Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm currently working on three separate tops for three steel string guitars. All will have six strings, no twelve stringers. One is Bearclaw Sitka, the second is Engelmann, and the third is Western Redcedar. I have been contemplating the pros and cons of the different woods that I can use for bracing. I have access to nice billets of Sitka, Engelmann and Redcedar. All are very good quality.
The bracing patterns are similar to a Martin OM, nothing unusual.
Part of me just wants to use Sitka for all of them, being stiff and something I'm used to. The other part of me wants to match the bracewood to the topwood, as the properties of the wood as far as expansion/density would all correlate. I'm concerned about the reduction in relative stiffness with the latter two woods. I could of course compensate by altering the dimensions of the braces to arrive at the same overall stiffness.
In the past I have used Sitka braces for a Sitka and a Redwood top with good effect, so I'm comfortable with that.
I was curious to hear other people's opinions and experiences.

I'm sure there's a wide variety of opinions out there but my 2 cents is that, on steel strings, I'm most concerned with stiffness/weight ratio and split resistence. That leads me to sitka or dense engelmann.

I think there is definitly some value in working with what you're already familiar with too.

As for matching properties of expansion, since all the braces are going across the grain, you are creating differential expansion/contraction no matter what wood you use. So unless I misunderstand the question, I see no reason to match woods based on that.

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

Don't use WRC for braces. Splits too easily. I prefer Sitka to Engelmann. In general it is stiffer and stronger.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I use Sitka for the X and any load bearing brace.
I started to use redcedar for the so called finger braces that extend from the x towards the sides(they do bear a load -but not as much) a few years ago and the guitars have a much quicker response and every player lovers the warm tone.,& the volume (loudness) of the guitar has really improved-probably because of the lite wood use in the right places!
So i will continue doing this .
.
Mike

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Mike Collins

I agree with Mike. Pick the bracewood for the job you expect it to do.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

Thanks for the input, guys!