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Bob Steidl mentions that critical to placement of the braces is the measurement from the fourteenth or twelfth fret to the intersection of the x-Brace.

Here is a picture of my bracing scheme, based entirely on a pre-adjustable truss rod era Martin Dred. It is scalloped both on the lower main x and the two tone bars.



This top is cedar and is my OSJ pattern. The measurement from the 14th fret/ body intersection to the center of the x-brace join is 9 15/16ths inches. That is measuring to the middle not edge of the x-join.Dickey38357.4812037037

Can you explain the thinking on the 2 transverse braces? Are you searching for more stiffness than what the Martin-esque patch provides? I have been curious about your approach, but never seem to mention it.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

John G. has encouraged me to free up the area above the soundhole. I had been using an upper triangular bracing pattern in the upper bout which is extremely rigid and provides additional support for the neck and string pull. I am building a batch now with only one brace above the sound hole (as opposed to Bruce's 2) and no tongue depressor brace. It will be another month before I can A/B the two designs but I am looking forward to the results.

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

Brock, it's on the plan. The kit came with one flat and one tall, so that's how I dit the HD-28, but later, I forgot the flat one, because I was looking only at the plan, really.

So I figure that Martin had it down with this setup, why change?   

Tim, I admired your A-Frame bracing scheme the first time I saw it. Martin uses it too, makes sense too, might even avoid the dreaded neck reset. I'm considering ways to make the neck architecture stronger in this regard.

Now, back to the subject of forward-shifted x-Brace, what is standard, what is forward shift? any measurements or other pictures guys? Thanks.

On my guitars I have left out the tongue depressor brace and have modelled my bracing between Martin and Collings( theirs have quite a bit less mass then do prewar Martins). I am getting great sound and lots of volume.
I am building dreadnought style guitars at the moment.
My X-bracing is within an inch of the sound hole (forward shifted braces). My DM Martin had the A-frame bracing in it and it certainly sounded good. I might try that for one of my guitars I am building this year.

By the way, Collings leaves out the tongue depressor brace on their Winfield model dreadnought.

[QUOTE=Dickey] Bob Steidl mentions that critical to placement of the braces is the measurement from the fourteenth or twelfth fret to the intersection of the x-Brace.

Here is a picture of my bracing scheme, based entirely on a pre-adjustable truss rod era Martin Dred. It is scalloped both on the lower main x and the two tone bars.



This top is cedar and is my OSJ pattern. The measurement from the 14th fret/ body intersection to the center of the x-brace join is 9 15/16ths inches. That is measuring to the middle not edge of the x-join.[/QUOTE] For what it is worth BD, on my OM's it is 9 1/32 from the 14th fret to the center of the X-brace intersection. It has been a while since I built a D so I will have to look at the plans when I get home.

How about a single scalloped x-brace? Click Here

I ran across this photo from my studies about three years ago. I had forgotten about it. Dana Bourgeois has the respect of the luthier community. This is his answer to brighter trebles in his Dreds.

I've done that a couple of times. The idea is to give a little more stiffness to the troble side to reinforce those frequencies. Not sure it really helped that much.

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