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supposing you were to use mahogony for back braces and you were following a plan that used spruce. How would you modify the dimensions of the braces? would you make them wider, narrower, taller, shorter?

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We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at guitars.

You can make 'em a bit thinner, but why not take, advantage of its slightly different properties, and use them in the same dimensions, and see where that leads to? I see no point in using a different material, then working it to get the same/similar end results!

Honduras mahogany is on average about 20% less stiff than Sitka spruce (although it is Harder and denser))
This does not indicate that you should reduce width or height.

Since back braces aren't strictly structural, and since all plans I've seen have way too much bracing on the backs, I stand by my suggestion that we could thin them(to reduce mass).

If you think the plan is overbraced, by all means reduce them in size.
But don't do it under the misaprehension that mahogany is stiffer than spruce.

Thanks for replies.



that would be my intuition too. I like the look of mahogony on backs more than spruse. I was just wondering if I should watch out for any pit falls if I use it.



Good tip, thanks.

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We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at guitars.

keep braced back in radius dish until ready to glue to sides.

I make it a point to never brace a plate until the rim set is ready to accept it; that way, I don't have a braced top or back sitting around, doing the potato chip deal, waiting for the rim to be ready. It's just good practice to follow the proper building sequences...

I used to use mahogany for back braces and always made them thinner because I like to build light. I use spruce now because of that but mahogany does look good inside with mahogany liners too.