Next up: building the rosette.
In looking at photos of Tom's guitars, several of them had sound holes bound in ebony, a look I liked, and since the body, headplates, fretboard and bridge of this guitar will all be Brazilian rosewood bound in ebony, I thought an ebony-bound sound hole would complement them nicely. All that was left was to choose one of Tom's Braz. rosettes.
Tom sent me photos of the rosettes he's used before and there was one of his more recent designs I favored, but the guitar's soundhole wasn't bound. I work a lot in Photoshop, so it was no problem to create a mockup of the rosette with a bound sound hole and send it to Tom.
Tom responded this way:
I thank you for Photoshopping it because I have often thought about doing it but it never looked right in my mind. This rosette will definitely be a go-to for me in the future.
Then he went to work.
Here's the top with some of the materials used to make the rosette.
The rosette nears completion.
Trimming the excess from the soundboard.
The finished rosette against the back and a closeup of the sound hole binding.
