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Here's a picture of a rosette one of my customers sent me. His name is Thomas Groppi from Canada. I thought it was pretty nice and wanted to share.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
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The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

nice Bob -thanks for sharing - please invite Thomas to join us here!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Very unusual and very nice Bob. I like it

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Very cool! I could see something similar with a planetary or lunar theme.

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

Hopefully you get some pics of that finished. would be nice to see.

I like it. Not only does it look neat, but it would also be a good "cover up" for an off-center sound hole. Not that any of us would make that mistake.

Thanks for sharing that, Bob - that's real creativity!

I like it, Bob. Spalted maple I presume. Nice design. This could inspire me to start using some of those blanks you sold me. But first things first. I hope others will show off their designs and guitars, to keep us inspired in moving forward.

I think it just might be a portal into another dimension of guitar making.

Thank you all so much...(tx Bob too) It really motivates me to build more... I ve acutally spend a few nights drawing many rosette that were all too complicated : Less is more. Anyway i m pretty happy with this one and i think it will be my signature for future guitars. The wood use is redwood burl (flamed and quilted). And yes i had a moon in mind (kinda old Django moon stuff...). The guitar is closed now and i am finishing the binding next week. How do you post a picture in this forum ? I am happy to be a member too.

The hardest thing now is to design a bridge that will be in tune with the rosette !!!

Thomas

Hi Tom
Glad to see you made it here. I know you will enjoy sharing shop talk with the folks here. In the reply box you will see an icon with a green tree. Click on that if the image is on a website. Second tree with the green up arrow is when the image resides on your hard drive. You have to reduce the image size to 150kb.

_________________
Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Hello Bob

Thanks for the tip.
Here are a few pics that i took before closing it. As you can see it is a bit of an experiment ! Only a few very low bracings...Should be a loud one and hopefully it won't brake. The soundboard is from an old dead still standing western red cedar... I use hide glue to join the top and for the kerfling (hand made too).

Hi Thomas and welcome to the OLF. Great pictures!

Neato!!

How in the world did that rosette and the resulting hole for the rosette get cut? I have never understood how Mike Doolin and others do that spiral thing.

John

[QUOTE=John Kinnaird] How in the world did that rosette and the resulting hole for the rosette get cut? I have never understood how Mike Doolin and others do that spiral thing.

John[/QUOTE]

John,

I'm sure Thomas will tell us and I've probably got it wrong, but they look to be all circle cuts but with different diameters and centre points. The arc that bisects the rosette looks to be a very big curve with centre point somewhere outside the bass top bout.

Nicely executed Thomas - very original!!Dave White38656.4615162037

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Thanks for the welcoming Doug :-)
Thanks for the all compliments and hopefully i ll get a good bridge design. I ve been drawing and drawing and cannot yet get something good. Ah ah ah :-)

Dave is 100 percent right this is exactly how i did it. Using an extension rig (the one from stew) on the dremel base. For the rosette and the big offset circle i just had to drill a diameter hole inside the rosette ( easy because this one gets cut out). And as Dave mentioned for the large arc i had to drill a diameter point on the bass top bout so i used a spare spruce square that i clamp on top of my soundboard and drill the hole in that last one. (really easy jig to make).

Cheers !

I like it too, Thomas. Is the top flat or do you have some arch in it? Just thinking if it was arched whether the x braces, alone, are strong enough to hold the shape.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Hi Ron

Yes the top is arched (the bottom of the mold too...). The X-bracing are arched too. But it is true that with few bracing you loose a tiny bit for the arching.

But due to the fact that i ve hand carved in the soundboard i am not loosing much of the arc.

Cheers

Thomas, you're saying that the top is not bent to fit the bracing, it is actually scooped out concave to fit, kinda like an arch top guitar?

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Yup but kind of half / half. My mold's bottom who is a cheap spruce top is carved in (like an archtop with a mini hand-plane).

The soundboard itself is sanded in a arched way (less than the mold).Finally the X-bracing using a jig has the same arching has the mold too.

And as you know for fitting all of them. Go-bars pushing the X-Bracing (while gluing them) to the soundboard who is sitting (during this process) on the bottom of my mold.

Now my back was bent to fit the back bracing :-)

Cheers

Thanks, Thomas
Let us see the finished product and tell us how she sounds when all is complete. Also curious as to how well it holds together. Looks really neat.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Yup i will for sure ( cross my fingers too :-))
I am french polishing it so if everyhting goes well before christmas this guitar should be completed

Best