Acoustic Guitar Construction

Quick, accurate and easy -- here's the Taylor factory method for installing rosettes. Note that sealing the sound-board rosette channels is not a suggestion, its a must -- other wise the CA will cause the top to turn bright "yellow green". The logic of using pre-cut inlay is very evident.

http://www.taylorguitars.com/video/fact ... a+Rosettes

That guy has a really boring job. four years doing rosettes?
That is over 30,000.

Yeah plus all those CA fumes! But the system does work well

Wow, he's really fast, it takes me many more times to install a rosette than that.

Here's one I'm working on for a tenor uke, crushed/broken abalone crazy paving style, flooded and filled with ca.

WOW that's beautiful Bob, thanks for sharing...would like to know more about your method.

Thanks, oh..and welcome!

Ray :)

Hi Ray and thanks for the welcome :)

I first rout a channel about 3/8" wide and make it about 10 thou deeper than my abalone stock. I always brush at least 2 coats of shelac into the groove and around the rosette area.
I then install the purfling lines with ca, in this case it was green, red, white, black, white. I sand these almost flush after the ca has cured.
Now the fun part, wrap your abalone offcuts/strip/sheet/dots/whatever in a soft cloth and beat the hell out of it on a hard surface with a hammer!
It's surprisingly difficult to make the pieces small enough for inlay, so I then use my fret pullers (end cutter) to chop them up some more.
Once I have enough pieces, I start to place them into the groove between the purfling lines with a pair of tweezers. Ones I have filled an inch or so of the groove, I use a very tiny artist's paint brush to adjust/push their positions until I like what i see. I then flood a small amount of super watery ca onto the pieces to set them in place and then carry on filling the groove.
Once the rosette is filled with abalone scraps, I flood the whole thing with ca and allow it to cure overnight. I repeat this flooding maybe 4 or 5 times until the rosette is slightly overfilled (always allowing curing time after each flooding) and then sand flush with 180 grit followed by 320.

The ca sits over the top of the abalone and creates a lovely 3d effect, so you don't have to sand any abalone and cover it with scratches :-)


Another way and a slightly different scheme I thought of doing this; you leave the abalone slightly proud of the channel and then 'grout' it in using black epoxy. When the epoxy has set, you sand the abalone flush. Maybe I will try soon.

Bob

Bob - thanks for the pix and description of your process. Looks very nice.

Off-topic: What is the country like in your area? Big city or small city or countryside or...?