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Hey Guys,
I recently switched from using "T-Bracing" on my instruments to just regular profiled braces. I think there are a number of advantages to using "T-bracing", especially for beginning builders. Namely, it ensures that you are not overbuilding your braces but gives you a tall, narrow brace with a wide footprint for gluing. Also, you can be very exact about how you profile the height of the braces and their placement. I found this helped to eliminate the variable of the bracing profile and helped me dial in the sound I wanted.

To construct a "t-brace", you start with a tall center beam and then glue on two 0.125" square side beams. It is kind of a pain to make in small batches and so I made enough to last me a while. If anyone wants my remaining pieces, let me know. You will just need to cover shipping which would be around $5 or so.

I PMed you.

Hey Guys,
Carey messaged me first - if anyone has any questions about "t-bracing" in general and how to make them - feel free to give me a call. My number can be found on the top of my website header (at fayguitars.com). There are definitely easy and hard ways to make them.

Best Regards,
Simon

I never heard of T-Bracing but it seems like it would be more work for a beginner. I have thought of making I beam type bracing though, I'm sure it's been done before, but to rout out the middle section of the brace and create an I-Beam. Light and strong. Is that the purpose of T bracing?

Simon - the T-bracing is intriguing to me but I'm having trouble visualizing what it would look like once completed. Do you happen to have any photos of a T-braced top you could share?

T Bracing with the flange glued to the soundboard seems to have been a Gilbert development.
The concept is fundamentally flawed in that it puts the bulk of the crossection where it is least needed.

Jeff,
I disagree with your analysis; however, I am not really interested in getting into a debate about it. Let's just agree to disagree.

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Charlie,
The "t-brace" is physically similar to a a tall, narrow triangular brace. The base of the "t-brace" is very small in height and the overall brace will be extremely light. The purpose of the base is to provide an adequate gluing surface rather than give the brace strength. You can achieve identical results by profiling with a narrow, triangular brace. In real world terms, I believe a t-brace will be as strong as its triangular analog. I believe that you can go slightly lighter with a very tall, narrow triangular brace but not by much. However, I can't tell you how many braced tops I see on the OLF that could be made much lighter by profiling the braces narrower and not losing any strength. That doesn't necessarily mean lighter is better -- but I am definitely going for light and strong bracing on my guitars. As I mentioned before, one of the biggest advantages I see with T-bracing is consistency. I believe this is very important for early builders as it helps keeps the bracing cross-profile similar from guitar to guitar. Here is a photo of one of my tops with the t-brace. And yes, the credit for t-bracing goes to Gilbert.

Jeff, his use of T bracing is not and was never grounded in any perceived engineering benefit. The concept behind it's use in this instance was to provide a more uniform brace shape and weight across a large number of builds....but I'll let him speak more directly to it if he wishes.

woops...I posted this after Simon's post.....

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

I'll stand by what I said, the flange glued to the soundboard adds little but extra weight.
But then so much of what we do in carving braces is cosmetic anyway.

To clarify, "t-bracing" as I've implemented it features a center beam that is too narrow to be properly glued to the soundboard - the brace needs to be wider at the gluing surface (hence, the need for the base). Otherwise, you could just use a tall rectangular profile. In other words, the base definitely has a functional purpose.

As Chris mentioned, the main reason I have been using t-bracing is for consistency.

As with all things, more than one way to skin a cat -- but I would never skin a cat unless it was "Cracker" (the neighbor's cat whom I fear has been possessed by Satan).

Simon - thanks very much for the photo and additional info!