Official Luthiers Forum!

I find this "print-through" more a function of the stiffness of the plate. So, for example, a fan brace aligned with the long grain of the top will print through much more than the same fan brace glued cross grain to the same top. A handy rule of thumb is to keep your braces at an angle of >15 degrees to the long grain direction, if you can, as this usually introduces enough extra stiffness to reduce the print-through by quite a lot. Not always possible of course, in which case wider, lower braces of the same stiffness help, if you can put up with the extra mass.

_________________
Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

I found Randy Muth's explanation of what he calls his XTC bracing system to be quite thought -provoking ...http://www.rsmuthguitars.com/XTC.php

Great link - thanks for that.

_________________
Thank You and Best To All

With prepping for Sandy I wasn't able to make it to Woodstock this year but last year I got to hear a couple of Randy's guitars in person and I have to say I was very impressed with his small bodied (00-ish) guitar with the XTC bracing. It was easily one of the best I had hear in a long time.