D-35 with a translucent top?

[wileypickett]

You don't have to, but think about it: Assuming you sand the soft top and apply pressure the grain lines will transfer the pressure and will stay stiff where the brace is, so that means on the surface of the top the "shadow" of the brace is at a very different shifted position now! I used a "thick top" for demonstration in the drawing below. The runout direction is from neck to lower bout of the top, not from left to right.
Now with a bookmatched top you have the effect in the other way for the other side. Bingo. That's why I said the real bracing is in the middle between the two top lines. I bet if you measure it inside and outside that's what it is.
If you would have no runout it would look like in the second drawing below.





Ralf

Ralf, I don't know if you're right or wrong, but that's some genius thinking outside the box, and I know better than to bet against you!

If the seller could photgraph the insde of the top, and if indeed the braces run the length of the two halves (i.e.: arent split) that would certainly lend credence to your theory.

By your reasoning, the top is acting as a sort of prism, refracting the bracing pattern. I like it!

 

[E-Type]

At least here is another one with a pattern that at least shows how the grain can cause these lighter and darker patches.

 

[Guildedagain]

Holy flamer D35! And I so need to learn how to play the other way, just in case.

 

[chazmo]

https://letstalkguild.com/ltg/index.php?threads/d35-bracing-pattern-what-the-heck.213828

 

[banjomike]

I once saw a top on a Gibson dreadnought that looked like that.
The Gibson had been in a house fire and was scorched, but not enough to blister the finish. The inner case lining was crispy, though, so the guitar was only a feww degrees away from catching fire.
It might have, if there had been enough oxygen inside the case. The outside of the case had some charred spots.

I have no ideas as to why the bracing shadows don't line up, but the Gibson was off, too.