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Hi

Please attach pictures of your rosette sound hole edging

I'm in desperate need of inspiration, particularly dark woods surrounding the sound hole, im really stuck for what to do with mine, have some bogoak I can use, abalone,rosewood and some other bits

Tia

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I've always been a fan of Michihiro Matsuda. He is always thinking "out of the box" and has some very clean, contemporary designs. You might find a bit of inspiration here that isn't quite along the "traditional" vein. YMMV

https://www.flickr.com/photos/matsudagu ... 947267253/

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Peter

The rosette is only for decoration -- so, IMHO, it should harmonize with your headplate, your binding and purfling, your fretboard and bridge, and your tail decor (wedge or ?). And they should all harmonize with each other -- and with the wood species used for the top and for the sides and back. When you're finished the guitar will look more "put together" if they all do. If possible, all these elements should be chosen early in the build process. Matsuda does a wonderful job at that.

I've seen some truly beautiful rosettes that actually detracted from the guitar (again, IMHO) because they had no relevance to anything else in the build.

Thanks, this was what I'm thinking, I have some spare bogoak that matches the back/sides and headplate

But might be a bit too much dark wood ?

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I learned that the rosette was not solely for decoration but to strengthen around the opening of the sound hole. I do believe there is some truth to this but perhaps not.

This is my last one - all Alaskan Yellow Cedar including the neck. The binding and the soundhole binding is black plastic, but any dark wood would look nice there

Ed

Here's my very first one. I need to do another this style sometime, with imagery over a solid ring background framed by purfling rings.

All the ones I've done since have been open designs, with imagery inlaid straight into the softwood. I often put something at the top left corner, oriented so it doesn't look upside down in either hanging on the wall or playing position. And usually a painting inside the soundhole, which may or may not combine with the rosette.




The harp guitar is probably my favorite. Quite a challenge coming up with how to do those thorns, and the proper sequence to get the vines intertwined without any gaps, and getting the whole thing shellacked without the rosewood tree branch from bleeding everywhere. And the pumpkin's face is actually cut through to the inside of the soundbox I had originally planned to glue gold MOP to the back side of it so the face would be recessed and look like it's glowing from inside. But I like this even better.

If you did a typical veneer type rosette in bog oak with a thin line of paua within it, and then use it for position markers and possibly an peghead inlay it might be fairly easy to do and look nice .
A shell design inlaid into the bog oak similar to japanese lacquerware might look nice but be a little more work.
https://www.rubylux.com/item/1429688-AS ... quer-Box78
http://www.creative-museum.com/en/conte ... -hairpin-3

Wow wow wow! Now I have to learn to do that!

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

This is my last one, 84 hand cut pieces of maple veneer set in a bog oak dust/epoxy mix with bwb purfling on either side.

Dang, add another year on to my build process.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Nice work Dennis K, way to get out of the box.

I have been using spalted maple ala Greenfield andDannyV. Partly because I have a pile of spalted cut-offs, but mostly because I think it looks great.

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My memory is so good, sometimes I remember things that never happened.

I used to do simple shell inlay, and now do my true "radial rosette", unless its a custom request.
Anybody see joints? There are none (there’s a spalt gap that I left in).

Most of my binding is koa, so it disappears in the context of the whole build, intentionally.

You guys are all thinking outside the box. I have to build another guitar just to try some of these ideas out.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Here's one from a few years back. The dark wood is ziricote, as are the B&S and headplate.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

A few years ago Robbie O’Brien compiled a collection of rosette designs contributed by members of OLF and other forums. You can see it in this video (the gallery of rosettes starts at about 7:30).
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PFxfdpbfw_U

Redwood Burl outlined with plain old BWB

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Little fancier, on a hybrid classical. Spalted beech/thin herringbone, with 1mm BWB inside, 1.3mm BWB outside the bones.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Here are a couple,

Mr Colbert, that is really crisp clean work.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Thanks,

To be honest and up front, the channels are cut cnc. All of the purflings are cut, mitered and installed by hand.

M

Curly maple on spruce & abalone on redwood.

Pat

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Pat

Here's one from a classical guitar I'm working on. The woods are all natural colors. I make the parts using hand plane jigs, and build up the rosette in place.



Here's how I use this on steel strings.

Alan, what is the shiny material in the first one?

Pat

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Pat