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Hi All,
I just wanted to let everyone know about our new Rosettes that we offer. These rosettes are the classical guitar looking rosettes but made for a Steel String Guitar. These rosettes are hand made in Russia, and these 3 designs that I offer are made exclusively for Luthier Suppliers. You won't find these designs anywhere else in the world! These are some of the highest quality mosaic style rosettes available! I'm offering them for $22 each and free shipping. These are made from the same supplier that David Schramm uses on his classical guitars. Here are a few examples:



You can see the rosettes on page 2 of the products page Here
Enjoy!
Tracy

Tracy, I think they lok great. I've often wondered why SS builders havent used mosaic rossettes more often in the past (in my case it's lack of skill) I particularly like the bottom one.

One thing though, I think the top two soundboards want a bit of sanding before you install the rosettes

Colin

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

Thanks for your interest Colin! You're right, I couldn't find any nicely sanded soundboards , just rough stock, oh well, hope you can still see them okay.
Tracy

Hi,

Yes, the last one is very cool looking & may find it's way onto my next steelstring. Tracy, thanks for offering these up. We've all been watching your online business slowly but steadily growing and have been cheering you on.

I've often looked at the traditional classical rosettes available from LMI, Grizzly, etc. & wished they were a larger diameter for steel string sized soundholes. Sadly, I've not taken the plunge & tried constructing my own.

Skip

Thanks Skip! You are right, there are just too many things to learn when building a guitar, and you can only focus on a few things at a time. Building rosettes is another one of those things that takes a lot of time to build, and if you are in a hurry, it is just not cost effective. I feel the same as you about these rosettes...I've always wanted a classical guitar rosette with a slightly thinner width and a larger inside diameter so it would fit on my steel string guitar. I looked high and low and never found anyone willing to do this. When I found this supplier in Russia willing to do it for me, I jumped at the chance! I'll probably offer some new designs as the year goes on, but this is a nice start. Thanks for looking, and your kind words.
Regards,
Tracy

[QUOTE]Building rosettes is another one of those things that takes a lot of
time to build, and if you are in a hurry, it is just not cost effective.[/
QUOTE]

Not to direct criticism at you personally, Tracy, but
building guitars by hand, one at a time, is not cost effective. If you really
in a hurry, you can buy a very nice one from Collings, et al. Making the
rosette is one of the things I look forward to on every guitar. It's one of
the best chances to be creative and use my design sense. I can't see
giving that up in order to make my work more like a job in a factory, even
if it's not cost effective. More broadly, I'm disconcerted by how eager
many builders seem to be to take advantage of any new supplier, or jig,
who can make their work more factory-like. Why do we want to build
guitars ourselves, anyway? For the money? [that last was a joke]

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Howard,
All very good points indeed! But when you were just starting out, didn't you just want to finish a guitar without having to learn every component first, but slowly learning more difficult tasks as you build each guitar? For me, I built my first from scratch, but bought a pre-carved neck. I did make my rosette on my first, but it wasn't a fancy mosaic, just a simple cocobolo ring. My second is much fancier, but someone gave me a rosette and I used that. It's not like I'm in a hurry to finish because I want to sell them, as I'm only a hobby builder. I just want to learn one new thing with every build. My second, I spent time learning simple inlay. My 3rd, I will learn an armrest, soundport, and cut-away. These rosettes are for the builders who are learning the many elements of guitar building without sacrificing the beauty of a nice rosette. Thanks again for your post Howard, your work is just incredible, and an incredible inspiration to me.
Tracy

Valid points, too.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

ya know, I see these questions come up from time to time, should we be using jigs for this and that, should we use a premaid neck block or not? Are we a factory or are we a one of maker?

Does it REALLY MATTER?

What floats MY boat doesn't necessarily need to float ANYBODY else's!
IF I enjoy making every single pieces of a guitar right down to the frets,

GREAT!

If I want to buy premaid parts

GREAT!

Its MY guitar right! And its OK to do it my own way.

My 2 cents

LanceK38600.5978472222

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Very well said Lance!

BTW, I don't make my own tuners, I buy them premade.

_________________
Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Lance do you build your own boats too?! PIX!!

I want to, some day, build my own boat. Does that count?

[QUOTE=Mattia Valente] I want to, some day, build my own boat. Does that count?[/QUOTE]

Just remember--it's okay to add inlay, but DON'T cut a soundhole!

[QUOTE=CarltonM] [QUOTE=Mattia Valente] I want to, some day, build my own boat. Does that count?[/QUOTE]

Just remember--it's okay to add inlay, but DON'T cut a soundhole![/QUOTE]

Right.

*jots down some notes*