Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm trying to gather some brace stock. As long as it is a light softwood, does it matter (sound-wise) what species is used as brace material? Do the damping properties of the brace affect sound the same way they do in a top? Thanks!

Sondre

Yes especially for tops. As a good rule Spruce has the best weight to strength ratio. IE you get more strength for less mass. Mass and strength both affect tone. Each species of Spruce will have slightly different w/s ratio.

Mahogany is often used for back bracing and Western Red Cedar is some times used for both top and back bracing. But when you boil it down to the fine nuts and bolts. Its dang hard to beat Spruce.

And related to your previous question you want your bracing to be QS with the anual ring lines running length wise and as true quarted as possible.

Yes it matters. As far as bracing material goes, your not looking so much for softwood as for wood that has the best stiffness to weight ratio (i.e.: as light as possible while being as stiff as possible). This is why you will find pretty much the same species for braces as you would for soundboards since we are looking for the same stiffness to weight ratio there too (essentially spruce and cedar).

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

You beat me to it Michael!

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

Thanks for the replies! Nice timing

Regarding the stiffness/weight ratio... If the brace needed to be stiff in all directions, I could see why that ratio would be important. However, the way I understand it, it only has to be stiff in one direction in order to counteract the torque from the bridge. So if I made a redwood or cedar brace a little taller, my intuition tells me that it would be stiffer (in the direction that matters) than a spruce brace of the same weight.

Anyway, what I think I am most curious about, is how the damping properties of the brace affects the vibrating top. Do anyone have any observations or speculations about that?

I think this stuff is really interesting, but I don't have much experience, so I really appreciate your input! =)

Thanks!
Sondre

If you know any of these builders who use WRC bracing maybe send them my way? I've yet to meet one but I cut the stuff anyways to save it from the kindling/scrap pile

Spruce is the way to go.

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CVT Inc.
A tour of our shop (Somewhat outdated)
My Personal eBay profile. BCWoodBug

If you know any of these builders who use WRC bracing maybe send them my way?

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Don't knock it 'til you try it; it has its place.