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On Michael`s plans ,the bracing is a little heftier than I usually use.I`ve been using 1/4 wide X 1/2 tall for X braces and tone bars.Of course this is on OMish and OOOish style guitars.Has anyone else used lighter bracing on his plans? I really love these plans,especially the way the profile of the braces are scaled out.This is great insight and very helpful.I`m thinking ,maybe exponentially just shrinking the height,basically keeping the shape as is per the plans.Maybe Michael can jump in here and help.
Thanks James

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

Skin my friend on the guitar that I made for Anthony Z I used just a hair over 1/4" wide X-braces, 1/2" X-brace height uncapped with a 1/32" cap installed later. I also tried to take the triangular profile as close to the X-intersection as I could and that made a noticeable improvement in the ring when I tapped right on the intersection. Excess mass sucks...

The tone bars are no taller then 5/16" and the finger braces are no taller then 1/4". The UTB brace is 5/8" wide and 11/16" high in the middle.

All braces are triangular profiled, parabolic (generally speaking) and made of fairly stiff Adi. The top is Shane's beautiful squirrel claw Lutz and final thickness was around .109 at the sound hole and .095 around the edges of the lower bought.

The guitar sounded pretty open right off the bench and people seemed to like it. I braced the back with ladder bracing, parabolic as well, 1/4" wide. The back, Honduran mahogany, is .090 thick. Total weight strung up was under 4 pounds. The neck had a maple center laminate that added some weight that could have been eliminated with a three piece mahogany neck.

I hope this helps my friend.

Yes you can brace lighter. but I can tell you that 5/16 X brace is not over bracing if scalloped as shown. That said I have for the past year moved to 1/4 x 11/16 tall X brace and parabolic profile.

Funny thing is when I drew that set of plans it was considered light bracing in reference to say Martin bracing

I'm on my 3rd OLF-SJ now and all are 1/4" wide Adi bracing. With the first 2 (Euro & Lutz) that were scallopped, I had similar dimensions to that which Todd describes but with variations applied during voicing. The 3rd, currently in progress, will be a very stiff Adi top but I plan to use parabolic profiling closer to that which Hesh has described. I personally believe that 1/4" bracing is structurally sufficient for this guitar. After over 2 years, I have seen no sign of instability.

Of the 2 so far, the Euro is by far my favorite while the Lutz and I are still trying to bond. I would expect the Adi to be somewhat different all together.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

thanks for the input Michael.i respect your opinions highly.I was thinking the same thing about the scalloping.
Thanks James

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee