Build Thread: Rosewood Maple Striped

I started with the back. ~I have had this set of Indian Rosewood for a few years now all packed up waiting for a project, it's purple hue is a perfect pairing for the warm Flamed Maple top.

Stage 1 - Tap the Woods
A guitar can only ever be as good as the materials you use, when each piece is musical you get the chance to build something quite amazing. If you tap and listen to a board it should sound musical, tone, sustain, depth and colour. If it sounds like a garden fence, then you're most likely going to build a garden fence.
The Rosewood panel took my breath away a deep colourful tone that rang for around 5 to 6 seconds, absolutely gorgeous. In fact it stopped me in my tracks as I felt guilty about the next stage, chopping it to pieces, as this board and its pair could have had an amazing life in its own right. The Flamed Maple, in stark contrast was 'OK'.
The Rosewood, it planes like butter, the thinest shavings and no resistance. What bliss!. The Maple, not so much!!!

This is the first time I have ever built a guitar where the aesthetic appeal trumped the need for good vibrations, I hope I don't regret it!




Stage 2 - Cutting, thicknessing
I opted for ten stripes in the end thicknessed to 2.8mm. The first hurdle is that the back panel will have to be made to absolutely the correct width, rather than over-building and trimming later as all stripes must appear to be whole and not narrower than the rest. Gulp!



Stage 3 - Gluing
Ten strips, nine glue joints, each prone to their own failures. The first step was a jig to change their shape from a rectangle to a segment that would glue together in a 3m radius dish. I did the maths, did it again and again and worked out that over a 500mm length the pieces have to be 0.2mm thinner at the top than the middle. Jig time! all strips got paired up, those pairs got paired again and eventually the whole board came together. Not quite taking the shape of the 3m Dish but not so bad.


Stage 4 - Bracing
I like to use laminated bracing and I want to work towards getting a back plate that vibrates well in harmony with the soundboard. Here I have used Trevor Gore's design for the braces, they have worked well in the past and they look nice. The braces are Western Red Cedar and Spruce centres




Stage 5 - Reinforcements
These glue joints are not structurally great so in order to keep them good I have put 'Savers' in place, each cut to resemble a medieval square head nail. I now have a laser cutter, so rather than printing my labels and gluing them in at the end of a build I can engrave a nice piece of Spruce and use glue that down to reinforce the joints.

Not as complicated as trying to import pictures into a post, what a palaver, no doubt I am doing something wrong!

The Rosewood effect is still there ..... ish. But its had 10 rounds in the ring with Maple and its bruises will take time to heal. hee hee

Bending Sides

I want a stripe around the outside of this guitar to mirror the back. I have pondered long and hard as to whether this should be a separate piece of Flamed Maple that sandwiches between the Rosewood, or whether it should be a veneer glued into a groove. I went for the latter. The 1mm deep groove was cut whilst the side panels were still flat. A perfect fit. All that is required now is to keep the maple in place whilst the sides are bent. Thankfully 1mm thick maple bends a lot easier than 2mm thick maple.



Bending sides for an acoustic guitar is the equivalent of playing a technical classical piece in front of an audience, you have to get every phrase perfect, each part leads seamlessly onto the next, should you make a mistake fingering bar twenty six then the rest of the piece is pressured beyond belief. One wrong move and the whole ensemble comes crashing down. Bending sides for a Venetian Cutaway is exactly the same except that Slash, Angus Young, and Andres Segovia are on the panel ready to score you! The tight turns required by the cutaway are so steep that the wood just doesn’t want to do it, it will scream, shout and let you know of its dissatisfaction. Thankfully Rosewood is one of the more pliable woods out there and so, within reason it has been willing to play ball.



All's well that ends well, but as always ......  Its been emotional!

Absolutely Keith. It’s so much fun putting Stripey together that I find myself waking up like a child on Christmas Day eager to make the next steps.

I’m also trying to write a short eBook of the build for the winner. It works out that words worth reading are more difficult to construct than guitars. Hee Hee 😂😆🤣

Loving this build. I’ve only seen one striped back before, by David Anthony Reid I think, in Ivor Mairant’s.
Thanks.

That looks like the one. It sounded great but out of my reach at the time. Spoke to David and he seemed like a very nice guy.
I’m enjoying this build thread so thanks, and keep the posts coming please.