What is trestle bracing, and what advantages does it offer on Gretsch guitars that feature it? Is it a modern development or a vintage design?
Good questions. The short answer to all of the above is that trestle bracing is a distinctive bracing system used inside certain Gretsch hollow-body guitar models that improves tone by increasing sustain and decreasing feedback. Gretsch developed it and first used it in the late 1950s.
Have it. Rather, most Gretsch hollow-body instruments use a simpler internal support method called sound-post bracing, in which a vertical wooden dowel located directly under the bridge connects the top of the guitar to the back. The sound post itself doesn’t add much mass, so it affects sustain hardly at all. And since the sound post takes up very little space inside the guitar, the feedback characteristics of the body remain largely unchanged.
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Far more substantial than sound-post bracing, trestle bracing consists of two bridge-like spruce braces with a wide “U” shape that are in effect trestles (hence the name). These run parallel to each other down the center of the instrument interior from the neck joint to the center of the body, ending directly under the bridge. They’re between the f holes, just beneath the sides of the pickups and bridge.
Since each rigid trestle brace has two “feet, ” there are four points of attachment that are glued to the back of the guitar (versus one point of attachment for sound-post bracing). Originally, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, each of the four feet had “pilings” that served as the glued points of attachment with the back; modern-era trestle bracing dispenses with these.
The upper portions of the trestles are glued to the longer tone bar braces that also run in parallel down the underside of the top well past the bridge (and to which the pickups are fastened). This entire arrangement stiffens the top much more than a sound post does with its single point of attachment, aiding in control over feedback.
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Medical imaging technology shows an early 1960s Gretsch 6120 model from the side (above, with neck joint end at right), in which the trestle bracing with the original-era “pilings” can be seen, and from the top (below), which faintly shows both braces running parallel down the center of the top to just under the bridge.
The great advantage of trestle bracing is that it effectively enables a hollow-body guitar to respond more like a solid-body guitar while preserving classic hollow-body tone. That is, it offers notably greater sustain and control over feedback due to the increased mass (more wood), the increased dampening of the top, and the much more substantial coupling of the top to the back.
As with several other innovations, Gretsch developed trestle bracing in the late 1950s at the behest of Chet Atkins. The great guitarist sought more sustain from his namesake 6120 hollow-body model and also wanted to subdue the feedback typical of electric hollow-body guitar design. Atkins worked with Gretsch’s Jimmie Webster and with inventor/engineer Ray Butts in devising several improvements for Gretsch guitars. Trestle bracing was one of these; it debuted in 1958 among a suite of new features including the upper-bout tone switch, “Neo-Classic” fingerboard inlays and Butts’ Filter’Tron pickup, one of the world’s first humbucking pickups (if not
Gretsch 6119 Tennessean
Trestle bracing remained in use over the next few years, evolving slightly along the way. It was usually fashioned from spruce, although this wasn’t always consistent in the original era. It disappeared with the arrival of the thinner Electrotone body style in the early 1960s.
With the re-emergence of Gretsch in the modern era, trestle bracing was meticulously researched and offered once again as an authentic and tonally superior original-era design touch in several guitar models. It is a major feature on all Brian Setzer guitars and other select models, typically (but not always) referred to as “1959 trestle bracing.”As our project to convert a well-worn Gretsch Anniversary into a 50s-style 6120 nears its conclusion, Huw Price re-veneers the body – with a little help from his friends.
With a roll of veneer big enough for four tops, this cut-out is used to select the area of figuring we like best
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There are times in our lives when we need professional help. Fortunately, my friend Patrick Alexander is a professional and he offered to re-veneer the top for me. He owns a bag press and a vacuum pump, but I had to source the veneer myself and I wanted to emulate the quilted figuring of John Entwistle’s famous 6120 and the example featured in Stuart Walmsley’s Private Collection in these pages back in 2011.
The decision to re-veneer wasn’t taken for aesthetic reasons alone. The top had lost thickness from having twice been stripped and was covered in scratches, so I probably would have sanded through the surface layer if I’d tried to get rid of them. Acquiring quilted maple wide enough to cover a 16-inch body proved problematic. After trying and failing at every luthier supplier and veneer specialist in the UK, I found a company based in the Republic Of Ireland called Maru Wood Veneers.
They emailed sample photos of some suitable sheets, I chose the one I wanted and the veneer they sent was enough to do four tops. I cut out a body template and moved it over the veneer in order to select the area I liked best. Patrick placed the top over the chosen area, drew the shape onto the veneer with a pencil and cut the veneer with a very sharp knife, leaving an overhang of around 1cm all around the edge.
Gretsch G6120de 1957 Limited Edition Duane Eddy Pearl White
Some sources suggest hide glue would originally have been used to create the laminated top, but that seems implausible because Gretsch bodies don’t de-laminate as a result of steaming off necks. That rules out hide glue and aliphatic resin glues such as Titebond – both of which will ‘let go’ if you give them enough steam.
This low-tack veneer tape holds everything in position as the top is placed into the bag press and the air is extracted
Patrick recommended urea formaldehyde glue (Cascamite) because it sets crystal-hard and cannot be dismantled, plus it has a much longer open time than some other glues. The key to success was to ensure a very even coverage, so Patrick used a specialist glue roller tool to apply the Cascamite to the veneer’s rear surface.
Trestle Bracing Design
The top was flipped over, positioned onto the veneer and held loosely in position with veneering tape. The top was quickly placed inside the press, sealed up and the pump formed the vacuum. There was no danger of the top being crushed because a bag press provides even pressure front and back – about 14lbs per square inch.
The overhang allows for the veneer being drawn in, as it conforms to the top’s curve. However, if it’s too great, it can cause bulging up at the edges. It was a pretty thrilling experience to watch the veneer taking shape, but it was eight hours before the top could be removed from the press.
Thanks to Patrick’s expertise, the veneering couldn’t have gone any better and there were no cracks or bumps to deal with. The top was noticeably heavier and stiffer, with a brighter and clearer tap tone replacing the previously spongy and lifeless thud. Trimming the edges had to be done carefully because I didn’t want to remove any material from the original top.
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The method I settled on was to score most of the way through the veneer with a very sharp blade from the back while holding the top firmly against a wooden board. I cut about 2mm outside the edge then snapped off the veneer by pressing from the front.
A file was used to shave the veneer even closer to the edge, then I trued everything up with a sanding block.For the f-holes and pickup hole, I held the top up against a window so I could see light through them, and I traced the outlines onto the front with a pencil. This time, I scored the veneer from the front and pushed the veneer through, then filed and sanded as before. With all of the excess veneer removed, the top’s tap tone was further improved with a clearer and more distinct ping.
The re-veneer had caused the edges of the upper bout to curl upwards slightly, but they pressed flat easily enough. Where the warped f-hole points had previously pointed into the body, they were now flush with the top arch.
Gretsch Trestle Bracing
Clearly, the binding adds sufficient reinforcement, so Gretsch may well have left the points wider and squarer on unbound f-holes because the potential weakness was understood. Gretsch tops from this era were three-ply, and therefore a lot thinner than those made by Gibson and others.
The tedious task of binding the f-holes has to be completed before reassembling the body. Rothko & Frost supplied the ABS plastic binding – a black strip 0.5mm wide and a white strip 0.5mm wide. The ivory white I had used elsewhere wasn’t an option, so the plan is
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