New Long Scale 12 String

[Joe Sustaire]

Moving along here,


Back braced with mahogany braces, 15' radius and carved till it taps lively.


And the back fitted and glued down in the go bar frame.

Almost have a box here,
Joe

[DaveWhite]

Joe,

That's looking nice. One question - why did you stop the ladder brace on the top in front of the bridge-plate on the inside of the bass side front-back brace?

[Joe Sustaire]

Well Dave, I'm just winging it here trying to listen to my gut, but it seemed to me that the way the angles are, that if the brace continued on over the tone bar brace, that you would have too much bracing too close together on the bass side, and I wanted to keep the bass side looser. It also dies out before getting to the tone bar. My impression of tone bars is that you want them to carry the vibrations from end to end, which is why the ladders bridge over them, so the only thing I have touching the tone bars is the bridge plate.

Now I may well be full of it, , but this how I'm thinking you want the tone bars to work.

Shooting from the hip,
Joe

[Haans]

Hey Joe, that's looking good!
Interesting that you are going in the tone bar direction and I'm going in the straight (well almost) ladder. That tone bar works really well on 12's, if you get the top thickness right . I really like my long scale mahogany 12 (I like it a lot more than the BRW I just finished... sort of like Dave Ray vs Loe Kottke) and finally got it down to B. Wouldn't trade B for any other tuning! Well, I haven't tried A yet!
Hmmmmm...

[Joe Sustaire]

Thanks Haans, so you finally got it low down, that is cool!
I think mahogany works great for 12's also, seems to me the complex tonalities of the rosewoods that enhances the sound of a six string just seems too much when you have 12 strings working.

Joe

[Pat Foster]

Looking good, Joe! I like your approach on the lining cap. Bet it adds a lot of stiffness to the rim.

Pat