Recently Acquired Guild Finesse

Westerly Wood

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wow, the trim on that and the rosewood is top notch! Congrats.
 

Westerly Wood

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I like that you buy all of Richard's reverb stuff too. that is a great story. his reverb channel is great, i look at it weekly.
 

Rich Cohen

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Seems to me to be like a DV-52 but with more elegance and "finesse." It's a custom shop production out of Nashville in 1999. Probably supervised by Bob Benedetto. Can't wait to turn the electronics on. Playin' it tonight at an open mic in Waynesboro, VA. Has unusual bracing, right up to the sound hole. Will post another pic tomorrow showing the bracing, at least as it appears from the sound hole. Guild always keeps us guessing, ya' know. The Westerly Website says that it has hand sculpted "floating X bracing." Does anyone know what that is exactly?

Thanks,
Rich
Charlottesville, VA
 
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Rayk

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Wow that is one cool headstock and cool guitar what else does he want to sell ? Lol
Congrats !
 

Rayk

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Seems to me to be like a DV-52 but with more elegance and "finesse." It's a custom shop production out of Nashville in 1999. Probably supervised by Bob Benedetto. Can't wait to turn the electronics on. Playin' it tonight at an open mic in Waynesboro, VA. Has unusual bracing, right up to the sound hole. Will post another pic tomorrow showing the bracing, at least as it appears from the sound hole. Guild always keeps us guessing, ya' know. The Westerly Website says that it has hand sculpted "floating X bracing." Does anyone know what that is exactly?

Thanks,
Rich
Charlottesville, VA

Wow again who came up with that at guild ?
I can’t say for sure as far as Guild goes and few luthiers incorporate the technique.

But in this case I’d say the X bracing is not in contact with the sound board allowing the top to resonate more freely .

One luthier has designed a totally free floating sound board ,his guitars are pretty well upper main stream but I can’t recall the name .

Tom Doerr uses what looks like a floating back bracing system I believe but I never asked him lol guess now is the time :)
 

txbumper57

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Beautiful Rich! The Floating X brace design was used on a few of the Nashville Custom Shop acoustics. Hope you Enjoy it for a long time!

TX
 

dreadnut

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Very nice! It does indeed look like a DV-52 except for a couple of things, like the bound headstock with rosewood overlay and abalone dot fret markers.
 

GardMan

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IIRC, the Guild "floating" bracing didn't refer to it not be fixed firmly to the soundboard (top)... if it wasn't glued to the top, it wouldn't brace the top against the pull forces of the strings. I believe it refers to the fact that the braces didn't extend all the way to the EDGES of the soundboard, but rather ended somewhat short of the sides (how short of the sides, I don't know).
 

Rich Cohen

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IIRC, the Guild "floating" bracing didn't refer to it not be fixed firmly to the soundboard (top)... if it wasn't glued to the top, it wouldn't brace the top against the pull forces of the strings. I believe it refers to the fact that the braces didn't extend all the way to the EDGES of the soundboard, but rather ended somewhat short of the sides (how short of the sides, I don't know).

And what would be the advantage of such a technique?
 

Rich Cohen

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From the Westerly Guild Guitars site...

Doesn't really explain the advantages of "floating" bracing, but my understanding was that it allowed the top to vibrate more freely...

GardMan,
Many thanks for pointing me to the bracing article. I think what the writer of the article is suggesting is that by not running the brace all the way to the side, but leaving some space between the end of the brace and the side, somehow it improved the effects of the hand shaved scalloped bracing. It makes sense. It allows the top to vibrate just a little bit more than it would if the brace continued to the sides. Something akin to the ol' adage, you can have your cake and eat it too!
 
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