Official Luthiers Forum!

Hypothetically speaking, if you use a solid one-piece (no bookmatching or otherwise split in half) with a fairly stiff wood on an acoustic, would you necessarily need bracing on the back?

I imagine there might be some concern about the back warping and whatnot, but since it does not have the stress directly from the bridge that the top has, would bracing really be necessary? Have you witnessed any guitars that tried using minimal or no bracing on the back?

I know it would not be advisable, but I was just kinda curious.

Back are almost always domed - it would be very difficult to do that without braces. Wood expands and contracts with temperature and humidity - an unbraced back would probably split (which is why most backs are simply ladder braced with the center seam reinforcement.

Finding a prefectly quartered piece of wood wide enough to built a back out of is almost impossible too, but you have assumed that out of the equation.

However, thick carved backs (some archtops, mandos, etc) are frequently not braced.

Thanks, that's what I was guessing. The only archtop I've played I believe had back bracing despite its thickness, which got me thinking.

I believe most (if not all) Ovations and similarly synthetic back guitars do not have bracing... which got me thinking more.