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Hmmmm. So, just killed 2 beautiful German spruce tops 1 yesterday and 1 today... .. the reason is stressing. Going to Morocco day after tomorrow and wanted to put in a rosette on the top. My soon yelling daaaaaaaad, phone ringing, no peace at all, and really determined to fix the top !!!! hahaha. so after finally made the rossete ready ala´Ken Franklin style took forever and had to trash 2 before finally fixt it to my liking with abalone purf in and outside then all went to hell. went with the top one time to many on the sander and sanded out some stuff on the rosette, blablabla. well alla and all 2 tops and 1 great rosette in the trash. grrrr . . after I come home I will start over.
the guitar its for is my first brazilian so I am a little nervous still, bending went great and back is made with exellent result .
needed to get it out of my chest

Lars

Yup Lars, have a read on my Celtic Beauty - The epic journey thread. You'll see that I needed 4 tops and 3 rosette's to get this one built, and a few other doubles.....or triples.....

These things happen. It's all part of the learning curve.

Keep on, you'll get it.

Oh, and DON'T go into the shop stressed, it will only lead to more mistakes.

Cheers.

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

At least you're going to Morocco!

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Evan McCartney

Don't tell me they were from tree 226

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Build log

Yes.......... pls dont kill me......... I know is sooo bad....have 1 left though.... hhhh

Rod I skim through the texst but will read it all tonight when I have more time, but I just want to say that, WOW those guitar photos are so beautiful !!!!!! amazing looking photos and guitar...

Really hurts when you ruin good wood. I've done it with several lovely, stiff, compression, wide grain, red spruce tops. Best thing is to saw it up, burn it and get it out of your mind.
Get on with it!

Or save it and use it for a flattop style mandolin...

Bummmmmer.....
I know how you feel. I know I'm always sorry when I'm trying to get something done on a guitar and I'm stressed from kids, work, life, etc. And that's always when I feel the greatest need to be building. But it always seems to backfire.

Enjoy Morocco - you'll come back refreshed, and ready to make that guitar.

Under no circumstances do not destroy them. 226 is exceptional wood. Better sell them to me. I would have a lot of great soundhole patches, or fan braces using the areas with no runout.

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Build log

I gotta say, all these posts about mistakes and trials and tribulations (also see Rod's post, Chris V's luthiery bonfire) are actually pretty encouraging.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Just 2 large mistakes? I should be so lucky.

Experience doesn't always keep me from having a problem but I have come to realize, with that experience, my first and best line of defense is to sometimes not go into the shop at all.
Any day that I'm feeling rushed or distracted is a good day to devote to other things.
To defer shop work to those days where you will have a long block of time for relaxed concentration will enable you to (on balance) accomplish more.

Don't sweat it man, there's more where that came from. It happens to everyone....not that that is comforting at the moment we realize what we've done...!!

Trev

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

Used to have a saying in my shop
"the faster you go the behinder you get"

Good to know that we all share something in common.

Tim

Haans,
We have all been there!

Probably the only original idea that I have had since I started building guitars, deals with the problem of sanding through the rosette. When I finish routing the rosette channel, I route a dummy channel at the front edge of the top at the same depth. I put it in a location that will be covered by the fret board extension. Now when I am thickness sanding, I can look at the dummy channel and tell exactly how far I have sanded into the rosette. This is really helpful if are flipping the top and sanding front side as well as the under side of the top. I always lost track of how much I had taken off the under side of the top before I started doing the dummy channel.

James Burkett

I`ve done the same.So what I do now is leave the top nice and thick. say 140- 150, if Spruce.I make sure the rosette is a taint less than flush.I then sand the top flush with the rosette.I`ve never had a problem since.I just need to make sure that I have a pretty good idea what the final thickness of the top is, so I don`t sand all the way down to the rosette when final thicknessing from the backside of the top.If I have a nice stiff top that I think I can get a little thinner ,than I`ll start out a little thinner,maybe 130.
James

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

What James said. I sand the show face enough to get a clean surface, join the top and then inlay the rosette. All the final thicknessing is done from the back.

(At least I claim I do this. I have a top hanging on my wall with a rosette with a slight sand-through that I did just this past year. Lest I forget too soon.)

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

[quote="Jim Kirby"]What James said. I sand the show face enough to get a clean surface, join the top and then inlay the rosette. All the final thicknessing is done from the back. quote]

I do most of my final thicknessing from the back side as well. The dummy channel lets me know how far I can go before sanding into the bottom of the rosette.

Well, even if you sand into the rosette from the back - what are soundhole reinforcement patches for anyway?

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

OK. You win.

Well, I was being facetious, but they do allow for a multitude of sins.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Whenever I want to get "just that one more thing done"....that's when the spit hits the fan in my shop. I feel your pain Lars! Have a great trip.

Alexandru, did he get that spruce from you? If so, any more available?

Happy Holidays, guys! Beth

We have it from Rudolf Fuchs. I really love this tree, very light with great stiffness to weight ratio and taptone. I managed to afford a dozen or so until it unfortunately was all gone. I built 2 so far and both are very open from day one.

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Build log

One of the most important things experience has taught me: knowing which days I should find something to do that won't be too expensive when I screw it up.

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--dg

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