grain in my braces are considerably tighter than what Martin uses. Here's a good example of the difference - Martin's is on the top :
So what I'm now wondering is whether it's preferable to have tight grain or wider grain in your braces and what can I expect in sound quality from using a tighter grain Sitka spruce? Things to make you go - hmmmmmm...... Lol
Thanks in advance for any input folks!
Rob
I should probably be smart about this and try to keep track of the stiffness of the bracing I use in my tops as I go along and see if there is any correlation with tone. But with the soundboard being a variable as well, I'm not sure I'll be able to make any correlation at all.