Hollow Body Braces / Tone Bars

Loose braces can cause:

• Top dipping under the adjustable bridge
• Rattling / vibration / changes in tone

Locating Loose Braces

Typical tone bar (brace) placement
on archtop guitars

Many hollow body electric guitars incorporate f-holes into their design, access to their braces is limited and often difficult.

I use a small inspection mirror and pen light to inspect these braces and check for cracks and glue failure.

Gluing

Several methods can be used to glue loose tone bars, it all depends on the ability to access the brace with glue and clamps.

When feasible, long thin c-clamps are used, however, there are some braces that are very difficult to reglue. Not only do we attempt to reach the brace thru the f-hole but pickups are often removed to gain access as well.

In a worse case scenario the back might require removal.

What glue is used to repair loose braces? In most cases an aliphatic resin glue such as Titebond regular water soluble glue is used. Some vintage instruments may warrant using hide glue.