About Soundboard Bracing
Sometimes
people ask me what soundboard bracing system I use. They seem
to have the idea that the sound of the guitar depends on the layout of
the soundboard bracing. I want to clarify that it is not so much the
bracing pattern--that is, the general layout of the fan braces--that
matters.
For each bracing system or pattern, there are infinitely many ways to modify the soundboard which can have a big effect on the sound: There is the thickness of the soundboard itself and how it varies from one area to another. Then there are the cross sections of the braces--their shape and dimensions--and how they vary within a single brace and from one brace to another on a soundboard, including how the ends are scalloped and how much of the ends are scalloped.
Many bracing systems can produce great guitars. What matters is how a luthier uses or applies a particular system. For classical guitars, I happen to use what is basically the original system developed by Don Antonio de Torres, but I treat each of the factors mentioned above in my own way and depending on the materials at hand and the desired sound.
Earlier this year (2011) I was commissioned to build "an exact copy of a 1960s Arcángel Fernández flamenco guitar." In doing so, I used the bracing layout that Fernández used, and the results were so good that I am continuing to use this layout (shown below) for flamenco guitars.
For each bracing system or pattern, there are infinitely many ways to modify the soundboard which can have a big effect on the sound: There is the thickness of the soundboard itself and how it varies from one area to another. Then there are the cross sections of the braces--their shape and dimensions--and how they vary within a single brace and from one brace to another on a soundboard, including how the ends are scalloped and how much of the ends are scalloped.
Many bracing systems can produce great guitars. What matters is how a luthier uses or applies a particular system. For classical guitars, I happen to use what is basically the original system developed by Don Antonio de Torres, but I treat each of the factors mentioned above in my own way and depending on the materials at hand and the desired sound.
Earlier this year (2011) I was commissioned to build "an exact copy of a 1960s Arcángel Fernández flamenco guitar." In doing so, I used the bracing layout that Fernández used, and the results were so good that I am continuing to use this layout (shown below) for flamenco guitars.