Dreadnaught Plan Advice

[ozziebluesman]

G'day to you all,

I am building a dreadnaught for my son using the Stew Mac dready plan.

The plan uses 8mm x 16mm sizes braces for the first two at the neck block end and two 20mm x 10mm flat braces toward the butt end. Do you think they are a bit heavy? I'm using Indian Rosewood for the back and sides and sitka for the top. The other question I have is that the plan tucks the four finger and two tone braces into the Xbrace. Is this necessary for dready sized soundboards?

Thanks

Alan

[kiwigeo]

Hi Alan,

The braces at the neck block end don't sound too over sized but the braces towards the butt end (tone bars?) sound a bit meaty. The tone bars on my dreadies are usually about 8mm wide and 15mm at highest point (I scallop my braces).

The final height and width of my bracing of course depends on the stiffness of the top.

I tuck my braces on most of my instruments.....

Cheers Martin

G'day to you all,

I am building a dreadnaught for my son using the Stew Mac dready plan.

The plan uses 8mm x 16mm sizes braces for the first two at the neck block end and two 20mm x 10mm flat braces toward the butt end. Do you think they are a bit heavy? I'm using Indian Rosewood for the back and sides and sitka for the top. The other question I have is that the plan tucks the four finger and two tone braces into the Xbrace. Is this necessary for dready sized soundboards?

Thanks

Alan

[ozziebluesman]

Hi Martin,

The heafty braces are on the back. Sorry I didn't explain myself very well. I was thinking of going with 8 x 16 mm for all four back braces. The back is Indian rosewood and reasonabliy heavy even at 2.3 mm thick.

The top is stiff and I haven't thicknessed it yet because I want to do the fit a rosette first. I will follow the plans top brace pattern as this is my first dready and I have never come across tucking tone and finger braces before.

Cheers

Al

[Dominic]

Alan, I ignore those strange backs braces on my dreds. Just switch the wide short braces for tall narrow ones like the first two. You won't find many dreds with anything different these days. Not sure what the idea is behind the flat braces.
After reducing their height at the end to about 5mm I butt my tone bars and finger braces where they meet other braces. I want the structure to be strong but flexible around the bridge. And I taper all but the UTB and the upper X braces to nothing where they meet the linings.
Cheers
Dom

[ozziebluesman]

Thanks Dom.

Do you build your dready with the flat brace in front of the transverse brace?

Cheers

Alan

[kiwigeo]

Hi Martin,

The heafty braces are on the back. Sorry I didn't explain myself very well. I was thinking of going with 8 x 16 mm for all four back braces. The back is Indian rosewood and reasonabliy heavy even at 2.3 mm thick.

Al,

My last two dreadies have had a cross brace supporting the lower bout of the back.

[ozziebluesman]

Hmmm, thats interesting. Do you have a picture by any chance.

Cheers

Alan

[kiwigeo]

Sorry...I stopped taking pics of every one of my builds...was spending more time snapping pics than building.

See this thread for a pic of something similar: viewtopic.php?t=198

Hmmm, thats interesting. Do you have a picture by any chance.

Cheers

Alan

[Dominic]

Alan, sometimes I'll use the popstick in front of the UTB. But I have been making my head blocks with a foot under the FB extension so there is no room for the pop stick brace. And I don't glue down the fb extension so there is less need for a brace that stops splits around where the fb is glued down.
Good luck with it.
Dom

[vandenboom]

Just to confuse matters, I use the brace dimensions for the back that you initially provided, simply because I started all this using LMI plans + Cumpiano & that's their formula. Like a lot of things in this game, different options that both work fine. Like Dom and for same reason, I also butt finger braces & tonebars against X-braces.
Frank

[ozziebluesman]

Ok the top is braced to the Stew Mac plan with the bridge plate, finger and tone braces inlet into the Xbrace .

My question to the brains trust is do I tuck the upper transverse brace and the upper Xbrace into the linings and all the other brace ends are feathered down to buggar all to where they meet the linings?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Cheers

Alan

[ozziebluesman]

After another look at the plan it looks to me the butt ends of the xBrace are taken down to about 2mm.

Is that about right?

Cheers

Alan