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Hi Guys,

Where do you guys get your side braces? Do you guys get larger wood and cut them your self? or buy them from vendor?

If you cut them your self, what thickness and width do you make them?

Thanks, David

I take cutoffs of neck laminations, The flanking and center lamination removing the outer lamination and cut them to 3/32" thickness and lenght to add a decritive touch to my side braces that matches the the neck lamination.

That's what scraps are for! I use mahogany because I have a lot of it and there's always some leftovers from neck making that I use for things like this. I use flat and wide ones that match the width between two kerfs, Benedetto style if you are familiar with it. They are probably about 1.5 - 2 mm thick and are almost as high as the rim.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I've made my side braces out of cut offs from the back. The thickness is whatever the back thickness was when I cut out the profile. ( .10") The width is 1/4". This is an area where almost every builder is different.

I don't intend to put in side braces in my newer builds. I'm switching to cloth bias tape glued on with hide glue.

Do you guys put either side tape or brace? any of you use both tapes and brace?

I have used bias tape and it works great and is light but I don like the look so I use wood braces as stated above. Only a cosmetic thing for me