Saturday, April 21, 2012

Installing the Rosette

Once sound hole is cut in the front face of the guitar, there is considerably less strength in that panel.  For that reason, many guitars add a rosette around the hole to bolster that area.  Rosettes come in all types of designs and materials and can have a big impact on the appearance of the guitar.  While some people make their own rosettes from wood or other material, I chose to purchase a prefabricated one online.  I was pretty sure mine would turn out poorly and ruin the look of the guitar.

The rosette I purchased is about 1/32" thick.  That means I needed to remove that much wood from my front panel in the shape of the rosette so it would sit flush with the panel.  I rigged up something so I could use my router to do the work.

First, I added a piece of wood onto the bottom of the router base for reasons I'll explain below.  I screwed it to the router base with countersunk screws and left an opening for the router bit to come through.

Next, I took what was left of the 3/16" rod I used for the truss rod and cut a piece about 3/8" long from it.  On a piece of thin plywood I practiced what to do by first drilling a center hole big enough for the 3/16" rod piece.  Then I calculated how far from the center of the 1/2" router bit I was using that I would need for making the first of two cuts for the circular groove.  At that location, I drilled a hole in the router base attachment to accept the other end of the rod piece.  So essentially I would have a common point of rotation between the router and the guitar panel.

Below is the plywood I practiced on a couple of times.  You can see the center hole of each circle.  That's where I had the small rod piece which also went up into the router base.  I spun the router around with the bit set to cut 1/32" deep.  Since my bit was only 1/2" and my rosette is 5/8" wide, I had to make two cuts by making a second hole in the router base in which to put the rod piece.

Here's the front panel with the rod piece installed:

 And here it is after routing the groove:

Finally, with the rosette sitting on the panel but not yet glued in.  I'll cut the sound hole opening later.  The rosette comes with a slot on one side so that it has more flexibility.  This will be covered by the fretboard later.


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