Official Luthiers Forum!

I have read that Martin changed their rosette materials over the years. I am interested in using a traditional looking Martin/Collings type rosette. Can this be done with binding material? If so, are the inner and outer rings of the style 18 rosette black or tortoise? Are the inner and outer of the style 28 doubled b/w/b purflings? I'm a traditionalist, but I'm trying to balance availability, cost and ease of working the materials. If binding material is the way to go, what is the best way of trimming it?

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

If it's a Martin rosette you want to emulate look at their parts:
http://www.martinguitar.com/1833/catalog.php?cat=Kits%20Parts%20%26%20Tools&subcat=Guitar%20Parts
Before plastic it used to be celluloid, and you can find all kinds of laminates here, tell Bill what you need:
http://www.axinc.net/
And there's always fibre, most vendors have laminates in common sizes, and you can always buy directly from Gurian. Old(er) Martins had maple and dyed lines.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Thanks, Laurent. My Collings appears to have the cross grained ivoroid with tortoise on the center ring. I'll order the Martin parts and maybe substitute those parts if they don't use the cross grained ivoroid.

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

You can get cross-grain ivoroid in different sizes from Bill at Axiom.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Does the cross grained ivoroid only come in binding size and sheets/blocks? If so, is there an easy way to rip a piece of binding to more manageable rosette strips?

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

Thanks, guys. Todd, I'm thinking about making a rosette jig similar to yours. Would you mind posting some pics and specs?

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

Thanks, Todd. I called around town but was unable to locate the UHMW sheet locally. For those interested in making one of these jigs, I found the UHMW at McMaster Carr. A piece 3/4"x4"x12" (enough for two jigs) was about $14.

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

Another vote for Bill James at axinc.net
There are a lot more tradional rosettes than Martin!

If it's not too much to ask, could you provide a pointer to the video on YouTube? I've visited Chris's YouTube page, but I didn't see a video that discussed building this jig. Maybe it's buried in a video by another name, but I didn't see anything that jumped out at me.

Thanks,

Erik

Thanks Todd!

Have you checked out the rosette sets Martin sells on their website? Don't know if they have what you might want though.

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"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

I think I am going to emulate the Collings rosette with the cross grained ivoroid and tortoise for the center ring. Thanks for the help!

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.