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I've read places that it is best to "clean" the rosewood before gluing sides or bracing to the rosewood back. I wanted to check in and see how many people perform this step and what product they use to clean up the resin the rosewood produces on its surface and how well they work. As a side note I use yellow glue not HHG, not sure if this plays a part in the decision either.

(when i layed up my veneer stack i simply sanded the surface imediatly prior to glue up and that seemed to work fine, however there won't be any stress on the head stock veneers so i wasn't concerned at the time, however the box of the guitar is a different story.)

Thanks in advance!!!

This has been discussed a few times. It boils down to opinion, but I think the majority will agree that a freshly planed surface is great for bonding, no additional work needed. A freshly sanded surface is the next best thing. Solvents might remove contamination in the glue joint, but they are just as likely to spread them over your glue joint - not so good.
Some will agree, others will not. YMMV

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

I just freshen the surface with a scraper (preferred) or 220 sandpaper prior to gluing.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Nate-
I've noticed quite a change in the Indian Rosewood over the past 35 yrs- I think it may be related to 'plantation' rosewood being more common?
I still have a few sticks of older IRW and they are heavy and very resinous- the surface feels 'shiny/waxy' and there are few pores showing. I think this might have been the type of wood that inspired some makers to use solvent to try to 'remove' the resins and 'improve' the gluing surface.
Most of the IRW I seem to get these days is much less resinous and more open-pored.
I've never had much problem gluing freshly scraped (or sanded) rosewood, without solvent treatment. I'd second (both) Steves' advice on this issue.
Whether you want to try to reduce 'bleeding' with some sort of solvent pre-treatment is a separate issue.

Cheers
John

Great advise from all the above.
No need to worry about Indian holding a joint-just make sure the joint is as perfect as you can make it.
Woodjoint that is !
Mike

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Mike Collins

Thanks all, glad to hear that proper surface prep should be all it takes.