Well, the build process hit its first wrinkle. John sent me a photo of the top, which is sanded to the thickness he uses for assembly.
https://imgur.com/a/w2QlPO1
John alerted me to an anomaly in the wood grain, just below the rosette. It’s a little hard to see unless you zoom in, but the grain waivers and blurs right next to the top seem. You could sort of see this in the photo of the raw top, but we thought it would sand out. It almost did. John told me he always wants things to be perfect so he would start over if I wanted.
I was really torn about that decision. Part of me thought the flaw was so minor and cosmetic and would be under the strings anyways that I could overlook it. The other part of me was worried I would be staring at the top after I got the guitar and regretting it. In the back of my mind was also the fact that I loved the rest of the top and the rosette was perfect. And I disliked the idea of wasted effort and materials.
I decided I needed to sleep on it before I made a decision. The next morning, before I could respond to John, he let me know that it was bothering him enough that he just went ahead and started a new top with similar color and grain. He still had enough Brazilian rosewood from the back and sides to do another rosette. Class Act! It really says a lot about John as a luthier that he would make the call on his own that something just isn’t good enough for him, especially at that stage of the build and the minor nature of the issue. The new top looks amazing and now just keeping my fingers crossed that this is the one!
https://imgur.com/a/EZG9dpz