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estebanana -> RE: Port Orford Cedar bracing (Mar. 11 2015 1:26:12)
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quote:
Makes sense for a flamenco, its a light strong material. Would it be an upgrade over spruce bracing for a classical ? Or is the needed sustain reduced
How you use the braces, the top thickness and bridge arrangement will determine how it sounds more than what the braces are made of. You can make POC braces do any thing spruce braces will do and vise versa according to your skill and familiarity with the material.
You have to cut braces from your stock of POC and Spruce and compare them directly yourself. Cut the braces to the exact same dimensions and then flex them. Then create a test to see how they deflect under weight. Most of the time setting them tip to tip on to fixed points and hanging a weight from them will show how each reacts under tension. There are ways to set up tests, look on the internet for topics about brace deflection testing. Usually a hand held accurate fish scale is used. Or a dial gauge to measure distance under weight.
You probably don't need to go that far, but if you do you'll see how strong POC is.
POC cedar often has a better strength to weight over Spruce, but every stock is a bit different right? And it depends on the runout and density. But in general I have found POC braces to work in the same dimensions as Spruce. And since braces are critical and small you can/should work to split out braces with very little or no runout.
The POC is good for Parabolic shaped fan braces too because it is often lighter than spruce and the high 8 to 9mm parabolic fans can be light as a tiny feather, but super strong.
Do search on Peter Oberg a maker in San Diego CA, he also uses a lot of POC and comments on it on his site.
A tip for using it for backs & sides: Use side splints to stiffen the sides, use three or four per side. They will not add mass to anything that counts, but when POC is thinned enough to make good flamenco sides it is good to stiffen the cross grain. Leaving a bit more meat in the back than cypress is good too. I often make the back 3mm at bracing and sand it a bit.
The caveat on POC, if you thin it past a certain point the cross grain stiffness falls off a bit faster than good stiff spruce, so keep that in mind.
If any of that is helpful.
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