Archtop #2

[Dominic]

Hey Craig, both are maple B&S and sitka tops from AlaskaTonewoods. I'll also make a maple bolt-on neck and ebony FB and tailpiece. And maple one piece bridge. So as close as they can be. It should be an interesting test although having only made one it will be difficult to decompose changes in design from changes in my skills.
Hope its nice out your way today and everyone is well.
Cheers
Dom

[Dominic]

I was just reading more of McCarthy's web site and he make to following observation about his integral brace and brace stiffness.

The braces are parallel to the grain in the area in front of and behind the bridge making the top very stiff in this area. Very similar to glued on parallel braces but much stiffer than x brace. In part because the braces here are actually parallel to the centre line in this zone which is right where you want extra stiffness and because the integral brace is, well, integral. But as we move to the periphery and the braces curve out like an X brace there is more cross grain in the brace and the soundboard is looser in this area. McCarthy claims this is very good for the sound.

Interesting
Dom

[Nick]

Thanks for posting the link Dom, I will find some time to read it. As with any 'innovation' of course, the practitioner of it will come up with many justifiable reasons for using it & zero to nil against using it but my mind remains, as always, open. I would be most interested in your findings if you did decide to try this style of bracing.

[Clancy]

Four straight days of rain here in the "Green" heart of the country.
Guitar widow leaves for adelaide for surgery tomorrow.
Would rather be comfortable amongst the shavings

[Lillian]

I hope that surgery goes smoothly and that recovery is swift and painless.

[Clancy]

Thanks Lillian. Here's a word I never thought I'd see in a luthier's forum. Hysterectomy.
Sorry to ruin your thread Dom. (Mods can delete my posts if they want).

[J.F. Custom]

...it may well be the next "new" thing...

I have an old German Violin from 1924 built in the same manner, that is, with an "integral" tone bar carved from the soundboard. I'm led to believe this was a reasonably common method of construction in the cheap to medium range of instruments at the time. Certainly seen on many an older violin and broader family including violas, cellos and basses - perhaps Matthew has more experience with this technique. Not too sure of the opinions of this method within that fraternity though. In any case, I don't see it as "new" unless it is specifically relating to Archtop guitars of which I don't have the experience to comment.

...I do like his 'f' hole shape though, very swishy.

I'll call it "squiggley" personally.

Jeremy.

[Dominic]

No worries at all Craig.

I suppose the concept here is more about the curved braces that according to McCarthy give the best of both type of braces and do away with the negatives of each. Building it integral was a solution to how to make, fit and attach curved braces and not an end in itself although he does claim additional benefits I mentioned earlier.

Of course, people who are trying to sell guitars aren't going to debate the merits of their building system on their own site so it will be biased. This is the place for those kind of debates.

So the criteria for saying this (or in fact any) system has advantages over existing techniques, in this case glued on X or parallel braces would be

1. Ease of construction including tuning
2. Sound quality
3. Stability in the long term

Is this a reasonable way to access an alternative approach? Whether design or construction or both.

I'll let you know what i think on the first two counts

Dom