For comparison - the original top of the guitar. I'm not surprised it failed. The bracing design is basically the same CF Martin X-Brace design that I've used in the new top. It's pretty much a standard in steel strung acoustic guitars. But not only are the braces crudely made and badly glued, but there are parts missing. No finger braces and no sound hole bracing. The brace ends have been reinforced with big blogs of some sort of glue. Pretty shoddy. Of course the less important back bracing had been done quite neatly. You can see that through the sound hole on the finished product when it's hanging in the shop window. The guitar's top, structurally and sonically far more important than the back, being out of sight had been slapped together by drunken monkeys.