Official Luthiers Forum!

To those of you that repair -

Do braces that are tucked into the lining (like Martin's) come loose more, less, or as often as braces that do not (like some Gibson's)?

Ed

Short answer, no. Braces that are correctly glued in a guitar that is decently taken care of won't come loose, tucked or not. I don't tuck the lower ends of my X braces or the tone and wing bars. I do tuck the back braces and the upper arms of the X braces, as well as the ends of the UTB. Most of the loose braces I've repaired were tucked, and caused by impact. But plenty of failure from dehydration, poor gluing, etc. on tucked braces.

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It will probably be alright.

I'm of the opinion that tucked braces will be a bit more secure under impact then not tucked. That's why I like to taper my x-brace down to paper thin zero and glue the linings right over it thinking that the initial pealing of the brace end might be prevented in case of a hard bump.

I have zero evidence of any of this and have seen plenty of loose braces the majority probably of which are tucked since that tends to be the norm in my repair shop. But it seems intuitive to me so I do it.