Brace wood?

Agreed. Best to use a quality 'split billet' spruce for bracing (no runout). It should be used with the grain lines perpendicular to the plates.
For solid linings go for something that bends readily, but is not oily. Pretty much any wood of choice will suffice for kerfed linings or tentalones, but again, avoid oily species... and watch the orientation of the grain.
 
What is it about the poplar, that it would not make good bracing.

Seems like quarter sawn poplar would be as strong as spruce, but I don't know everything either, I think poplar is considered a hardwood.
 
The important parameters are strength and stiffness per weight. They used to make airplanes out of spruce, you ever heard of a poplar goose lol.
 
Actually, the "spruce goose" is made almost entirely of birch, mostly plywood.

Using numbers from the wood database, for a couple of different woods, looking at the stiffness per unit weight
___________________ weight lbs/ft3__elastic modulus__stiffness/weight
poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera)___29___1580000________54,483
sitka spruce__________________27___1600000________59,259
European spruce______________25___1406000________56,240
Port Orford cedar_____________29___1646000________ 56,759

So poplar is stiffer than 2 of the spruces however it is not as stiff per unit weight. Port Orford cedar is the stiffest of the spruces, but because it is slightly heavier than sitka, it has a lower stiffness per unit weight. (that being said, I use Port Orford cedar for all my top braces to maximize stiffness with very good results)
 
Last edited:
jupiteruke said:
Actually, the "spruce goose" is made almost entirely of birch, mostly plywood.
Click to expand...

The skin of the spruce goose was birch plywood and the ribs were laminated sitka spruce. I purchased two 1/8" x 8" x 8' boards from Park's Hardwoods in Santa Barbara, CA in 1973 for my first guitar. He had a warehouse full of sequentially sliced boards from Howard Hughes' stash. It had very little cross grain stiffness which Park said was because of the way it was cut.
 
I have seen a bit written of the 'mythology' surrounding the qualities of Sitka Spruce bracing for guitar. Some think that the preference for bracing wood should be for stock with the largest number of growth rings per inch, and believe that the wood from trees grown in poor soils, on the leeward side of mountains or the shady side of valleys is of superior strength to faster grown wood... but even if we buy into this, I am not sure that it helps us much in real terms. Ukes are lightly stressed compared to guitars, so while the requirements are common, they are not as critical.
 
It's obvious that Spruce is the wood of choice, but just out of curiosity is there other types of wood that will work for the bracing?

I'm not one for cutting corners and building something flimsy, I'm just looking for something that's more readily available that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to buy.

Thanks for all the info!
Sawdust
 
jupiteruke said:
Actually, the "spruce goose" is made almost entirely of birch, mostly plywood.

Using numbers from the wood database, for a couple of different woods, looking at the stiffness per unit weight
___________________ weight lbs/ft3__elastic modulus__stiffness/weight
poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera)___29___1580000________54,483
sitka spruce__________________27___1600000________59,259
European spruce______________25___1406000________56,240
Port Orford cedar_____________29___1646000________ 56,759

So poplar is stiffer than 2 of the spruces however it is not as stiff per unit weight. Port Orford cedar is the stiffest of the spruces, but because it is slightly heavier than sitka, it has a lower stiffness per unit weight. (that being said, I use Port Orford cedar for all my top braces to maximize stiffness with very good results)
Click to expand...

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but the engineer in me says that the stiffness to weight ratio, compared with poplar, is 4.2% greater for Port Orford cedar and 8.7% for sitka spruce. That's somewhat significant, but it suggests that poplar is usable for braces. On the other hand, spruce is readily available in many places and is considered to be ideal for that application, so why reinvent the wheel?

To OP: Maybe poplar wouldn't be the best choice for a first attempt, but it probably would be fine if you were willing to experiment with varying the dimensions of the braces.
 
Last edited:
Sawdust said:
It's obvious that Spruce is the wood of choice, but just out of curiosity is there other types of wood that will work for the bracing?

I'm not one for cutting corners and building something flimsy, I'm just looking for something that's more readily available that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to buy.

Thanks for all the info!
Sawdust
Click to expand...

I bought enough Sitka Spruce for at least 10 ukuleles for about $12. Shipping was twice that, but I needed enough other things that it was well worth it.
 
Poplar has been used for years in making cheap guitars for mail order for half of the last century. I have two, one was sort of playable. Not a great guitar, but then again a guitar built from spruce to the same dimensions might be a dud also. Mahogany is used for guitar tops when it makes more sense building with spruce for the top. A different flavor. A spruce top with poplar braces will not be too far out there, uke building does not turn its nose up to using hardwoods for the top. While I think spruce may have an edge on poplar as brace material poplar should not be all that bad.
 
printer2 said:
Poplar has been used for years in making cheap guitars for mail order for half of the last century. I have two, one was sort of playable. Not a great guitar, but then again a guitar built from spruce to the same dimensions might be a dud also. Mahogany is used for guitar tops when it makes more sense building with spruce for the top. A different flavor. A spruce top with poplar braces will not be too far out there, uke building does not turn its nose up to using hardwoods for the top. While I think spruce may have an edge on poplar as brace material poplar should not be all that bad.
Click to expand...

I have made several Mountain dulcimers using walnut and cherry, I know people that build them totally out of poplar including the bracing and linings without any problems at all. I can't really see a ukulele having so much stress that a poplar brace wouldn't hold up. But again I don't confess to know everything, maybe stress isn't the whole issue.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Big Dipper
best brace wood for koa
Replies
5
Views
493
jhnmdahl
J
U
Brace wood
Replies
5
Views
1K
Dusepo
Dusepo
S
Brace wood?
Replies
18
Views
2K
sequoia
sequoia
bluesuke
Brace wood
2
Replies
31
Views
4K
Tarhead
T
M
Should the fan brace peak under the saddle area?
Replies
4
Views
230
Orra
O
Top Bottom