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Location: SoCal | Beal, any recollection on who pushed to put the Adamas bracing pattern on the center hole wood topped guitars?
I've been playing Noah's 30th CL, with medium strings on it and it is starting to sound wonderful as it breaks in (I suspect that Noah never played it, but it looks so good that it wouldn't be hard to put it on a wall hanger and just look at it)..... |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Not sure I understand the question, the A brace pattern came before the Adamas. |
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Location: South of most, North of few | Kinda what I was thinking, doesn't the Adamas have the fan style bracing while the A brace is boxed around the soundhole? |
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Location: SoCal | Originally posted by Mauvais Beal:
Not sure I understand the question, the A brace pattern came before the Adamas. That's ok. I'm not sure I understand the question either. Who came up with the idea of A bracing? I always thought that Charlie was gung ho on the VT bracing patterns. I know that the A braces were first put on the Custom Legends (1974?) and on at least one Legend that ended up with Glen Campbell at about the same time. This was about the same time that the Adamii were being developed.
I know that Nick Macklin, w/o Charlie's permisssion, was the driving force on the 1537's. Was somebody else (Rickard?) the driving force, in secret, on the A bracing? |
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Location: south east Michigan | Moody needs to know where to send the fruit basket and thank you cards. |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | As I recall, Ricard was a genius at process, whether he had anything to do with A bracing, I don't know, though I haven't heard it. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | I don't know. I thought the Anniversary was the first to use the A but it could have been custom legends. It was probably developed for the CL and maybe used first on the Anniv.
Rickard was at Ovation and in charge of the development when the A brace came out. I don't recall if he was driving or riding shotgun at the time. |
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Location: SoCal | Beal, you know more about it than I do. You had the inside track and I was outside looking in.... about 3000 miles outside!
I'm just curious. I think A braced, deep bowl O's are the best sounding, with the X braced deep bowls right behind them. I'm just trying to learn a little more...... |
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Location: Maine | Moody Pi and All.. Here's a breif "conversation" about TOP Bracing..... ~ 1977 interview w/ Jim Hennesey...
find MY MUSIC and listen to chpt -4 Tops
Hope You like it! Talbot |
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Location: Jet City | My early 80's A braced 1617 with the K-bar is one of my better sounding Os
At least to my ear. |
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Location: Jet City | TJR that's great. You should just charge admission to your page. It's like going to a museum. |
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Location: SoCal | Tal, that's great. Thanks very much.
Damon, an A braced center hole guitar has a wonderful sound. Maybe the best of all the different Ovation models when combined with a deep bowl.... |
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Location: Atlanta, GA. | What characteristics are looked for, in wood, to be considered suitable for braces?
What's the most popular type of wood used? |
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Location: SoCal | Sitka spruce and cedar are the most common woods used for tops. But more and more, spruce from other areas and types of spruce trees are being used. I've got one guitar with an adirondack spruce (red spruce) top. Got a crisp sound.... |
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Location: Maine | Glad you like it.. I'll dig about for some more info..
... And eventually I'll get Chpts 1-3 and 5-13 uploaded as well.. It's Audio from an old casette tape I found in the attic. For Miles recent gathering, I threw it all together onto a DVD and added some pics and menus...etc... I now appreciate the effort that must go into a PBS documetary. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | Colin asked about braces, not tops. I'm not sure what they use. I wouldn't think you'd use the same would as for tops, but I don't know anything.
Engleman Spruce, which is fairly prevalent here, is also a good wood for tops. The 05 Collector used it. |
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Location: Atlanta, GA. | Moody,
Are you saying spruce top/spruce braces, cedar top/cedar braces?
I'm aware of tonewood characteristics used for tops, but curious if there is anything special about the woods that are used for braces. |
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Location: Jet City | Originally posted by TJR:
For Miles recent gathering, I threw it all together onto a DVD and added some pics and menus...etc... I now appreciate the effort that must go into a PBS documetary. Yeah I was there, but had to run to get a cord for the Mac and missed the show.
Too bad.
I'll have to wait till you post it. |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Cedar braces?
For some reason I always thought they were spruce. |
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Location: SoCal | I'm sorry. I misread the question. I was talking about tops. I think spruce is always used for braces.... |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | ... except on Academy models.
Dave |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | sitka for braces |
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Location: SoCal | Anybody else have any questions you'd like me to not understand and subsequently answer incorrectly? |
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Location: NJ | So little "time" . . . |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | If you wood just be more careful when you repond like I did you wood make fewer mistakes. |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | A-braced, center hole, deep bowl . . . that includes the Legend Ltd, and all the more reason why these originals are a terrific bargain for the money. |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I've heard that the adirondack spruce is superior to the sitka. I've only played sitka so I don't know first hand. I do know that the adirondack tops are pretty scarce. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | tight grain Adirondack is hard to come by. |
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| A lot of the very best ($7,000 for a "student" model) classical builders in Spain always state that their tops are either "Romanian spruce" or "American Western Red Cedar".
I've never come across a flattop or archtop builder who ever said other than "European" spruce. What makes Romanian spruce so special I have no idea.
At one time Hofner stated that their top of the range classical was made with Black Forest spruce, but they don't always do that any longer. |
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Location: Maine | Originally posted by Mauvais Beal:
I don't know. I thought the Anniversary was the first to use the A but it could have been custom legends. It was probably developed for the CL and maybe used first on the Anniv.
Rickard was at Ovation and in charge of the development when the A brace came out. I don't recall if he was driving or riding shotgun at the time. Ok.. here's some more reading which you may get a kick out of..
There are some pretty cool references to various guitar models,projects and artists within the memos. I hope you enjoy.. Talbot
Album Page Link : A-Braced Guitars
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Posts: 15677
Location: SoCal | Boy reading thru all that material was facinating. But it also brings up questions, specifically, the Glen Campbell model with the special bracing... what's the story on that?
I suspect that these memos are going to raise more questions than they answer, but I love reading them! |
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A bracing -- who's idea?