A diagram of the two variants of upper bout bracing on my Guild dreads (past and present). Variant 1 (left) has a thin cross brace in the position of the "popsicle brace" on Martin dreads. Variant 2 has a large ~quarter round "neck block extension" between the neck block and the first (transverse) brace. This neck block extension has a tongue in groove joint to the neckblock proper. In addition, two strip braces, which for lack of a better term, I'll call "wing" braces, extend from the 1st brace to the kerfed lining of the upper bout. On my '74 D-25M, the neck block extension is angular, with the corner facing the 1st (transverse) brace beveled. All the others have that corner rounded off, as shown in the diagram.