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Old 03-23-2013, 11:04 PM
charles Tauber charles Tauber is offline
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I'm an engineer as well. A fluid mechanics teacher I once had liked to say, "An art is a science with too many variables." Guitar design is an art, in this sense. It is difficult to control and/or isolate each of the variables involved and definitively say do this and you'll obtain that exact result: there are too many inter-related variables.

The object of top bracing is to achieve a compromise between response and structure. The response would have the top and its bracing low in mass and low in stiffness. The structure requires stiffness.

The bracing, in conjunction with "sound hole" placement and top thickness (and to a lesser extent many other variables) is aimed at providing this compromise. There are many ways that people have tried to best achieve this compromise. Sometimes it is empirically determined - trial and error - other times theoretically based. However, what is the "best" response is subjective: ask different people, you'll get different answers on what sounds best. Hence, there are many different variations on how to best achieve the common goal.

Regarding the common X brace, practice suggests that one can alter the response of the guitar by changing the angle of the arms of the X brace. The placement and angle of the "tone bars" can also be changed to add greater or less stiffness along the length of the top or across the width of the top. What size to make the braces, how many braces to have, the placement and angles of the braces all depend upon the maker's "vision" of how they function and what he or she believes is needed to optimize the compromise between response and structure. In short, there is no single answer and the bracing can't be considered in isolation from the other variables that enter into response and structure.

Here are just a few examples of other "visions" of how to best achieve that compromise:










Last edited by charles Tauber; 03-23-2013 at 11:10 PM.
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