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Hi Gang
I am going to make a half sized steel string guitar and I was wondering if anyone knew of resources for designing the bracing pattern of a little guy like this or should I just go with standard x bracing and downsize it a bit. The instrument will be solid koa all around. Any thoughts appreciated.
Bob

Seems to me you could go with a pretty major reduction in bracing and top thickness. You'll be dealing with much less string tension.

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Waddy

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Even if you bring it up to full tension, such as a terz guitar, the bracing probably should be reduced. I cannot remember (if I ever really knew) the relationship between length of a beam (brace, top wood, etc.) and deflection of a beam supported at both ends, but the deflection under the same load reduces quite dramatically as the length of the beam is shortened. That is, the system becomes much stiffer if you reduce the length without reducing the cross section, and it is not linear.

Bob,
I would think you could reduce the number of braces as well.
With a thinner x brace, you could have one tone bar and just one finger brace per side, for example. (maybe no tone bar?)
Also, don't over brace the back. (on the lighter side)

I hope to see what you come up with!

Wade

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

I'm building a size 5 terz right now. Using 1/4" wide x 1/2" tall braces. One tone bar and one finger brace each side. Lower arms of the X are thinned down to nothing before the linings. Parabolic shaped. Western Red Cedar top at .110 at the bridge and then perimeter thinned in the lower bout. Not finished building yet, but the top has a very nice ring to it.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
Facebook
Cairns, Australia

Well, crud, we can fix that! Come on, ask some questions. We can get it sounding real thuddy.

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars