b'The four pictures on these two pages are of the same process: the shaping of the bracing to achieve a certain result. Many guitar makers refer to this as voicing, which is fair enough in a way, as we are certainly trying to make the guitar respond in a certain way, almost teaching it to speak. But - I think of it as an engineering process, not a musical tuning. If the engineering is what I want it to be, then the response will be what I want.I try to plan the stress distribution in my mind, avoiding sharp concentrations, and encouraging even distribution so that the whole soundboard plays its part in strength and in tone. The results of all the guitars made over the past fifty years feed their way into each new guitar, tiny little changes every time and mentally noted, judged by how the guitar plays and sounds, and by my professional customers and the music that they make. There is a very good practical reason why the final shaping is done at this stage, it isnt some magical, or even musical reasoning.Its the only way to hold the wood while you work on it, sometimes down to very small dimensions, it isnt practical to do that before the brace is glued into position. Ive noticed that other makers make the same chisel strokes, in the same places as I do, but I dont feel the need to introduce any non-provable smoke and mirrors. Its my soundboard and Ill tap if I want to!Notice my favourite chisel, made from a car spring.We start the shaping with templates, and Paul does the rough shaping before I complete it. I am noticing that Pauls shapes are getting closer to mine as time goes on. One day169'