Official Luthiers Forum!

I was wondering if some of you could share what you do with the
transverse brace above the soundhole.Do you leave it flat and glue it or
do you radius the brace. It seems to me that it should be flat to help with
gluing the firetboard to a flat surface. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks, Steve H.

On the one I'm doing now it is flat just for the reason you stated. What are you building currently?

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Wisdom is justified by her children

Mine is also flat and is glued to the fretboard extension block.

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

I had been using a flat brace but recently on some of my guitars, I started using a much flatter top radius and so on those guitars I left to sides fully contoured to that radius as well as the transverse brace. I will just flatten the top under the extension before fitting the neck. It will be pretty much flat anyway as my top radius is about 40ft or so.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

I'm currently working on aguitar patterned after a Taylor 414 grand
auditorium body style.
Steve

Here is an example of it flat but tied into the extension block

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

I did do on my most recent instrument yes, and then added a tapered fingerboard extension to get everything pointing in the right direction.

A question for you guys: if you were to lay a straight edge along the neck (before the fretbaord's on) over the top so it crosses the position of the bridge, what would the gap under the straight edge be at the bridge position?

I shoot for 1.5mm, and find this measurement pretty critical.

I leave about the middle 4" flat and radius the rest.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

mine is flat in the middle where the fretboard extension is glued and radiused on the ends.

                           Paul

I dome everything, then fletten the part where the fingerboard is glued on. There is so little sanding requierd that I don't see the point in leaving the transverse brace flat.

Azimmer, the extension block or neck block on your guitar seems to be glued on asymetrically, was it on purpose or a mistake? If on purpose, what was the purpose?

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Jammy: I'm hardly an expert, but I shoot for (with the fingerboard on, but unfretted) the straightedge to just hover over the top of the bridge.

That sounds about the same as me mate - bridge and fretboard thickness are roughly the same.

i have radused the brace and sanded a flat for the fretboard extension as well as radiusing the brace with a flat under the fb area. both give the same sort of result but i think that in principle i prefer to sand the flat onto the top so as to not introduce stresses which could lead to other problems. consider that we sand a radius into the top surface of the neck block. it seems to me then that forcing the top to bend over the block then return to flat very close by on the brace introduces a stress which could lead to fb edge cracks down the line. in sanding the top flat under the fb extension only very little wood is removed in a fairly heavily braced area.