It’s a system that goes further than the piano bracing, consisting of transverse wooden slats on the soundboard. Greg Smallman doubled this principle, which allowed him to almost eliminate the thickness of the wood.
The piano bracing, unlike the harpsichord, was created this way because sound homogeneity was what was sought. On traditional guitars, with a fan-shaped brace, the same note played on an open string does not sound with the same timbre on the neighboring string, and even less on the next one. Segovia conceived the sound colors through the playing of the right hand and continued this work through the fingerings of the left hand. He therefore used a structural flaw of the guitar – its lack of homogeneity – for an incomparable musical benefit; that’s all the contribution of Segovia or Bream. On a “lattice” guitar, there is not such a big difference in the nature of the sound between an open E and the same E on the 2nd string. Only the contrast colors remain – the opposition between ponticello and sul tasto – something that is done very well on a study guitar. It’s pretty boring because one of the characteristics of the guitar, very rarely shared in the music world, is its ability to make colors. That is, the ability, through a micro-inflection of the finger, to create a sound that has been clearly modified and can be heard by everyone.
Guitar bracing refers to the structural support inside the guitar that helps shape the sound of the instrument. The lattice bracing system, as described in the original text, is a unique design where transverse wooden slats are used to support the soundboard, allowing for a thinner and more flexible soundboard. This design is said to produce a more uniform sound and eliminate the differences in timbre between different strings.
Traditional guitar bracing, on the other hand, uses a fan-shaped brace that results in a thicker soundboard and varying timbres between different strings. Some musicians prefer the traditional bracing for its variety of sound colors that can be produced through the use of different finger techniques.
It is important to note that the choice between bracing systems is a matter of personal preference and the type of music that the guitar will be used for. Both traditional and lattice bracing have their own unique strengths and weaknesses and both have been used by musicians to produce beautiful music.
Classical Guitar
