The First Guitar: Installing the Rosette

The guitar top comes with the grooves for the rosette already routed out, but the grooves are a bit tight.  I had to take the rosettes and sand the corners off the part that would be pushed in first, and in some places I had to sand the sides a bit.  All together, the dry fitting process for this took me about an hour or two.  I am not sure since I did a little bit here and there when I had a few minutes.

I used a chisel to make the cuts.

All of the pieces of the rosette have to be cut to fit, but you really only have to worry about how the small inner one looks.  The other two sections will be covered up later in the project.  You can also see that the rosette is a little bit thicker, about 2/32nds of an inch so that it can be scraped flush with the spruce top.

I felt I had to be careful when I was sanding the rosettes to fit in place because I didn't want to snap them.  They are also made out of spruce, so you could imagine how brittle they are.  This is a nice stage in the process, because the guitar top takes on a large part of its personality.  This is the personality that was given to me from the kit, but someday this is likely the part where I will spend quite a bit of time coming up with some sort of a signature when I make a complete guitar from scratch.

Spread a little glue with flux brush,
and push the rosette in place.

Clean the glue up and you are ready for clamping.

Again, the wax paper between the clamping caul
prevents anything from sticking.
There is also a caul underneath .

Even pressure, and we are all set.

I can't help myself - I am getting ready to assemble the bracing.
I have to make a few cuts  where the X bracing overlaps,
but I can start the assembly until I am finished with the rosette.

Once everything is dry, I can begin scraping.