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If you're going to make your own rosette, dig out Eugene Clark's two artricles in American Lutherie, and read them carefully. Then think about them a lot.

The traditional tiles are actually pretty easy to make if they're not too big, but they take time. Clark's article is about the 'traditional' rosette, which uses a pretty small tile. It's more about the proportions, though; you can use all sorts of different things for the various bands just so you keep the proportions about right. The one thing they don't do much on modern classicals is shell. They used to; look at the guitar the Flamenco player uses in 'Casablanca' for a nice example of the stuff that was being made a hundred years ago. I'm going to be putting pearl dot-and-diamond inside and outside the rosette on the archtop classical I'm making for the next Montreal show, but that's another matter.

Lots of builders just use some form of wood ring, either in segments or encircled in some purfling of some sort. Making tiles is a bit time consuming, but it's not hard. Here is the rosette on my #3.

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Waddy

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