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Sorry to raise this topic yet again, but I'm coming from a different angle. Personnally I don't like the look of side braces, I like my sides naked and as it's for me I'm tempted to leave them off again. Half of my guitars have none and have survived perfectly well. I could use bias tape and hide glue, then shellac to seal , but I think they look even worse than spruce or mahogany, though they do the job.

What I'm planning is to do on an English walnut OM is to used side off cuts of the walnut, vertical grain orientation of course, so that at least the colour is a perfect match.

So, question, have any of you used the same wood as the back and sides for the side braces? Opinions please.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Hesh, this OM is planned to be my dedicated DADGad guitar for playing in club's and festivals so I though I'd give it that little bit of insurance of side braces. If it was a home or studio guitar I'd just leave them off. Only my club performance guitars get braces.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Hi Colin

I've done a few with the side braces the same wood, Walnut is a good candidate nice and light, and flexible.

Should be perfect.

Russell, my man, I was going to e-mail you with the question as I know you have a lot of experience with this particular wood, especially as it's a set of your sides I'm using . Thanks for the answer it's what I thought.

Did you get the MP3 files OK?

ColinColin S38998.3399537037

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Just Listening too them now, will email you shortly.

Colin, just as information, i bought this box of mixed veneers that are very thin that would be interesting to use as side braces, they got eveything in that box from eucalyptus to Wenge and spruce, birch, maple and Jatoba, a lifetime supply of veneers in it.

I think i'll give it a try on my next build, check it out

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=32716&cat=1,25 0,43217

Serge

I like the look of the side braces that Santa Cruz uses. About 1/4" wide by about 3/16 high pyrimid shaped in cross section, perfectly alligned with the back braces.

Al

here is some in rosewood...

Very pretty RC. I was gonna do mine in Mahogany, but I have some EIR scraps laying around somewhere...

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Colin I don't have to tell you how many times I have seen guitars brought to me that the owner has banged into a chair or other things like that, where the side took a sudden sharp impact, leaving an along the grain crack. The ones with side braces, the crack was only from side brace to side brace. Others without side braces split till the impact energy is fully dissipated. I know this is not new info to you, but having seen may bar performers guitars come to me for this very repair I would not build without them. If you want a near naked internal side look, use the same wood as the side. Of cource the grain needs to turned 90 degrees to grain on the side. They do not have to be very thich at all to do their job well. In fact they can be very thin and still stop a crack as long as the impact was not directly on the brace its self. The most common area for this damage to happen at is the lower bout. So you could get away side braces in the lower bout only and cover 90% of all likly injuries and leave the upper bout and waist free of side braces.MichaelP38999.5583333333

I do wish I had put them in one of my recent box's as while I was finishing it, it fell off the handle I had installed in the dovetail neck pocket and landed hard enough to split one of the sides from neck block to tail block . I also had a sponge inside pushing the soundhole cover tight and that caused the thing to more or less explode . Live and learn!!!! I will now use nylon or linen glue saturated tape. If done neatly (I mask the area before installing) it looks pretty good actually.John How38999.5603356482

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

Michael, thanks, I've already done just as you suggest and used some of the side wood turned 90deg as I said in my original post that I might do. I really like the look. As I said I've built more than 20 guitars now more than half without side reinforcment at all and they have all survived fine. But, I do use side braces on my guitars that I take to clubs and festivals as insurance for just the odd accident.

They are not tucked as they were a bit of an afterthought This is how they turned out.



Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.