Official Luthiers Forum!

What is the typical width of your rosettes on typical OM or SJ size guitars? I'm doing a solid wood rosette and I am not sure of the width to cut it at. 1/2"... 3/4"? At what point does it start to look goofy when its too narrow or thick? 

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

Probably the best bet is to spend some time with drawing paper, your template, and a drawing compass and some pencils- taste is an individual thing.

My feeling is that if you make a solid wood rosette ring too narrow you won't get much idea of the wood 'character' ie the grain pattern.

I just had a look at some tops I've done this winter and the overall width (including purfings around the 'wood' ring) varies from about 1/2 to 3/4 inch.

There are lots of examples of both wider and narrower rings out there.

Another thing I try to keep in mind is to get some bablance between the binding scheme and the rosette- skinny bindings and a very wide rosette would look strange to me on a smaller guitar.


BTW, places like LMII and ??? sell wood rings and made-up rosettes- you could check the website for specs. I believe their 'OM' wood rings are 3/8 wide.

Cheers
John

Edit button: 'balance between the binding...'

I generally prefer small ones, I try to stay between 1/8" and 3/16" for the wood ring, then they end up a little wider with the purfs.

Occassionally I do go bigger, but my preference is for the small ones.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I think the distance from the rosette to the soundhole should be taken into consideration also...

Too much or too little space will affect the overall look.

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Thanks for all the input guys! There are a lot of considerations I should look at and I think making a few templates to see how it will look on my particular top is a smart idea.

Hesh,
Thanks for the pic, I always really like your rosettes. Simple and elegant... Would it be too much is there was abalone strips on both the inside and outside of the rosette? Something thin though, like the 3/32 or at most 1/8 strips from luthiersupply.com? Would it take away from the wood or complement it? Then of course that leads to the question of perf... what kind, how much... etc.

I never thought I'd be asking so many questions here. All of the sudden I decided to build a guitar and now I couldn't be any more indecisive. Too many choices!!!!

_________________
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian