Official Luthiers Forum!

Baed on suggestion from John Mayes on one of his videos,
I am using Adi bracewood for my build #2 (OLF SJ).

Although I'm very early in whole lutherie learning
process, I think I understand that the critical factors
for bracewood are density (i.e., weight) and
stiffness as opposed to species, per se (assuming
good quartering and little runout).

But I'm curious if anyone has used Port Orford Cedar
for bracing. I'm using POC kerfed linings in my
build and I enjoy the distinctive terpene aroma.

I'm interested in making classicals in the future, so
non-steel string comments would be welcome, too.

Do any of the OLF sponsors supply it? I did run across
a non-sponsor tonewood vendor in Oregon with a nice
selection of NW regional woods who has it.

Thanks,

Eric

PS I may as well admit that I have a bracewood
"problem". I already have stocks of Adi, Sitka,
Engelmann, Lutz, WRC, and Mahogany. And after seeing
that outrageous Swiss "moon spruce" that was (fleetingly)
available in the recent Swap Meet, I've been doing
shipping costs calculations with the tonewood.ch
folks...

PPS Anyone else in the SF Bay Area? I live about a
5 minute walk from Gryphons in Palo Alto.

5 Minutes, wow, I know right where you live. Having been to Frank and Richard's place a couple times recently. Unfortunately I was just on vacation.

Don't know anyone who admits to using Port Orford for bracing. Matter of fact I don't know anyone who uses it for tops. But I'm sure someone on the OLF does.

By the way, Welcome Eric. Do you know Willie Carter or Matsuda?

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

IIRC Greg Byers uses POC soundboard bracing for his outstanding classical guitars. He has a very informative
website as well.

I build classicals and use Port Orford Cedar for Kerfed linings.  I have used it for back braces as well and like it.  It has a very small natural growing range in Northern California and Oregon mainly so it can be hard to find luthier grade stock.  Its biggest use is for arrowshafts as it is light and strong.  It is a shame to think that really nice boards are being ripped for arrowshafts.

Les Stansell is a Flamenco builder in Oregon who has built really nice all POC flamencos and they look and sound great.

Eric I have a small amount of PO Cedar bracewood as well as soundboards.

_________________
Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Eric,

Take a look at Peter Oberg's website. He was a student of both Ervin Somogyi and Robert Ruck and he uses the Ruck style fan bracing. He also mentions the use of POC for his bracing.

     Oberg Guitars

_________________
Peter

Bruce,

Thanks for the welcome. I've been a constant reader
(and archive searcher) for a couple of years, but
don't post very much.

I'm a bit in awe of a lot of the folks at Gryphon,
but I have chatted with Willie Carter a few times.
He seems like an extremely nice guy. I've never
seen Matsuda-san there; I think he's in the
repair dept.

It is really great living so close to the store. I treat
them as basically a musuem of stringed instruments
and try to (gently and carefully) inspect and play
as much of their constantly-changing used inventory
as possible. I try to buy a lot of books from
them to make up for my frequent presence.

Apropos to the ongoing bending discussion happening
in another thread, Willie recommended to me
to use a hot pipe to hand-bend the waist before using
the Fox bender and said this is his standard practice.

This, along with getting on the Rick Turner "let's use HHG for at least all of our soundboard-related
gluing" bandwagon, is on the list of things to try
in my next build.

Regards,

Eric

My question would be "Why?"   Why use POC for brace stock? What is it about it that you find appropriate or that draws you to it? That would be my question about any wood choice, any glue choice, any parts choice, any finish choice... If you can't answer "Why?" with logical reasons, then that'll tell you right there what the answer is.

"Logical choices" means a basic understanding of the physical properties required for the job at hand. If you don't know them, then you need to research and learn how to ask the right questions.   

For instance, what are the properties of superior brace wood?   High stiffness to weight ratio, low density, low damping, good toughness and strength, good gluing characteristics.   Does that describe POC?   If so, then use it.   If not, then don't.

Aroma?   Hmmm, I don't think that's on the list of important physical properties...