Workshop: Go-Bars w/Cheese

This is a Regal Junior Jumbo that's getting rebraced with Bohmann-style double-x-bracing for a customer of mine. I don't do enough full rebracing jobs to warrant having a Go-Bar System on hand, so I wanted to share my very lame (but functional) "individual-sized" version. This is what happens when you order Go-Bars with cheese, right?

I've got a bunch of pine scrap wood bars resting on the top of the sides, a big bar across them in the middle, and then a flat piece of wood underneath the guitar top (covered in an old t-shirt). The two clamps press down on the top bar and hold it all in place.

Before I put all that on top, however, I've of course put glue on all my braces and stuck them inside. They're rough-cut because I will do finishing/profiling of them once they're all glued to the top.

Here you can see how I've used scrap spruce soundboard/patching material cut to length so that I can wedge them into place against the top of the brace and the back of those pine bars. I have them spaced about 1 1/2" or so apart holding the braces down. I added a few more in this area since taking the shot.

For fun, here's the original slanted/transverse ladder bracing that Regal used in it originally. The braces open up a little wider on the bass side of the guitar which is why so many Regals sound warmer than their parallel-braced competitors. Every little bit helps!

Note that I've actually cut-up and reused the original spruce bridge plate/strapping brace in-situ to become the new bridge plate. It'll get some hole damage filled and a thin 1/32" plywood cap right where the pins make contact with its rear when finished.