The earliest rims were made from solid sheets of the same wood as the backs and hand bent to the proper shape. Lower line instruments were made with pressed (solid and laminated) backs. The backs of the high-end instruments were carved in a similar manner to the tops and from solid blocks of the same woods as the rims: mahogany, maple or American walnut. LADDER BRACING “Some of the earliest Masterbilts before SN 5500 (which I date 1931) were ladder braced in stead of parallel braced.” (Wiedler, facebook ). The neck- and endblocks were generally made of mahogany. The ends of both braces were trimmed to enhance tone and to make neat joints with the kerfing of the top. The bass braces had a rounded profile, while the treble braces were tapered to a fine edge. The term “parallel bracing” is actually a misnomer, because the bass brace does project in a different angle towards the endblock than the treble brace. Bracing has two primary functions : it keeps the guitar from collapsing under string tension and it shapes the guitar’s sound. For the earliest Epiphone models (< SN 5400) see : Reconstructing the 1931 Masterbilt model lineup. There is also a cleat at the f-hole, obviously a later repair.” (Wiedler : close-up # 27)Įpiphone archtop tops were parallel braced. “Before cutting the f-holes, cloth (or wooden) strips were often glued in at strategic places to prevent splitting along the wood grain. Some war-time Epiphones had poplar tops ( Jake Wildwood). After that, they were rough carved on machines, then handcarved and graduated to the final dimensions. Epiphone acoustic archtop tops were carved from 2 inch thick blocks of fine grained spruce, that were split longitudinally and glued together side to side, often refered to as “bookmatched” (see ).
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