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I was curious about bracing. I was watching a how to video of a pretty prolific builder and he mentioned that he likes to use Engleman Spruce. What is everyones go to bracing materials? Do you use the same material as the sound board? Or do you have a preference like mostly Add or mostly Sitka.......

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Red spruce.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Sitka.

Lutz, just 'cos I got plenty good stuff from Shane before the shut down.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Ha…three answers in and this thread is like a microcosm of the luthier community. Three respected builders, three different answers.

I have used red spruce for the last 5 instruments because it’s what I have on hand to use.


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I have heard more than one person using top grade tone wood say to just go get a decent 2 x 4 and cut it up. I would not.

Particularly with bracing I'd say that 'spruce is spruce': the density and stiffness count for more than the species. I've gotten some really nice brace stock from the lumber yard. I've gotten some totally unusable stuff from old buildings and luthier suppliers. I much prefer spruce to most other softwoods, for it's toughness. Cedar, redwood, and Doug fir tend to split more. Pine is usually too soft. That's all about top bracing: back bracing can be another matter...

+1 to Colin and Alan Use whatever spruce you can get good quality for a reasonable price, and for me that's a couple of big wedges from Shane. If I were going to restock now, it would be sitka from Brent at Alaska Specialty Woods.

I used to get closely grained spruce lumber (picking through the piles) at the building supply and split it and cut it up for bracing. It got harder and harder to get usable pieces (more and more knots until they were so close together, there wasn’t a brace long piece between them), so I started ordering the Sitka split bracewood from Alaska Specialty. It’s expensive, but it’s mostly all usable.

After you glue it to the top or back, you’re going to carve it until the top or back meets whatever musical or stiffness criteria you go by, so the properties of any spruce are usually with a usable range.

Red spruce sure is a pleasure to carve.

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

In the 1980's, I was using Engelmann and Ponderosa pine from 2X construction lumber. I also have some Doug fir and Euro spruce from the same source. But after cutting thousands of red spruce guitar tops (beginning in 1990), I have a lifetime supply of quality bracewood from split billets. In recent years, I have used Sitka to meet the demand for 1930's Martin replicas. Virtually all of those combined red spruce tops with Sitka bracing. Most of my Sitka bracing has been from older 2" boards or 1980's Martin braces I acquired from an estate.
The most important factor in choosing bracewood is a lack of runout, which is best accomplished by cutting from split billets.

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John

I split and cut bracing stock from scrounged spruce - old piano soundboards, old window sashes, construction lumber off cuts, and demolition piles.
Recycling old wood that would end up in the landfill or a burn pile can be rewarding. Like Gump's box of chocolates (or perhaps the items in the back corners of the refrigerator) you never know what you might find. It's not all good but it is all fun!

use red and sitka

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John Hall
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I think most folks gravitate to spruce, at least for top bracing. There is enough within-population variation in any spruce that you can find both good and not-so-good pieces. The pieces you select are much more important than what spruce species they’re from.

I would be careful splitting pieces from dimensional lumber, especially smaller pieces such as 2x4s which are sometimes cut near the core of smaller trees — stem portions within 10-15cm of the pith are usually riddled with reaction wood and runout. You stand a better chance getting good material from parts of a 2x12 that has portions with older rings.

Having said that, I’ve been fortunate to access excellent Lutz brace material for several years. My experience with reputable tonewood processors is I usually receive 3-4x as much brace material as I order. I probably have enough Lutz to last me the rest of my life.

Yes, I use spruce top bracing for all instruments, regardless of top species.


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I've never understood the philosophy of of lets see how cheap we can buy our brace wood for.... lol I wouldn't even want to frame my own house out of the 2x materials that are available for construction and I'm a general contractor. When I first started we used to get seasoned VGF DF in 2x and 4x stock it was beautiful. I'm more curious about what other luthiers are into. Some good info here. I like Lutz, Sitka and Engleman myself and have been purchasing a lot of brace wood as the prices for a lot of tonewood is getting out of control.

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A couple of reasons to find cheap brace wood is that braces are relatively small pieces that don't require large machines to process it, and if you have little money invested in it you aren't reluctant to put it in the kindling pile if it doesn't make the grade.
If you find old wood it is more likely to be well dried than what has recently come from the sawmill. Not all wood sold for braces is the best quality.
Nothing wrong with buying brace wood - a reputable seller should sell you wood suitable for the purpose.

I've got Sitka, Red, Engelmann, some nice wedges of Lutz (from Shane and Mario) and some European. I think my two favorites are Engelmann and Lutz.

I generally use what ever but it's typically Sitka. Sitka is a bit stringy though. I have found that the Carp Spruce bracing I have carves the best but it might just have to do with the batch I got too.