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Hi All,

I usually don't have problems "visualizing" things, but this one is kicking my ***. What top braces do you radius? Does each brace get radiused from the center of the individual brace? My first steel string, I radiused the aft parts of the X bracing and the 2 base bars only. I didn't end up with the same looking top as my Martin. 40 deg by the way. Thanks for the help.

Dave

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God, Family, Carreer

I radius the X and all lower bout braces .
The brace above the s.hole I leave flat to make gluing the f.b. easier.

Mike

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Mike Collins

I radius all of them, at least for now.

I do it like Mike, and lots of other people.

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

There are different ways.

First off, they are "treble bars" or "tone bars". Bass bars are in violins. Just to get some terminology out of the way.

Some do a spherical top, so all the braces are arched the same, commonly on a 25' radius. Some folks put sandpaper in their radiused building board (dish) and sand the arch in the braces before they are glued down.

Radii will vary from builder to builder. Some will radius above the bridge, and flat below the bridge, my current practice, I'll go back and forth, depending on the type of guitar. Some do a dead flat top.

There isn't one "right" or "best" way, so you get to try different ways on your next guitar to see which way you like.

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This is one of the topics that is best answered by your building style. I do not radius all the top braces. I allow the upper braces to stay flat for the fretboard extension. The lower tone bars I scallop and let them take the radius in the disk. The main X is radiused.
This is similar to martin. There is more than one way to do this and it isn't that big a deal.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Great!

Dave, your on with the terminology, thanks for the heads-up. I guess I'll continue on the way I was. Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Dave

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God, Family, Carreer

None of them

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

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I have been varying the x brace anywhere from 10 to flat depending on what I am after but the UTB is usually almost flat (I will give it a super slight freehand radius and clamp flat) and the lower tone bars are a step flatter than the X. My favorite guitars have had an x radius between 17-20 and the lower bars at 25-28.

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Yep.. all of them, 28 ft.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

X-braces and lower face braces. Fingers and Transverse are left flat.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com