Official Luthiers Forum!

stiffer in the middle and looser at the rim......Hummmmm

Thanks for the pics, Walter & Bruce. The 12 fret bridge plate looks massive. Is it spruce?

Hi Bruce,
I believe it's maple..not sure.
Have you ever played their guitars lately?
Walter

One of the Big Shots at Larrivee agreed to take a few photos of their bracing patterns. "Parabolic".
It was very nice of him to take the time to send them to me. I asked Bruce Dickey to post them to the Forum so we could all take a peek.
Thanks BruceD.
Oh!! Notice the large bridge plate!!
Walter

Walter,
I've never played a Larrivee, but I've heard good reports about their sound. What do you think about them, especially compared to Martin? (that's the standard around here)

I've never been able to understand the engineering behind scalloped bracing (I realize that scalloping makes them weaker, lighter, and more responsive, but I don't get the importance of that big lump on the end close to the side), and thought that I'd try parabolic on my next. I'm thinking that maybe I'll try the symetrical bracing also.
BruceH

Santa Cruz builds 'em either way. Go figure. I'm a scalloper. But I do plan on dropping the next L-oo to 1/4 " bracing and a single tonebar and single fingerbraces.

Personally I think those things look over braced, I'd love to see one close up and tinker with it, check it's tap tone, flex the top and see how heavy it is...

I scallop my braces the in the same fashion, with a little foot at the edge to tuck into the kerfing, in my opinion it lets the top move more freely..

Very interesting...

-Paul-

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-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

I seem to recall Larrivee saying he builds with thin tops and heavier bracing (tarnscript of a GAL top in the BRB #3), so that might explain the 'heavy' looking bracing.

My two so far have been very lightly scalloped, but I'm thinking I'll give parabolic symmetrical bracing a try on my next instrument.