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The other guitar I am building right now is an acoustic slide, my first, and I want to be able to have it in the dobro G tuning (GBDGBD) some of the time. The G tuning is more stressful on the structure than either a standard guitar tuning or DADF#AD, but I don't know the tension offhand. String gauges will be 56,46,36,28,18,17 (only the top two strings are unwound). Standard Martin style X-bracing with tone bars and all. I am thinking along the lines of raising the unscalloped height of the X-bracing to 3/4 of an inch or so, maybe not scallop them so deeply (another 16th of an inch higher perhaps), and enlarge the area of the bridge plate by taking it another 1/2 inch toward the bottom of the guitar. My hope is to keep the top (bear claw Sitka spruce) pretty thin (.090-.095) or so, but strengthen the bracing. Is this even necessary? Or is it not enough? I'm using a dobro style high nut, the strings will be about 1/2 inch above the fretboard. I plan on using a higher saddle as well, though it will not be as high as the nut, I'd like the strings to be fairly parallel to the fretboard.

The neck is not an issue, I built a dobro style square neck and put a 3/8" square hollow steel rod in it. The neck block is much bigger than a standard Martin block as well.

thanks, Damon

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Damon Wack
https://www.facebook.com/LindamonGuitars

Certainly I'm not an expert here, so be sure and listen for more experienced opinions, but personally I wouldn't go with a top that thin. I like bottleneck guitar, old Stella type ladder bracing, and long scale 12 strings and for me, thin tops translate to thin sound. With the high action and heavy strings and raised tuning I think I'd want at least .120" or more likely .140" on the top and keep the bracing light, carving till I was satisfied I was getting a nice full drum sound when tapping.

Just my 2 cents,
Joe

on da weiss style i play with 14 top.
13 works fine for me too, and those sets are readily available.
i wouldn't use 17 top unless you beefed everything up.
sometimes those heavy strings don't sound good to me anyway.