No Bracing VS. Standard X-Bracing - Guitar Sound Comparison.

This video is a sound comparison between a standard, X-braced Taylor Academy 12 and the Taylor Academy 12 Nylon - with its soundboard bracing removed - and set up with 12-53 PB steel strings and a TurboTail (a tension transfer device). This video is part of my ongoing research to see if superior acoustic guitars result when the tension of the strings is transferred to the tailblock (not a standard tailpiece).

I recorded this video of Mark Wand playing and talking about both Taylor Academy 12’s. Mark is perhaps overly enthusiastic about the braceless nylon-string guitar setup with steel strings and the TurboTail. However, Mark plays Cordoba steel-string Turbo Guitars for all his live gigs, so he is biased toward this approach. I don’t think the Taylor is the best of our Turbo demo guitars, particularly compared with the Cordobas. However, I do think the braceless nylon Academy 12 has a bigger, fuller sound and better bass response than the standard X-braced version. To me, it sounds more lush, as opposed to the tighter, sparser tone of the standard steel string model Academy 12.

Particularly for softer playing and fingerstyle, I prefer the braceless nylon string guitar with steel strings and the TurboTail. There is a certain “crunch” that you get when the pick or fingers seem to sink deeper into the guitar when you play. However, I think the braceless guitar becomes overdriven with heavy strumming. On the other hand, I find the tightness of the standard steel-string Academy 12 to be dull and one-dimensional. It’s an entry-level guitar, even if it isn’t inexpensive. I think the fault, if any, is in the basic build of the Taylor Academy 12, and not with the free soundboard approach to activating the soundboard. The Academy 12 is a really stiff, tight build. No matter what you do to it, it is never going to be a delicate, nuanced guitar.

In this video, I was surprised to find that the braceless guitar was not louder than the X-braced version. It may just be a different playing technique, but I thought the X-braced guitar sounded louder in the finger-picking sections. This is generally not the case. Lighter bracing consistently yields greater volume across all our other comparisons. It might also have something to do with the fact that the back of the guitar is just taped on with blue painters’ tape rather than glued in. In fact, cutting out the back of any guitar should hurt its ability to reflect, or rebound, the vibrations from the soundboard. I’m not making excuses, but I hear more volume from the X-braced guitar in this video, which is a first for me.

If you are like me, you may be surprised that a braceless soundboard doesn’t sound like a washtub, flabby, without any character, since this is what we’ve been told for so long is the case with underbraced guitars. Clearly, the case is not so simple. More research is needed.

As far as which guitar is “superior”, I think that there is a long way between the two extremes of “X bracing” and “no bracing". I believe that a skilled luthier can build a superior guitar that falls somewhere between the two extremes by taking advantage of a tension transfer device (eg, the TurboTail).

I applaud builder Christopher Cozad, who is currently building his second Turbo Guitar, this time without any soundboard bracing. He says he intends to start with a slightly thicker soundboard and use a magnetic thickness caliper, which will allow him to thin the soundboard after the guitar is assembled. This should give Christopher a big advantage in fine-tuning his ideal sound.
I wonder if he can string the guitar and do final thinning with the strings installed? This would be a huge breakthrough in guitar building.
Imagine being able to play the guitar while you tweak the plate thickness?

If you love acoustic guitars, tone experiments, or gear that challenges the rules, this one’s for you.

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