Well, you get two for the price of one here.
First, Part II of my "segmented rosettes based on recent inspiration" thread. (The first was Cocobolo, documented in another thread.) Here it goes:
The soundboard is Adirondack. The materials --- spalted maple with black and maple fiber for the lines --- were selected to complement the theme of this guitar, which is Ebony with sapwood. The box is coming nicely; pics to come soon.
And now for the philosphy. I think the most exciting part of building is finding ways to improve. In the first few builds, glaring mistakes made that easy --- "this time, why dont I build a guitar that doesn't have huge freaking binding gaps!" But once you can build instruments without obvioius blunders, developing craftsmanship becomes a matter of focusing on details. So, over the past couple years, I start each build only after looking over my past builds and trying to identify the most plain-looking feature. My primary focus for that build is turning a few so-so aspects of my prior guitars into a positive focal point on this one.
For the two instruments I'm building now, the rosettes were certainly on the short list of features I wanted to improve. And although I have seen many segmented rosettes here that humble my work, this is a huge improvement over my traditional black/white lines surrounding shell. Thanks to everyone here who provided the ideas and the know-how. On to the next so-so feature!
But I did figure out a fix, and more importantly, I devised a method for ensuring that I won't have gaps in the future.
)
Clinton