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Up until now I have used (in chronological order) a popsicle stick/scalpel jig, a Dremel/home made compass jig, a drill press cutter and a laminate trimmer/multiple centre hole base plate jig to cut the rosettes and sound holes on my guitars. Each new jig has been better than the previous one, but they all have their own set of problems too.

Last week end I made this jig, based on pictures on Sylvan Wells excellent site, and I think finally I have the ultimate rosette jig. Sylvan credits Tony Karol as the inspiration for his jig, and I have seen several other similar ones posted here, so I here's a big thank you to all you guys, you know who you are!

Disclaimer: I have not had a chance to test it yet, my new 3,3 KW 230V/110V site transformer (thanks for that tip Colin S!) has not arrived yet so I the new PC trimmer has not been used yet either. However, the jigs feels very solid, the adjustments are smooth yet firm, so I'm sure it will work beautifully.

The materials I used was just stuff I had on hand: 15 mm acrylic, 6M threaded rod and assorted parts from a discarded router fence (I didn't have a Telecaster knob like Sylvan, so I super glued a chunk of ebony on the threaded rod and turned it in the drill press!).

You pretty much see how the thing works form the snapshots, so here you go:

Top view:




Side:




Bottom:

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

FANCY!! That looks GREAT Arnt. It has to work great looking like that. Nice, clean and precise...NICE

Shane

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Canada

Nice job -- looks precise and plenty sturdy!

I bet there is a market for those if one of Karol, True, Wells or Rian decided to starting selling them

Great job, Arnt! But the design really is Tony Karol's. I just published my take
on it!

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Sylvan
http://www.wellsguitars.com

Arnt...very cool.

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Brad
Avon, OH

Neat job on that jig Arnt!

Arnt
First class work! Looks good!

Tom

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http://www.moriciguitar.com

Arnt that looks very neat and clean, I'm sure you'll love using it.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Nice, Arnt! Your version does indeed look production-worthy. It'd be a nice companion to the Cochran trimmer plunge device.

Arnt,

Please keep us posted on how you like this new jig. I'm now using a multiple center hole base plate on the laminate trimmer, and have yet to be convinced that it would be worth my while to switch to a jig like this. So, I'm very interested to hear your comparisons of the two methods.

Thanks.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Todd, looks like you have the center jig that they sell at Lee Valley which is a very nice but you cant' really micro-adjust it without taking the laminate trimmer off of it's base right?

The jig that Arnt built allows you to micro adjust while keeping the laminate trimmer attached to the jig, pretty slick when you need to widen a channel in the few thousands of an inch at a quick glance at the router bit. Rod built me one and to me, it's just the best set up so far, it will also help me route the truss rod channels with a simple add on that will index from the neck blank's side.