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estebanana -> RE: Fan brace glue method AKA we don't need no stinkin' go bars (May 28 2010 23:34:15)
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Jeff,
I've made one other guitar with the alternating thin fan and strap fan braces and I got the idea of course from looking at Robert Rucks' guitars. Funny thing is the first guitar I made had braces which were more straps than tall fans. I hit on the idea by intuition and by mistake. I could not remember the dimensions of the fans of guitar I was copying an did not have my notes with me that day. So I winged it and made the braces 1/8" high and about 3/8" wide.
I got laughed at, not mean spirited, by Gene Clark and Stewart Port who were helping me with the first one. Oddly enough they both said the first guitar was profound in its sound despite the misunderstanding about the brace size. Fast forward to 2005 or 6 and I started looking at Rucks' alternate wide and thin bracing patterns and I just related to them because I had sort of hit on that unwittingly. That is also when I started incorporating sound ports which are a design Ruck originated.
I think he's a very interesting guitar maker because he is super grounded in traditional building and yet he extends into other experimental modes. Probably in part because when you've made 600 or 700 guitars as he has, I can imagine one must get bored with with same old directions and one would just want to try new stuff. I'm using this pattern right now honestly because I want experiment with it. I'm not sure exactly what I can make it do yet. So far for me this pattern has made a very woody sounding and very loud guitar with rich overtones which almost everyone is fond of. What I like about it is that it makes a tight guitar and you can get in there and sand the straps if they feel to bulky. ( Which I did a bit on the last one. )
Ruck's classical guitars with this concept use the alternating wide/thin braces a little bit more spread out like a classic Torres "kite" layout. IIRC They have a bit more slant up towards the 12th or 11th frets ( approx.) . What I'm doing is grouping them within the foot print of the bridge and laying them parallel to the grain. I'm using them the same way I and many others lay out regular thin five fans within the bridge foot print. I'm looking to get a nice cross grain rocking motion by grouping them more in the center of the top. That extra brace branching out of the lower main crossbar is to beef up that area under the top. This guitar is going to a powerful player who will no doubt pound on it. I call it the "no more tears " brace because I don't want the top to get shredded there by hard golpe. It is also closing off the top more below the main bar and that is where the touchy stuff might happen. There's other stuff going there that I'm messing with.
So I'm experimenting and keeping notes. We'll see what happens. For sure I'm building this guitar on the snug side because it's going to get pounded on and I want it to open up gradually. I hope this bracing system lends itself to that end.
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