Soundboard Radius

[seeaxe]

Yes, I think we are talking about the same things - if my forum skills had been up to it, I was going to draw a sketch to explain what I meant.

Long axis of the s/b stays straight, curved in the other direction = lateral arching, higher longitudinal stiffness
Long axis is curved, straight in the other direction (although apparently no guitars do this) = longitudinal arching = higher lateral stiffness

My original post was regarding whether bending the sound board increases its stiffness, which I believe it does. If the long axis of the sound board stays straight then it is the bracing alone that increases the lateral (cross grain) stiffness, not bending the soundboard.

As Nick has said "macca"s go both ways so are probably a bit stiffer thus higher trebly tones are favoured over lower bassy ones?? But now I am out of my depth so will get back to whatever it was I was supposed to be doing !

Cheers