Bracing question

[Donald A. Fortune]

I make flat top guitars ( inbetween making mistakes) and have always used 1/4 sawn spruce for

bracing.

I have come by a good size piece of hondouris (spell check) mahogny ( 2"X 10" X 5 feet long)

and I have been slowly cuting it up to make kerfing out of it, However, I would like to know if any of

you have used this kind of material for bracing, and if so tell me how it worked out.

Peace, Doanald  

[Frank Ford]

It's often used for back bracing on classical guitars, but because of the strenght-to-weight ratio, I suspect it would be a poor choice for tops.

[Donald A. Fortune]

Hi Frank - I was kind of thinking the same thing- doesn't have enough give to use it for a top.. thanx for the reply.
Peace, Donald

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

Aren't the mahogany topped Martin's 15 series braced with mahogany?

[Doug T]

I was just sawing some "Red Mahogany" (as the local supplier calls it) that looks a lot like sapele, for just the same reason. The commercial kerfed lining I get almost disappears when installing binding, so was going to do a little taller and a touch wider. This was pretty nice stuff and thought it would be great for tops and began bending a scrap that didn't match dimensions of the kerfing but darn close to that for my bracing. So... I noticed a lot of noise at just a little bend. And, it failed pretty suddenly, I think it would (at least this mahogany if it is actually a mahogany) would not only be a little too heavy and stiff, but likely to have less resistence to impact.

[Frank Ford]

As far as I know all Martins have always had spruce braces, including the current 15 series. Now, there might be something else inside the X-series that are made with countertop phenolic laminate tops, so I'm not counting them.

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

Thank you Franck. On the last to X-series I worked on, bracing was reduce to strict minimum, and it was spruce too, but with a huge phenolic bridge plate.