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I have decided to bind the soundhole on a guitar I am building since I had an accident with the inner ring of the rosette . I have spent most of the day trying to bend 2mm thick ebony to use for the binding and each time it has broken. I would have continued, but realized that I would rather have the ring black anyway, rather than the very dk brown of the ebony. Has anyone used black fiber for binding a soundhole? I remember a discussion about this somewhere in the forum, but have been unable to find it. Also, the link in the archived tutorials for binding a soundhole isn't working, and that may have been where I read it.

Also, does anyone know a good source for a small amount of 2mm thick black fiber? I hate to pay $19 for much more than I need, and since this is one of my last guitars I won't be using it again.
Thanks for any advice, Wendy

How much do you need?

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I guess my first question is whether the fiber is strong enough to be used for the edge of the soundhole, or is solid wood a better choice? Has anyone used it for this purpose? If I do decide to use it I would only need a small amount that I could get a piece 12" x 1/4" x 2mm thick. Or I could always take Todd's advice and laminate a piece. Wendy

I wouldn't use it on the inside edge of anything, but that's just me.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I bound the edge of my Grande Bouche Maccaferri Soundhole to give the rosette a little impact. I just made it by laminating the black dyed maple purfling strips available from StewMacs but they only come in 2.38mm high(0.094") x 0.5mm(0.020"), as my soundboards are 2.00mm (0.080") thick this wasn't an issue but LMI do them wider (0.250") if you have a thicker soundboard.

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Nick Oliver

http://www.oliver-guitars.com

Awesome Nick, every time I see that rosette it makes the light at the end of the tunnel a little less bright to look at. At least I don't feel the need to buy shades any time soon. Talk about rais'in the bar

Wendy,

Dependent upon on how 'bad' your accident was, you may still have the option of routing only 1/2 the depth of the soundboard and then gluing a black or a BWB purfling into the rabbit just like a standard binding ledge. There is also the option of a black epoxy infill but that can be tricky.

Good luck and Cheers

Kim

I'm assuming your top isn't attached yet. If it is, ignore this.

If you have taken a chunk out of the edge of the sound hole you can create a "patch" that will look like binding. You have to route a piece of scrap that fit in the soundhole as it is. It gives you the pivot point. After you have that made, cut the soundhole as large as you need it to be. Then do the same thing you did to create the pivot out of what ever you want the binding to be. Cut it so that it has a ledge to it. Thin it so that the supporting ledge isn't overly thick and the binding portion is as thick as your soundboard. Glue this in from the backside and cut your soundhole again to the size you want it.

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Aoibeann

Wendy, I do this as a regular thing with my double-top instruments. Since they are a layup of two face skins and some center hard parts they always look laminated at the soundhole. So I use the fiber strips to cover that. I order it from Gurian so that isn't a "small amount" type order, but I believe that StewMac has it. I like to use the red fiber, particularly when I've used it as an accent on the inside of the top binding/purfling or along the inside edge of the bound fretboard.

I cut the end at a 45 degree angle and start fitting it. I usually glue in about 1/2 of it and then slowly trim the other end till it is a wedge fit to the 45 degree angle. Just to be on the safe side I put the joint up under the end of the fretboard.

All that being said, I also will use regular wood purfling strips like a B/W/B strip. It bends easily on a hot iron, or even just wet a bit and then flexed in place. I use the cut out soundhole as an inside form when I do that. You can see an example on my web pages at http://dunwellguitar.com and click on the Luthier Pages and the go the Let's Build A Guitar series and the first page about 2/3 of the way down.

Alan D.

Thanks for all the answers. Nick, that is an awesome rosette! And the black edge really sets it off. Now that I have seen that, I will just laminate it from strips I can cut from black dyed maple veneer that I already have. As far as repairing the damage goes, I immediately decided to bind the soundhole and I have already cut the soundhole through the top and to the edge of the rosette. What had happened was that my cutter somehow did not rotate properly when I was cutting the inner edge of the rosette channel. My rosette was round, but the inner edge of the channel was more oval. So there was a large gap only at the bottom center of the rosette. The only thing I can figure is that somehow the pin that the cutter rotates on must have gotten in at a slight angle.