Official Luthiers Forum!

I will state flat out that I am not crazy about your choice to cut the "parallel" braces to make room for your Charlie Christian pickup. Yes, I see the additional braces you glued in. I think you'd have had a stronger top by gluing in more widely spaced, short, parallel braces than your improvised "X" braces. I have no idea whether your player will hold up in actual use or not. I hope that you will let us know either way. I will freely admit that you have it looking real good on the outside. I am not so sure about the inside. I further understand that you don't really care about my opinion. I'm just sayin'.

Thanks for reading, your comments are appreciated.

In playing position the force axis from the pickup is parallel to the top. Acceleration forces perpendicular to the top, acting through the pickup mass during rough handeling, stroage, transport or misshap, are counteracted by the x-bracing as in the original ES-150. The X-braces could extend to the lower bout to pass through the non-crossing kerfed braces, that would have weakened them. So, rather than removing the non-crossing kerfed braces, and risk damaging the top, they are left in place. Also, for example above the pickup, an ES-150 has the fingerboard glued to the top. In this case I left the brace remnants up there for support.

Interesting that tone-tapping the top reveals a strong bass resonance at the center. I suspect due to the mass of the pickup. This is responsible for the full bass tones in the recorded sample. A real sonic winner in this builder's opinion.
https://youtu.be/f4tcIQXNC2E

Other solutions to pickup fitting that have been entertained.

Jeeze, I love it when you talk engineering. Makes me feel at home.

Oh ok I see. I've never installed a pickup like that before thats interesting. I have an L-48 in the shop right now and looking inside it I noticed the same thing that I see on the bracing of your L-50. IT almost looks like they kerfed the bracing I guess to fit the arch? Strange.

Some really nice work here, well done!

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Ann Arbor Guitars

VIdeo of the guitar in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXO3o_Xd37c

They also kerfed the bracing on some older ES-175s. Probably others also.
http://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/guitar-a ... 175-a.html

I'm really enjoying this guitar. This is a recent image: