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I finished inlaying my rosette tonight. It's ugly. Somehow I'm going to
need to come to terms with this. I'll need to stop imagining overhearing
comments like, "Great sound. Too bad about the rosette." "Massive black
circles, and look, there's a guitar, too."         & nbsp;         & nbsp;         & nbsp;         & nbsp;  

It goes: black/koa/black/paua/black/koa/black. I dry fit the thing and
somehow didn't notice how weighted the black became. It's
overwhelming. I'll post a pic tomorrow afternoon when I get home.

This is semi-tongue in cheek, though I'm disappointed in it. I'll probably
like it better tomorrow.

Hey James, I look forward to seeing it. I'm sure it is better than you think. Of course here it might be like posting pics of an ugly baby... we will all say it looks good.... No really, good looking um, rosette, yea, its really different... quite different...

Oh, I know, there is no such thing as an ugly baby. Right.

[QUOTE=James Orr] I finished inlaying my rosette tonight. It's ugly.[/QUOTE]Have you thought about cutting it out and making a new one? It might not be as bad as you say, but if it is......

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

It doesn't matter how ugly it is, I've made something uglier.

Lots of trial and error in the guitarmaking world....

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

[QUOTE=Dave Rector] It doesn't matter how ugly it is, I've made something uglier.
[/QUOTE]



Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Designers and craftsmen do not critique their own work well. They will over internalise the flaws and exaggerate the defects. Let your peers critique and you analyze.

Show us pictures!!!!!!MichaelP39010.5973032407

Add 5 more here bud! Pics please!

[QUOTE=Dave Rector] It doesn't matter how ugly it is, I've made something uglier.

....[/QUOTE]

Hmmm, that's what my Dad use to say all the time

Cheers Kim

Kim,
I laughed out load when I saw your response. Very funny. As for the rosette, if you don't like it, you can always just route it out and redo. As long as you didn't cut your soundhole out yet.
Tracy

[QUOTE=larkim] [QUOTE=Dave Rector] It doesn't matter how ugly it is, I've made something uglier.

....[/QUOTE]

Hmmm, that's what my Dad use to say all the time

Cheers Kim [/QUOTE]

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

[QUOTE=SteveS]Have you thought about cutting it out and making a
new one? It might not be as bad as you say, but if it is...... [/QUOTE]

All day    I'm going to go take some pictures right now.

Sigh... I still don't like it. I think it would be great with a rosewood. I'm
going to rout the purflings back out and do a koa/pear/koa from Shane
to try bringing the browns out. I'm using mahogany and tortoise shell
bindings. I didn't realize Paua was so turqoise.

This will actually be good, as those will be slightly wider purflings. I
routed it spot on, dry fit it, then took it out to glue it. The glue made the
wood swell too much to fit in so I routed it out another hair. The hair
turned into a big gap I tried filling with some shavings from the
soundboard, and they stick out like a sore thumb.

Is that flushed?

That doesn't look terrible to me. It just looks rough.

scrape it and sand it out... it might look fine.

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

It's not totally flushed yet. I like it, just not for what I'm after on this
guitar. I think it would look really nice with rosewood.

James,
It doesn't look too bad too me.

Hmm, maybe you think all my rosettes are really ugly.    

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

I usually don't think the things other people do are ugly   

I really don't. Some things of course are truly ugly, but when it's on a
personal level, I look at these things as our way of telling each other
something about ourself because we're sharing our taste and vision.

And thank you

One time, my sister made me dig up and reset a fence post two times.
Concrete and all.

James, I think you owe it to yourself to flush it and put a little shellac on it to see how it looks cleaned and finished. I agree it's rough now, but I quite like the combination and I think it will look very sharp when cleaned up.

Of course, if that discoloration in the left of the outer band is a filled gap, I agree you should fix that. A rosette draws the eye, and it has to be blemish-free. But personally, I would fix it with another black/koa combination, because I really like the look you have created here. If you find the black overwhelming, then you could double up the koa lines in the outer band, and that should mute the black considerably.

I hear you about the wood swelling. I have never been able to get that right with the method you describe. Nowadays, I always shellac the channel, wait till it's dry, install the rosette dry, and wick in CA to adhere it. I'm just not good enough to do it any other way.   

Good luck; I'm anxious to see how it comes out!Kelby39011.0269907407

James,

I agree with what others have said. I like the effect you are getting and you do need to level it out. You will need to do that before your re-rout in any case. I will get the other purfs ready for you but you may actually like this look. Try cleaning it up and then put some shellac or naptha both on the rosette and on your mahongany and lay them beside each other and see how they will look under paint.

I do really like what you have come up with there! But the first person you need to please is yourself!

Shane

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Canada

Ok, it's cleaned up, and I'm happy to say that I'm much happier! The
brown comes out a LOT more now. The thrilled scale is at 85%. I'd rather
be 100%, but I'm satisfied with 85 enough not to risk the rout.

Looks good to me. I think you are being too critical of your work - I know because I am the same way - never happy

All kidding aside, I think its a winner.

You got it James, way to go, very nice job my friend!

Alright James, looking good. I think it's a keeper for sure.

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James I really like the b/koa/b layout with the Paua...great idea. It looks pretty darn good to me.