
As the glue dries the braces are held in place in the "gobar" deck. This is an ingenious and simple system devised by some clever luthier years ago. I simply use thin wooden dowels cut just a bit longer than the vertical height of the "gobar deck" The bend of the wood applies the "clamping pressure" required.

WHITTLING the braces for three tenors takes some time, and creates a nice pile of shavings on the floor. I make them of fine grained Sitka Spruce selected for the grain which must run vertically from bottom to top so that the brace provides the maximum stiffness and strength as the instrument mode. Once they are whittled and sanded to shape
they are glued to the top and back in the appropriate places.
they are glued to the top and back in the appropriate places.