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Hi guys,

Been a while; sometimes life gets in the way of hobbies Anyway, starting #8, and beginning to work on more detail and cleaner work. I've never made a guitar with a very complicated rosette, and this go around I am inlaying some MOP for the rosette. In the past, after thicknessing my top, I draw where the bracing and soundhole goes, then inlay my rosette, and glue my bracing in my radius dish. Now I'm wondering if anyone radiuses the top first, and then installs rosette? I'm wondering if this can eliminate any gaps from the radius of the top?

As always, advice is always appreciated.

Sean

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change isn't synonymous with improvement
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I can just speak for myself but, I always install the rosette on a flat, unbraced top. I do pretty much as you have done. I mark the saddle location and the bracing and then the center of the sound hole.

I leave the soundboard on the thick side with the top cleaned up pretty well. Then I install the rosette and sand it flush then flip it over and thickness leaving it a little thick again to give me room for final sanding.

I think bracing the top first will cause some difficulty in cutting and inlaying the rosette

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Same as Joe Beaver

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guitarsbygiltzow.com

Same

Seems way too hard to support the top with braces attached. I think the top would flex under the router and probably cause a less accurate cut.
I've never noticed any gaps open around the edge after bracing.

+1 Specifically, I thickness to about .150", install the rosette, level it, flip the top and bring it to thickness from the other side. Then I cut the soundhole and brace.

+2 unless it's a 12. Then it's about .180".

One other point on doing it on a flat top, I lay the top on a piece of plywood and drill through the top and well into the ply on the soundhole center. That gives you a solid anchor hole for the center pin. (The one the router rotates on)

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

I lay the top on a sheet of plywood and run the router pin through a hole in the center of the sound hole location too. In my case, I have a dedicated piece of plywood/work board and the hole in the plywood has a metal bushing in it that matches the diameter of the router pin. With the bushing, the router pin has no free play at all and the hole can't enlarge from use over time and get sloppy.

I put the rosette into the unbraced top too. No gaps around the rosettes after bracing.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I've had trouble with the top ending up too thin when I thicknessed before installing the rosette, so now I do as James does and finish thicknessing from the other side. To eliminate slop around the pin I really like Jay's approach of using a board with a bushing underneath--I think I'll try that.

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

Sean,

I have done it with the top braced,not by design but because I had my head where the sun don't shine. I will not do it again. At least not if I can help it.

cecil

flat, un-braced, no soundhole. on the other hand i don't use shell either.

Shell or no shell, doesn't matter. I do it flat, unbraced, on a work board and before the soundhole is cut out.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"