I use little "A" braces, I guess. But the biggest thing I do, and you all can do, to prevent the cracks is so simple, just about everyone misses it:
Glue the fretboard extension on, lightly. Use only a small bead of glue around the edges, and use a glue that will creep. I'll use regular Elmer's white glue, or a weak, 5 minute epoxy. With it glued lightly, if the fretboard shrinks, it will pop the glue joint, not crack the top. You have a simple repair to do that is 100% invisible and 100% structurally solid, instead of repairing a cracked top in a stressed area.
Many A-B tests have been done, by the many folks who've had theirs' pulled. There's no use in doing back-to-back, blind tests like Mike is talking of; too many variables, such as strings, player's style, etc... Best measure of tonal changes is simply large numbers and long periods of time. When a couple/few dozen pop-removed D-18's still sound a little brighter and more open than other, stock D-18's do years later, something happened. When we make a boomy, bottom heavy D-35 sing with the brightness of a good D-18, we have changed the tone immensely.
The thing most folks miss is that it is part of a package. On its own, removing it won't help much, but once you snug up the right tuners by properly stepping them(we're talking vintage style tuners; not the enclosed types), a well-fitted bone or ivory nut, then removing the pop brace will let all you've gained in the neck come through.
Same thing for every other detail that gets missed. Some folks swear that bridge pins, slotted or not, how they fit, etc..., makes no difference. Well yeah, on a Tak or a 99 dollar Harmony. But get everything else lined up right, on a responsive guitar, and all these little details add up.
A race engine isn't simply larger than your passenger car's engine. Take Nascar: 355 CI size limit. Stock block. Factory heads. Yet they turn 9500 rpm for 500-600 miels, churning out over 800HP. Big carb? Nope, it's limited to 720 cfm, smaller that the old Quadrajets on all GM cars. Special fuel? Nope, pump gas.
Nope, they do it by getting every-single-minute-little-stupidly-small-detail just right. Any one detail may seem so impossibly small to make any difference, and on its own, it likely is. But add them all up.....
Same for our instruments. Factories have large warranty headaches, and they're only concern is the bottom line. The pop brace is the result of that, and while it doesn't do much, it has remained. We are hand builders. We are supposed bto be "luthiers". We can do better, right?
Details, it's all in the details....
Mario38636.7957291667
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