X vs. ladder brancing

[DCBirdMan]

I guess the usual discussions on this are about tone -- the thinner ladder brace sound vs. the fuller X brace sound.

My question is about strength. I dropped a pile of dough to have a nice '58 LG-1 restored... it does sound nice, but everyone is saying it can't taske medium bronze (13s) altho that is what I like.

Is a ladder braced small box Gibson not up to the task? I mean back in the day, light gauge strings almost didn't exist.

[jedzep]

LG1's are built sturdily, and if I liked such a heavy string I'd try 'em out slack tuned back to D#, or a half step down. If you wake up one morning and the bridge is hanging off, rethink it. Good luck seating the heavy E ball end without squeezing the pin in there too tightly. A lifted bridge is easier to fix than a cracked one. Lay a straight edge across the top between the s'hole and bridge occasionally in case some change in the top profile begins to develop.

[tvguit]

The common problem with those ladder braced guitars is that they tend to fold in on themselves. There's no wood bracing the top from folding along the waist.

 

I have a 1939 Kalamazoo KG-12 that has 12s on it now and no top distortion. It has a lot to do with the strength of that particular top. They're all different.

[DCBirdMan]

WEll the bridge was reglued and it was all tightend up. Thing is I find that the G doesn't intonate right ... it's flat at the octave. My 2 CF-100Es are like this also. One is original, one reissue. The original is on the bay btw.

But with them I find that a 24 G is replaced with a 26 t he problem goes away. It's like this on 3 guitars ... some thing about Gibson scale ?

[retrorod]

I saw your '57 on Ebay, birdman......much 'cleaner' than mine......! Not sure 'how' it could be any better in tone, though!!!

What you describe in the listing is very similar however! Great Year