The sycamore is for the redwood/mahagony. I have not decided on the binding engleman/bubinga. I happen to have more sycamore and some EIR. If the sycamore is easy to install on the redwood, I'll probably use it on the other guitar. Otherwise, I got back to the rosewood. I made a tactical blunder when I was bending the bubinga sides. I bend my sides first and then trim to the final shape after the block are glued on. I had plenty of extra width and I could have easily ripped off four binding strips before bending. I didn't think of it until after I'd bent the sides.
I really like working with the redwood. It is more prone to splintering and the slinters are thick and deep. When I cut out the shape of the top to with 1/2" of its final shape on the band saw, some splinter extended into the top. Fortunately, the don't go beyond where the binding channel is going to be. Before cutting the binding channel, I've got to score the top will a grammal.
As for the herringbone rosette, I'm still keeping the top and I doubt that I'll mention it to anyone who sees the final guitar. But this is a luthier's forum (and an official one at that) and I thought that it was important to point it out and, more importantly, to mention that the problem is easily avoidable if you just start your channel under the freboard, make a small cut and just look at it to see if it is correct before you run the complete circle. On the redwood top, my circle jig wasn't perfect either and I just made a tiny cut, and while the dremmel was still running I adjusted the diameter of the circle jig until it was correct. This turned out to be a pretty safe operation.
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This picture is of the rosette. This is the rosette where I learned to start the cut under the fret board. Notice that the herringbone is not centered between the purfling. It still looks pretty good.
This is the rosette for the redwood/mahogany OM. I decided to get ambitious and do abalone. This one came out great. I started the cut under the finger board and made slight adjustment.
This is the bracing pattern of the 0000. This is the first one without the popsicle brace. The sound hole braces are tucked under the X and the upper Transverse brace and are inlet into the head block.
