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As part of my repair learning process, I bought a mid 70's made in Japan classical guitar that had a lot of issues (top separating from the sides, all the braces loose, etc, etc). I have pulled the neck and removed the top in preparation for all the brace work.
The top is laminated and ladder braced.
I am thinking I would like to replace the lower bout ladder brace with fan braces.
Does anyone have a suggestion on how to determine the correct size of the braces for such a top?
I could follow the standard size in Cumpliano but that seems too heavy for a laminated top.
Dave

Glue them on oversize and carve them down until it makes a nice sound when you tap it. As far as I can put it into words, it should go 'boom' rather than 'bong' - ie, it should sustain for a while. It should sound fairly similar all around the lower bout and 'tighter' above the soundhole where it needs to be braced stiffer.

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"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

Being a learning process I'd replace the
top with a solid wood one with whatever bracing you want to
use.

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Mike Collins

Mike
I considered it but it is just too much of a leap at this point.
I am not set up yet for making tops. I don't have a shooting board, my planes aren't sharpened and setup yet, I don't have a thickness gauge set up and I don't have any binding capability. I fully hope to be ready for this some day but just not yet. With all the things I am working on for repair stuff, builidng tops is further down the list. I am going to use HHG to put this top back on though so as a future practice for top building it will still be available.
Thanks for the suggestion
Dave

To be honest Dave, if any of us has any pertinent experience in bracing cheap plywood japanese classical guitar, they probably won't say it out loud...

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

oops. Sorry if I offended anyone.
I think I will just glue the loose brace back down and move on and leave the bracing until I have something worth the time to do it and I am ready for it.


"Newb" Dave

Don't get me wrong Dave. I'm sure no one has been offended at all. I was just trying to make a joke. I guess I'm better at making guitars than making jokes (I hope...).

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

I bet you could find a local luthier to join and thickness a student grade top for cheap (OLFers?). With any lam trimmer, you could make your own circle cutter for a rosette and use a flush cut bit with a smaller bearing to give you a 1/16 inch binding channel.

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Pat