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Just wondering if anyone has experience with this. Where the top braces join to and radiate from the bridge plate, I can't determine whether the bridge plate is notched to allow the braces to contact the top plate for their full length, or if the braces are notched to fit over the bridge plate and glued to the bridge plate? Any advice would be appreciated.

Darrel

Darrell,

Lots of ways to do this. I've never overlapped the bridge plate with the braces, although I believe others have. I just lay out my braces so that they begin approximately where the edge of the bridge terminates. Even this is not a hard and fast rule, I tweaked the position on every one I made. Subtle differences in each one, but hard to attribute to the placement of the fans. Too many variables. A lot of it depends on your bridge design and how much mass your bridge has. Kasha's design relies on the rocking motion of the bridge over the lower transverse brace to drive the top and the placement of the fans in relation to the bridge does affect the tonal qualities of the guitar. I've built some with a modified version of Steve Klein's bridge design and some with a more symmetrical bridge as in the attached photos. Both designs produce really nice guitars. Aesthetically, I prefer the symmetrical, but both are nice.

Here are a few pics, one of the bracing pattern, and a couple of the finished guitar to show the bridge design I was using.

_________________
Jimmy Caldwell
http://www.caldwellguitars.com

Wow, that's amazing Jimmy! I'm actually building a tenor uke with the Kasha, "wedge shaped" bridge. I'm scaling the bracing more or less from a picture and it shows the braces overlapping the bridge plate. I just finished glueing up the braces and I notched the end plate theorizing that it would give the best sound transfer. Time will tell how it sounds.

Thanks again

Darrel:
I built a baritone ukulele using Hana Lima plans. I notched the radial braces and left the bridge-plate. The sound was significantly better than my fan-braced tenors but I still don't know whether that is due to longer scale or the Kasha bracing design.
I have the Allied Kasha guitar plans but that is a project for next summer.

Bob

Ha!, I guess it was a 50/50 chance. Anyways, I've gone with the notched bridge plate. I've got a fifties Martin that sounds pretty good that ZI'll use as a test case with high hopes. Thanks Bob.

Darrel