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I have just started my 000-28 Rosewood kit, from John. It looks like it will be a fun build, I was just a little disappointed that the Rosette was already installed. I wanted to go Herringbone, or more likely Abalone.

I understand Martin glues the Rosette in with Duco cement. Would it be safe to assume I could "flood" the channel with acetone and carefully pull up the Rosette, and scrape out the glue? Or would I end up turning the top into a wall clock and ordering a new one?

Jeff from Brooklyn

you can pull out the rosette but be careful that you don't break out the top between the rosettes. Martin will most of the time supply a rosetted top.

So is it safe to use a medicine dropper full of acetone in the channel? If I do break out the surrounding wood, I guess I'll do some sort of mosaic rosette!

Jeff

There's a pretty good chance in my opinion that you are going to cause unrepairable damage prying out that rosette -- see if John will swap the top for something that will work for you. If you don't plan on routing new channels the odds are you will not find a combination of materials that will properly, seamlessly, professionally fill the channels specifically made for the rosette that is already installed. Or buy a different top altogether. I just don't like the idea of starting off a project in the repair/mysterious territory mode --- $.02

good advice Ken
If it ain't broke don't fix it . There is more to a rosette than you may understand . Trying to make something work often doesn't
If you pay shipping I can swap a top for you

Good point, Ken! I do have a proven track record of screwing up things, I always thought damage control was part of the fun of the hobby!

John, that's very nice of you to offer to swap it out, but I really like the grain of the top, so I think I'll keep it the way it is. I'll probably go for the Herringbone purfling. I really like the look of the Eric Clapton 000-28. Might have to try the Sunburst finish.

Anyway, thanks!

Jeff From Brooklyn

I may be a little out of my league here but if you have a rosette channel cutter of some type you could possibly remove it that way.

David L

I've never tried to remove a rosette, so I'm only speculating, but I would think it would really really hard not to make a complete mess of it.

If you use chemicals to try to dissolve the glue on the current rosette, you will likely end up with some staining of the top (from the dyes in the wood) unless you are extremely careful. And you would almost certainly have to enlarge the rosette, and do away with the strip between the two channels, as I really don't see how you could keep a nice clean edge. Which leads to a question. Has the sound hole been cut out? If so, that only complicates matters if you need to reference the center of the rosette.

It's hard enough to get a neat, clean, straight rosette install on a brand new top.

I have routed out a rosette one time. It wasn't fun, and I had to modify slightly the size of the new one, but it did come out fine.
Another option.

Kevin

Kevin,

When you did that, was the sound hole cut out? If so, how did you center the circle cutter?

I've pondered this myself, and am curios how others would go about it?

I seem to recall a thread on the old board where someone (maybe Bill Cory?) made a jig that fit into the existing sound hole. Just wondering if that is the approach you took?