Looking forward to the "after" photo.😁

Hi guys,
Finally got some binding materials for the guitar`s rosette.
What do you think? Hope you like it!
Finished carving braces for top and back, and will be gluing them in a couple of days.
Can't wait to route the rosette channel, hopefully next week.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psh0wcjyj5.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psxqsb74ro.jpg

Cheers,
Fran

Lovely

What is the brick-like layer to either side of the abalone? What will you use for binding?

Ed

Very tasteful

Steve

Cheers mates,

The abalone strip is sandwiched between two strips of golden pearl.

I plan using curly maple binding for the sides with an abalone strip around the top contour. Any suggestions? Hope the top binding isn't too much, as I wouldn't want the guitar to look overburdened with bindings.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...pshmn3jtxd.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...pssyhwhufd.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psuwrel571.jpg

Looks like this except cocobolo instead of maple.

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/gl3bcWj.jpg[/IMG]

Looking nice! The contrast between maple and rosewood would be even better, imo.

I like the look.
Hopefully you are planning on installing the rosette before you brace the top. Much better to do that on a flat piece of wood.
Travis

Cheers Travis.
Yes, I'm finishing the rosette and will be gluing the braces in the next few days.

Couldn't work on my guitar for some time, but I managed to route the rosette and install the abalone and purflings in place. I modified my router's base with great success as per your suggestions.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psaeiavfom.jpg

Applied a coat of shellac first, then put everything in place, and flooded with thin cyanoacrylate.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...pslfsbdycc.jpg

First mistake, I cut the purflings too high, and had to struggle to scrape the excess off. Now they're just a tad above the guitar's top, as in the next picture.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psk1kf5whg.jpg

What do you think? Would it be safe to sand the rosette totally flat using a rotorbital sander? I have a Makita bo3710 for this.
I am concerned to continue scraping more material off using my scraping blade, in case I damage the guitar's top.

This is proving to be a great learning experience.
Thanks!
Fran

I might use a card scraper to flatten it all out level with the top before I went to a sander. Very quick to scrape.

Ed

Agreed, scrape it to height, far cleaner finish than that left with a power tool.

Steve

It worked great, cheers mates.

Took quite a lot of time to level it all out, but now I can swipe my finger on top of the rosette without noticing the edge of it.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...pstl5c0nba.png

As you can see, the wood on the edge of the rosette is still a little bit darkened by shellac and cyanocrylate, maybe this is a good time to start sanding all this area thus getting rid of the adhesive and shellac?

Can't wait to start voicing the top!

Thanks,
Fran

After a lot of reading on this forum and other websites, drew the bracing pattern on top of the guitar. Thought I'd share it here in case you guys spot something bad or unusual.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psysmstban.jpg

I plan sanding the top horizontal brace flat, as I guess it will be easier to install the fingerboard afterwards, being my first guitar and all.... Is it a good idea??

Still wonder whether to add a popsicle brace or not. Recently read an article by Bryan Kimsey http://www.bryankimsey.com/popsicle/ and his solution of not using one but adding a trapezoidal brace with beveled edges wedged in tightly between the neckblock and soundhole brace.

Have some of you used this technique?

Looks okay, though I'd have the bridge plate extend further towards the butt end of the guitar. For a very small bodied guitar, you likely don't need to double the side and bottom braces.

I use a one-piece end block that is more or less "L" shaped, with the leg of the L glued to the underside of the top and abutting the upper transverse brace (sound hole brace). It also houses the truss rod that extends through a hole in that brace. In some cases, I extend the two braces on the sides of the sound hole through cutouts in the upper transverse brace. They are angled to be about parallel with the sides of the fingerboard. They extend to the linings of the upper bout. Between the extended braces and "L" shaped end block, a popsicle brace isn't possible.

Thank you Charles!
I didn't know of an 000 or om sized guitar with single side and bottom braces. Do you have some examples to share?

Your approach of end block sounds great.
As per the bridge plate, i thought its sole purpose was to protect the top from the string ends, and for that reason I made it smaller.