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I've bee working on two guitars at once and I thought that I'd share a few pics with you all. The first is a bubinga/Engleman. 0000 This picture is of the rosette. This is the rosette where I learned to start the cut under the fret board. Notice that the herringbone is not centered between the purfling. It still looks pretty good.

This is the rosette for the redwood/mahogany OM. I decided to get ambitious and do abalone. This one came out great. I started the cut under the finger board and made slight adjustment.

This is the bracing pattern of the 0000. This is the first one without the popsicle brace. The sound hole braces are tucked under the X and the upper Transverse brace and are inlet into the head block.

Mike,

Fantastic work. I would not even have noticed that the 1st rosette was off, it looks very close. I would take it! What are you using to cut the rosette channels? Where did you get the abalone, and what size is that? Love that abalone in the redwood top.

Jeff

Nice work Mike, I didn't notice either until you said something. I like the color of the redwood. Abalone really adds to a guitar. I may just make it standard on all of mine.

Nice bracing shot too, very clean.

Mike, solid looking work. Very clean looking. Nice job.

Everything looks really nice Mike...
Say, what are your dimensions for the X bracing.
width and height. Just curious!!
Thanks,
WalterK

I bought the abalone at LMI. IT is the .063 curved strips. The Redwood has a wash coat of shellac. I didn't do the shellac on the Engleman top. No particular reason I didn't other than I forgot to. I use the StewMac dremmel base and circle jig with their 1/16th spiral bit.

I don't have my notes with me at the moment but I know that the X brace is 5/16th wide and the tone bars are 1/4. I'll get the height if you wish but they are from the Cumpiano book. The finger braces were 1/4 x 1/4. I think the transverse brace is 1/2 x 1/2.Mike Mahar38410.9771990741

Both rosettes look great, I've never seen a rule laid down that says the herring bone MUST be in the centre between the purfling! I think it looks even better when it's not!

Great work, I'd be very happy if you sent both tops to me!

I like the AX bracing,very neat.

Colin

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Great looking Mike! I really like the rosettes. Very clean all around.

Hey, that redwood looks familiar to me somehow....

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Mike really nice neat work. I agree with Colin. The herringbone rosette looks great.

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Great job. I find the rosette the most challenging part of the building. Everyone looks closely at it. These look great.

[QUOTE=Don Williams]
Hey, that redwood looks familiar to me somehow....
[/QUOTE]

Hmmm? I wonder why that is.

Talking of redwood, can someone out their in US land give me the rundown on redwood tops? On this side of the pond I have never even seen, let alone heard, a redwood topped guitar, I know I've led a sheltered life. None of the tonewood suppliers have it and none of the custom builders that I know use it. So what's it like? Stiffness, density workability, response etc? Please use comparatives, stiffer than WRC not as stiff as Englemann etc. I'm very happy with the various European spruces (and WRC) but would hate to think I'm missing the best thing since 'West Wing'.

Colin

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

Very nice Mike! I especially like the rosette in the redwood top, nice choice of appointments. What will the bindings be on the RedMo!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Colin,

Alan Carruth said that redwood is like "super cedar".
It has everything you like about cedar, and more of it.
It's really great wood. I'm working on a OO right now with some redwood. It has a lot of promise...

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

[QUOTE=LanceK] What will the bindings be on the RedMo![/QUOTE]
Sycamore bindings. I got them from John Hall. I'll use a BWB purfing on the top. No purfling on he sides.

Remember, though, that redwood is even softer than cedar. Very easy to damage. That said, I got a sample years ago from Craig Carter's stash--it was virtually weightless and had that to-die-for "hollow" sound when it was handled. The color was beautiful, too. I want to try building with some, too, when I grow up.

Carlton

They look great! I would never have noticed the herringbone not being centered if you didn't point it out. What will the bindings on the redwood be? Or were the sycamore for the redwood? If so, what is going on the other?

The sycamore is for the redwood/mahagony. I have not decided on the binding engleman/bubinga. I happen to have more sycamore and some EIR. If the sycamore is easy to install on the redwood, I'll probably use it on the other guitar. Otherwise, I got back to the rosewood. I made a tactical blunder when I was bending the bubinga sides. I bend my sides first and then trim to the final shape after the block are glued on. I had plenty of extra width and I could have easily ripped off four binding strips before bending. I didn't think of it until after I'd bent the sides.

I really like working with the redwood. It is more prone to splintering and the slinters are thick and deep. When I cut out the shape of the top to with 1/2" of its final shape on the band saw, some splinter extended into the top. Fortunately, the don't go beyond where the binding channel is going to be. Before cutting the binding channel, I've got to score the top will a grammal.

As for the herringbone rosette, I'm still keeping the top and I doubt that I'll mention it to anyone who sees the final guitar. But this is a luthier's forum (and an official one at that) and I thought that it was important to point it out and, more importantly, to mention that the problem is easily avoidable if you just start your channel under the freboard, make a small cut and just look at it to see if it is correct before you run the complete circle. On the redwood top, my circle jig wasn't perfect either and I just made a tiny cut, and while the dremmel was still running I adjusted the diameter of the circle jig until it was correct. This turned out to be a pretty safe operation.