Ladder Braced Birch

[Dennis Leahy]

How'd I do it?

With tightly clenched buttocks is how I did it! ...

Thanks, Joe! I'll check StewMac and see if I can get one of those.

[truckjohn]

Great work here. What size does this thing correspond to?

I have become recently enamored with ladder brace small body guitars. It seems like they can be built quite a bit more lightly than an X braced guitar for the same size because of the inherent stiffness of a small box. Add a tailpiece and you can get away with a spruce bridge patch instead of hardwood. Done well - they are very loud and punchy compared to an X braced guitar on the same plantilla.

Thanks

[whitespruce]

Hey Joe, good to see you building. I have been AWOL for about a month trying to do my share again around here with the gardening and stuff, so just saw this.

Looking good, hope you can bring it to Stringfest.

G

[Joe Sustaire]

Thanks truckjohn!
Lower bout is 14 1/2", 20'' body, 4 1/4" at the butt, 4" at the neck join. It's about classical size, fits a classical case real well. This ones a little deeper than I've built them in the past. Why don't you post up some pics of your builds, let us see what you're up to these days.....

It's about time you showed up around here Grant, I don't think you had permission for leave.....
And yeah, it's good to be back in the shop, and needed a new guit for stringfest of course. Cain't wait!

[truckjohn]

Lol. I just finished my first build in 5 years. It's crazy - because it feels like it was only a few months ago... But I add it up and it was over 5 years.... I suppose that's what happens when you have kids and move 3 times with work.

Now that we are settled - the guitar bug hit me hard. I still have 2 more to finish up... A 2nd one I built this spring and the one I started almost 6 years ago... Both need necks and bridges.

Thanks

[JMPBuffalo]

Hey, Joe,

That guitar's looking really good! Can't wait to hear it!

Joe

[Pat Foster]

Like them appointments!

Pat

[truckjohn]

I bet this is going to be a heck of a guitar.

I think birch ladder braced guitars got a really bad rap because of the millions of cheap unplayable birch boxes dumped into the US market from the 40's through the 70's.

They kinda had the same sort of reputation as Asian plywood guitars today.

But when done well - built lightly and set up very well.. They are loud, punchy, and super fun. They take everybody by surprise.

I think the main difference between these and x or fan braced guitars is that they don't have much in the way of overtones.