Official Luthiers Forum!

Center is true for a brace that is not part of an assembly. In your case the top and the fret board (if glued) are part of the assembly and you can put the hole as close to the top as you like. Think of the notch on the x brace; no one is concerned about the notch that faces the top, are they?

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Food for thought.

I got stuck in an elevator in a snow storm on a dark night with no one around in the middle of the winter.

When the FireFolks came to rescue me after I got though on my cell phone even though I was nearly 3 stories underground they didn't give a rat's arse how much damage they were going to do to the elevator or door getting me out of there, thankfully...

Some day your creations may be on the work bench of someone such as I who is busting their butt to bill a bunch of bucks while in the shop. Do you think that someone such as I..... is going to give a rat's arse how carefully I deflower..... your creations when I need a truss rod access hole and it's not there.....

Just sayin......

PS: Certainly we always are careful and treat OPP (other people's property..) with great care and in accordance with a bailment if you will for the attorney's here. But we are not everyone and based on what we see from other shops please make truss rod access easy or you will likely either be very sorry or someone who has one of yours may be....

PSS: This goes for using a truss rod in the first place too. You should see the 50 shades of grey that an instrument has to be subjected to when the neck gets heat pressed.... and it usually doesn't even work IME..... nor does the thing like it.... unless, of course, it's an Ov*tion....

I'm not sure holes in braces are necessarily a bad thing, apparently others don't think so either.

_________________
Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

I pulled out the dedicated truss rod wrenches that I have sitting at my bench (there are more tucked away in the closets). If a guitar comes in that none of these fit, and I have to make a new one for some peculiar unique layout, the owner is likely to hear some less than ideal commentary on the instrument's design from the bench.

_________________
Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.