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Hey All! Well here is my first big step towards a guitar... the rosette. It still needs to be sanded down a bit, but I figured I'd take a break to post some pictures. The wood is cocobolo from BobC and the abalone is from Andy DePaul (Thanks guys!!) - the purfling is 10/10/10 b/w/b.

I am pretty disapointed that a rushed the miters for the abalone, but overall I am satisfied very happy. The routing was slow but I was being extremely careful (you'll see why).





Say hello to Harley!


Prepare to be mortified..... yes, these are the tools that I used. Yes those are Home Depot bits - RotoZip or something. 5 bits for $5 and I didn't have any tearout though . And that is the Dremel circle-cutter which worked pretty nice actually. I obviously  plan on upgrading my tools as I go, but these worked in a pinch.

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

Hey Chansen, Looks really good to me regardless of the tools used. I look forward to seeing your work with "proper" tools. Work to be proud of already. Keep it up!

(I can't believe I beat Hesh to a post)

I forgot to mention (though it is kinda obvious) that I did go with a bound soundhole too. I liked the look when I saw one of Rick Davis' guitars at the Westcoast get-together, and I copied his method for doing it.

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

Great looking rosette Christian!

Keep up the good work!

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Reguards,

Ken H

Hello?! NICE first rosette!

I think your being a bit tough on yourself . The rosette looks great .
Please tell me how you bound the hole ? I like the look too. Well done !
Harley Rocks !

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CRAIG LAWRENCE of AUSTRALIA
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looks great from here!!

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My soundclick xx luthier blog xx luthier soundclick

Wow, that is fantastic work whether it be a first or a 50th!

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Christopher C. Cordle
North Muskegon, MI

http://www.yardsaleunderwear.com
http://www.facebook.com/christopher.cordle

I actually love that rosette. Great choice of wood hue...it really sets off the brightness of the abalone.

Great job, Christian! You're a braver man than I!

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Hey that looks pretty snaz!! I think I may use a similar scheme on my rosette, although a different wood I really like the deep abalone blue through the center... very cool!
Cheers
Charliewood

[QUOTE=burbank]Great job, Christian! You're a braver man than I![/QUOTE]

I'm not so sure it's bravery... I'm just too dumb to get scared.

Thanks for looking everyone and the nice words, the only part I'm still a little concerned about is on the left side of the rosette. The purfling came up out of the channel a bit as I glued it and I hope I don't accidentally sand through it.

The soundhole binding was pretty easy actually. I started by taking the leftovers (center) of the cocobolo I used on the rosette and cutting out the center to get a ring (with the dremel and circle cutter). The ring has an ID of (aprox) 3.75" and is 0.080 wide. Then I routed a channel deeper and deeper on the soundboard as if I was cutting out the sound hole - but I left just a paper thin amount behind. The bit actually went through lightly in a couple spots. Then I basically just inlayed the ring in the channel. I used LMI glue and it was a very very tight fit - I put a weight on it and let it sit for 45 minutes. That was about it.

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

Do the tools matter, other than the pride in having them and the additional ease of accomplishing the task?  Seems to me you were able to accomplish the task, professionally, with the tools you had on hand.  Some people use a scoring knife and chisel.

Yours looks great.  If you hadn't said what you used, we'd have all thought you used a CNC Rosette maker with a pooch insert.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Looks fantastic.
A great 1st rosette. WAY!!!!!!! better than mine

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Very nice work for sure!

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Beautiful work!  Just to make you feel better about your tool choice, I did my first rosette and soundhole using the exact same tools you did.  I even used the rotozip bits.  I went slow and had no tearout as I suspect you did too.  Great job!

Disapointed with what?? It looks great!!

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

[QUOTE=peterm]Disapointed with what?? It looks great!! [/QUOTE]

Just the fact that I rushed the whole abalone part. I could have spent more time ensuring that the miters were a perfect match... but i got excited and wanted to get it finished. Overall I am very happy, just mad because I  have to tell myself to slow down far too often.

Thanks for all the postive feedback, it helps to get some encouraging words.

Christian

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

Christian, you have nothing to be apologetic about. I'd worry about you if you weren't excited about your first build. We all know that the first one isn't going to be perfect and its a learning process. Well, you've learned something. Seems to me that things are moving all as expected. Looking forward to seeing more. Toss Harley a biscuit for me.

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Aoibeann

I think it looks great, first or no!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)