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No, the sitka is thicker. It was a grade B $15.00 LMI deal for a class.

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Here is what a Parlor Guitar is for!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEa8PkjO6_I

Now that is odd, Sitka is usually some of the most consistently stiff stock around. If it is a thicker board than the Carp it must have been some really weak Sitka(odd). Although there seems to be some pretty wide ranges between a couple species(englemann generally comes to mind). Sitka generally holds its own with the stiffest woods we call usable(often exceeding stiffness from piece to piece, species to species). It may not be as "boutique" or have a lot of fancy advertising behind it, but there is a good reason why it is so widely used and it is a top notch tonewood.

Rich

And how is it that you know this top is underbraced? I thought that is what you wanted to know.

I don't get what you are doing with feeler gauges. A gap of .0032" under a brace is way too much. How are you holding the brace to the top when you measure (it will flex a lot under pressure)?

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

IMHO if you are investing time and money in a "voicing" class, you should use a good top. There's plenty of cheap and stiff sitka out there.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

I can try to post a picture of the top when I flex it.

I got the impression this top might be underbraces from others comments.

I dont go directly from dish to top (25 radius) I then sand to 200 on the top itself.

At 80 grit dish only, you can slide a feeler gauge with no issue, under the brace when gobars are on it- I found this anyway.

So I go back and using 200 grit in a long line, sand the braces to the top in the dish. The feeler gauges get really small, maybe .0022 I dont have the one I use out right now. a hard pressed feeler gauge will slip under easily if you only use a dish with 80 grit though.

_________________
Here is what a Parlor Guitar is for!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEa8PkjO6_I

WTF????????????

Where are you getting these goofy ideas?

Plane your surfaces to a perfect fit.

80 grit? Arghhhh!

Feeler gauges? Arghhhh!

As I said, you're really, REALLY rough on the details. Don't bother with a "voicing" class until your joinery chops are up to task. And then, you'll likely find you won't need any voicing coach.

You plane your surfaces to a radius? That would take me forever with really bad results for the next 2 years.
From what I have observed, if you just use the dish (with 80 grit paper) you will be able to get under your braces with a feeler gauge set pretty easily. Using higher grade 200 sandpaper on the top and sanding to the top was how I got lower feeler gauge results. That is, placing sandpaper on the spuce top in the dish and sanding the brace to fit the dished top to 200 grit, I was thinking going for 400 grit.
I am surmising that the 80 grit is fairly TALL, AAAAA, so the feeler gauges can get in there easily. I guess you would have to try this to see it.

If you dont use feeler gauges to check the fit, how would you know if its a tight fit? It LOOKS tight with just the 80 grit sandpaper dish.
Its not a tight fit from what I have seen. Jeeez louise, I dunno...

_________________
Here is what a Parlor Guitar is for!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEa8PkjO6_I

I rough plane, then sand, then scrape my brace gluing surfaces. Planing a perfect fit is fiddlier, but easy enough. I can't get any feeler guages or even slips of newspaper between the brace and the place once it's pressed in place (ie, a few go-bars). I check with the good old lightbulb and looking trick; if there's a gap somewhere, it's visible.

Frei, I am not sure I understand what you're saying…
In any case there are simple jigs you can make to perfectly shape the underside of your braces to the desired radius. Either for a table saw, router table or sander. Peruse various builders' sites for ideas, it's pretty straightforward.
Sanding your braces in the dish (if that's what you mean) is not the best way IME as the underside won't be flat, and you have to make sure you don't rock the brace either while sanding. However it can be done. Just scribe the underside of the brace with a pencil, when all the pencil marks are gone, you're done.
Grit doesn't make any difference. Personally I use 40 or 50 grit in my dish, but that's to shape the rim, not the braces. Spruce compresses quite easily anyway, so it's not hard to get an airtight fit with minimal pressure. No need for feeler gauges…
Regarding your top for the "bracing" class… If it's too floppy and/or sound dead, you will learn nothing trying to brace it. Use a good sounding, stiff top. Again plenty around, sitka or Carpathian, or whatnot, appearance doesn't matter. Use that floppy sitka to make grafts…
But again, IMHO, the best way to go is to build another guitar. Bracing a top as an exercise/class/whatever is kind of pointless unless you build instruments with them…

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Frei, the sense I'm getting from looking over this thread is that you have gotten way ahead of yourself on the voicing issue. I'd guess that you haven't built a finished guitar yet, but you are worrying about more advanced topics. I believe the Everett class is aimed at people who already have built guitars and are not having problems with their construction methods.

No one can really tell you much about voicing in print or over the internet. Also, a voicing class is not going to do much for you if you haven't yet learned to get all the joints tight. It looks like you need to learn more about sharpening and tool use. My advice is to build a guitar, focusing not on the advacned voicing issues, but on the basics of making clean parts and tight joints. Get the braces cut to the dimensions suggested by some of the books and plans; that will be close enough for it to sound very good.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

What Howard just said(and what I've been trying to say).

As for planing a radius in a brace, takes me well under 30 seconds. Honestly. No jig, no electricity. I tried all sorts of radiusing jigs, then returned to my cheap low angle plane....

Sandpaper is your enemy.

If this is your first guitar, why not just make it a flat top? Then you can just edge your braces on a joiner, or plane and get them nice and flat. You'll have a nice tight joint and then you can worry about the other aspects of bracing. Once you have that down, then add radius to the mix...
- justin

If you haven't got Mario's plane chops it's easy to plane a radius anyway by simply sticking a shim on the bottom of the plane. I use a 1/16" thick brass shim, stuck on with a drop of CA, about 150mm back from the edge of the iron, iirc. The first few strokes 'snipe' the end of the brace, and then you start cutting further back. Reverse the brace stock once in a while and be sure to plane across the center of the brace each time. I plane four or more at a time, and check them by rolling the planed surface on a flat, just to be sure I'm not falling off on a corner. This makes a perfect radius, once you figure out where to put the shim. Sanded, machined, or even scraped surfaces don't glue nearly as well as planed ones, even if you can avoid rounding off the corners with the paper.

This is great, you learn something every day. I do plane to roughly the outline, then go with the dish. Ill have to try this. Thanks

_________________
Here is what a Parlor Guitar is for!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEa8PkjO6_I

Frei buddy no offense but I read this entire thread and I have no idea what you are saying here...........

You keep bringing up feeler gages and placing them under a brace and this is a practice that does not sound like anything that I can relate too.

Even if you don't plane you braces many folks just sand them to the proper radius in the proper radius dish and then go-bar (yeah I know Howard - "go-bar" is not a verb...... ) them to the top/back with the top/back in the dish. Are you gluing in the dishes?

The only thing I can think of where you may get gaps between the braces and the top/back is if the method that you use to thickness your tops/backs results in inconsistent results. How are you thicknessing your plates?

Frei....I don't usually get involved with posting replies because most people in here are much more experienced than me....I read all new post here everyday and have learned a great deal from them....I think you should slow down and do your homework....Read everything you can get your hands on....surf the net, its full of building tips.....I was close to a full year doing just that. The first build went fairly smooth.....Good luck .....Larry