Your doubts are not that unfounded at all. Those 19th century guys who did such conversions seem to have had a really perverted idea about the soundboard acoustics ;) If you strip off everything apart from just two bars on both sides of the sound ...
Alexander: I had my doubts about the Smithsonian Guitar. For one, the size and placement of that brace is rather odd. I would think that a brace of that mass running under the bridge would dampen the top. Could you comment on whether it was a comm...
Thank you, mel. Oh well, the diagonal brace on the Ashmolean Strad guitar is certainly not original, as is its bridge and very much likely the rose. The same, by the way, goes for Stradivari's 'Guistiniani' guitar which is in private collection in...
I wonder if you can point to some specific examples of surviving baroque guitars that were originally made with diagonal braces like the one you are referring to?
the guitar is a genuine old guitar ,that I was asked to do a little restoration work. It is in remarkably good condition with no major damage aside from a previously repaired crack on the side. What is also interesting is the use of two fan braces...