Official Luthiers Forum!

I've been busy working away at making my own bracing when a question occurred to me. I've been using bracing from Martin as my template to make a routing jig to make my own braces en mass. Here's a little army of tone bars I've made - Martin's are the two on the left, mine are on the right :


I'm using Sitka spruce for my braces. What I've noticed is that the grain in my braces are considerably tighter than what Martin uses. Here's a good example of the difference - Martin's is on the top :


So what I'm now wondering is whether it's preferable to have tight grain or wider grain in your braces and what can I expect in sound quality from using a tighter grain Sitka spruce? Things to make you go - hmmmmmm...... Lol

Thanks in advance for any input folks!
Rob

_________________
Rob Flindall
Flindall Guitars
http://www.flindallguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/FlindallGuitars

Stiffness and weight are the things you want to be looking at, neither of which consistently correlates with grain spacing in my (relatively limited) experience (I've handled hundreds of tops, but not built that much).

Regardless of tight or wide grain, stiffness is the consideration you are looking for.

You could find tight grain wood that is very stiff. It could also be wimpy.
Same goes for wide grain.

Since you are at the mercy of the wood on hand, use it. It is probably fine.



Dave

Thanks for the input Mattia and Dave!

I think your last sentence is probably spot on Dave. Seeing as I don't have a forest's worth of brace wood in my garage like Martin does, I'll just use what I have. I should probably be smart about this and try to keep track of the stiffness of the bracing I use in my tops as I go along and see if there is any correlation with tone. But with the soundboard being a variable as well, I'm not sure I'll be able to make any correlation at all.

That or I can just enjoy the build and not sweat the small stuff - lol.

Rob

_________________
Rob Flindall
Flindall Guitars
http://www.flindallguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/FlindallGuitars

If there was anything to spend your excretions on it would be the top and top bracing. I would consider that to be some of the big stuff on a build.
L.

_________________
Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.