Cuban Mahogany and Lutz Spruce 00

[Kevin Sjostrand]

That abalone is going to make a beautiful rosette. Cocobolo is one of my favorite woods, that is a sweet backstrap.

Kevin

[Jim_H]

Really nice work Darryl. Can't wait to see this one finished

[Darryl Young]

Well, I bit the bullet and inlaid the Ablam pearl tonight. It went about like I expected. The channel was a bit deeper than needed but when I put it through the drum sander to take a super light pass on the front of the soundboard, maybe it will be about right <fingers crossed>.

this was actually fun and John's tutorial on this site was invaluable! Sure gave me an idea what to expect. Here is a shot right after gluing so it hasn't yet dried clear.

AblamInlaid.JPG

[Darryl Young]

For the fretboard inlay, I seen the Martin Maltese Diamonds and Squares long pattern awhile back in a picture of the Martin HJ-38 Stefan Grossman guitar and I loved it. Not too complex, not too busy, and refined. I like the reference to the Maltese Cross on the 3rd fret. I also like the cats eyes at the 12th and 15th frets.

So I called up Andy Dupaule to see if he has this pattern as a set. He had never heard of it so I sent him some pictures and he loved it. In fact, he liked it well enough that he wants to duplicate the set and start selling them. Only problem is it will take a month or two to do this. Meanwhile, he said that the Martin K-5 Uke set was almost the same......but I needed to order 4.5mm X 9mm diamonds to replace the 5th and 9th fret inlays from the Uke set. He will investigate more but he said that in the Maltese Squares and Diamonds set, the diamonds may be 4X8mm instead of 4.5X9mm.......but I won't tell if you won't. Andy said he would send me the first Maltese Squares and Diamonds set they produce for free since I gave him the idea, Ha!

Did you guys know that Andy moved to Vietnam? He said that with the new regulations, he would have lost over 20% of his business (international) if he hadn't moved due to inspection fees to Wildlife Services etc. His son's are running the business in California. He said he wanted to retire in Vietnam anyhow so he pulled the plug and moved.

FYI, here are a couple of pics of the Maltese Squares and Diamonds pattern which will likely become my standard pattern. Wish I could get it in red abalone.....but I will have to choose if I think paua, or white MOP, or gold MOP will go better with the rosette with lots of pinks and greens. I like the red abalone in the pics below as the colors aren't too strong. Andy suggested I have his sons pick out paua that doesn't have much color. Per the website, I might be able to get the diamonds in red abalone if he can find some paua that matches it well.

Frets 2 - 7:

Frets 2-7 Maltese Diamond & Squares on M-30 JK Martin.jpg

Frets 5 - 15:

Frets 4-15 Maltese Square and Diamond Long Pattern on Martin M-30 JK.jpg

[Darryl Young]

This is pathetic <smile>, but one more after the soundhole was cut and the top thicknessed.

RosetteAfterSanding.JPG

[Jim_H]

Pathetic?

Looks nice and tight to me.

[Darryl Young]

Ha!.......pathetic that I was posting yet another pic of a fairly simple rosette <smile>.

[Jim_H]

We LIKE pictures.

Please post more!

[Darryl Young]

One thing I really like about this top is the silking, it's killer (notice the last pic after sanding). It was a 2nd grade top due to knot shadow but it ended up in the soundhole area so has no impact on this top.

I sanded it to 0.095" on the sides and it's about .100"-.102" thick along the centerline.

[Darryl Young]

Do you see how the drum sander smeared color around the rosette in that last pic? Any suggestions on how to remove that color on the spruce?