Comments on this top bracing style

[Art Baldwin]

...any comments/opinions on the top bracing in this pic? This is a mid-1800's martin style unbranded size 2 1/2 guitar that we talked about in an earlier post

[Paul Hostetter]

What are you hoping to learn? How else to do it? (Pretty late for that now.)

Otherwise, it's a variation of an X. The real issues are: what does it sound like? and how did the top fare all that time?

In this era, it would only have been strung with gut strings. Tops this small barely need bracing of any kind. 

[Art Baldwin]

I'm interested in who might have made this, and when. We know that Martin and his German contemporaries introduced the X bracing, and many websites mention that Martin had basically finalized the X brace by 1850. By then, the X brace extended along the sides of the sound hole and up to the waist. This guitar appears to be some sort of hybrid, with ladder bracing on both sides of the sound hole, and x bracing for the lower bout. I'm just looking for info.

[Ned Knepp]

How sure are you that this original bracing? 

 Of course I can't see too clearly but it seems to me that there may be indication that the  bracing has been changed. There appears to be signs of a missing diagonal brace between the bridge plate and the existent brace. There also seem to be indication on the left side of the picture that there may have been a straight brace running across the top above the bridge plate. I can't see clearly but the X doesn't seem to run under the liner blocks like the cross braces do and the existing diagonal brace appears to either run under the X which may be how it was originally made but may indicate that the X was cut over it later. 

I may be imaging thing but I think the X is an old modification to a guitar that was originally ladder braced.