Guitar Bracing Explained 

Thank you! Always happy to help :)

Glad to help!

My guitar teacher told me he liked the warm tones from a cedar topped guitar I bought. It DOES have warm pleasant tones, I agree. But, I wasn’t able to choose spruce (as I wanted). My life’s battle-24/7-365- is righteously questing for guitars that grant equality to all six strings. Through various testing methods, you can find out which strings are your guitar’s favourite children. For FAR too much of my life, I’ve lived with the A string and the wound E dominating, and I am DONE with that sh**. Spruce is stiffer & brighter, and its treble- love CAN sound ugly. I admit it. But your high E and your B string are less likely to get lost. I believe (excluding all other factors for the sake of this talk) that spruce is usually more egalitarian regarding wound & unwound strings. Wound-string “squeek” is louder with spruce, but that’s not the guitar’s fault: we ALL should be practicing our playing to avoid / eliminante that. For me-personally-I’d trade or exchange cedar’s warmth for spruce’s articulate clarity.

Thanks for sharing! Adrian sends you best wishes as well! 😄

Glad to help Patrick! Good luck (& fun) with building :)

Glad to help Larry!

Good to hear Joris! We'll keep them coming ;)

You're welcome!

Thx Mike, cheers!

I suspect you mean kerfed.

Thanks!

Thanks for the compliment Mario :)

Thanks Robert :)

Damn, thanks!

That's the quest many luthiers are on! It is often said that with less material, you'll get more bass response. But there are many, many ways to do the bracing, so it will be a process of testing and experimenting.

Dankjewel Nick!

Hey Mark, great question! Wether it makes a difference is debatable, some people think it does whilst some think it doesn't. But looking at the facts, bracings aren't symmetric and on paper this will affect the sound.

@@thefellowshipofacoustics Tx, that's what I always thought, it should make a difference. I had it done a couple of times, and still have an old Yamaha FG75 waiting for it, or not, I don't know, while having shied away from a couple of '70s (cheap) D18s, because I had doubts how it would work out.

​@@MarkJVSomers the bracing will make little difference on a FG75 with it's laminate top. Saddle intonation and nut slots need to be reversed along with pickguard.

The forward shifted bracing allows for more bass projection so for rhythm playing it really adds a lot low end. But for other styles this could also be very valuable. It depends on the tone you're looking for. ;)

We mainly tried to focus on western-guitar bracings :)

Waterloo! We just received a used model from 2017 with ladder bracing! --> www.tfoa.eu/nl/waterloo-wl14-l-sunburst-2017.html?sqr=waterloo&

Hey, yes it does! X-bracing isn't the only bracing type that will fit slotted headstocks or steel strings, but in this case you're correct ;)

V-Class bracing is not just a gimmick! Taylor claims that V-Class can produce more volume and sustain with a good balance between the top's stiffness and flexibility. Which type of bracing is better is mostly a matter of personal preference. Our advice: try out both and discover what fits you best! 😊

Probably "standard" bracing. The tone of a J50 comes from the shape, the top thickness and the scale.

Hmmm I don't think so. Bulge almost always stems from humidity problems, and wood that thin just isn't capable of handling that! No matter the bracing type.

The most over rated guitars! The cheapest Martin with fake wood beats any taylor guitars

Thank you so much and we're always glad to help! Hope our new content keeps you satisfied :)

I personally don't like the taylor v class bracing.

Nah

Great question. To be honest, I'm not sure. Strength whilst remaining a light build are key for acoustics, sounds like it could be too weak for steel strings.

Yeah you can use lattice bracing on steel strings. I know Batson guitars use them on at least some models.

It’s brand new. Relic’d .

Our luthiers could write a complete book about this haha! In a nutshell: with a 12 fret neck, the bridge will move further away from the sound hole. Often the bracing also moves the same amount so it comes more in the center of the lower bout (but doesn't have to!). It depends on the body shape, dimensions of the body, and type of sound you're aiming for.

Hey Russel, Maarten here over at TFOA. Using different tonewoods than Spruce is nothing out of the ordinary. Spruce is definitely the most common, but Mahogany and Cedar are used as well. Although there are certain tonewoods that don't make fantastic braces ;)

@@thefellowshipofacoustics Thanks Maarten.

Original titebond works great. Unless the guitar was originally built with hot hide glue, then use that, not bottled hide glue.

Most flat-topped guitars are the same in terms of durability. A ladder-braced guitar would be the 'weakest' but nothing to worry about, also a classical fan-braced guitar could be considered 'weak'. But guitars are made to last :)

@@thefellowshipofacoustics nice, thank you!

99% sure it's scalloped! :)

@@thefellowshipofacoustics Thank you!

That's just something for this demo piece!

Hey! It varies a lot per guitar and guitar maker. Also it depends on what spruce you want to use :)

Hahaha, we're not ready to give up on this couch yet :p

These soundboards are simply meant to show what's underneath the top, so which braces and in what pattern. And the bridge plate is also there! 😉

@@thefellowshipofacoustics Lacing Pin Holes in the middle of the soundboard are a design flaw used to; denigrate the guitar sound over time, sell new guitars, and make work for Luthiers.

It's just Hyde now 🤣

Interesting question! Maybe it was a 'happy accident'... :p