THE ROSETTE

Bill Nesse
December 2006

(Originally published in the December 2006 issue of Guitar Sessions, the on-line magazine from
Mel Bay Publications. It is no longer available.)

Decoration on classical guitars is fairly tightly constrained by convention and the demands
of acoustics. In most cases, decoration consists of a rosette around the soundhole and purfling at
the periphery of the top and back. The headstock and the tieblock on the bridge also may be
decorated. Of the decorative elements on a classical guitar, the rosette typically receives the most
attention.
While rosettes of standard design are available from commercial vendors or can be
manufactured by specialty shops in Europe and Asia, I prefer the artistic freedom and challenge
of creating my own rosettes. In addition to satisfying some of my creative urges, this assures that
the guitars that I build are uniquely mine.
What is now the traditional form for classical guitar rosettes developed in the second half of
the 19th century. The distinctive character of those rosettes was the use of mosaic elements.
Mosaics had been used before, but
their use by Antonio de Torres (who
established the basic geometry of the
modern classical guitar) and his
contemporaries set the style that has
been followed for more than a
century. The fact that they made
some strikingly beautiful rosettes
certainly didnt hurt their acceptance.

Rosette Design
Traditional rosettes generally
contain three types of design
elements. The central mosaic carries
a repeating pattern around the soundhole. Bordering the central mosaic on both sides are fields
consisting of rings of various colors. At the inner and outer edges of the rosettes are narrow
decorative bands of a mosaic, herringbone, or braid pattern bordered by additional rings of color.
The width of the rosette can vary depending on the desires of the maker, but is typically in the
range of 18 to 22 mm wide.
While the rosette is certainly decorative, it also has a practical function. The rosette, with its
numerous rings of wood, will tend to prevent cracks from developing at the soundhole, or if they
do develop, will inhibit their propagation into the rest of the top.
Ideas for the design of the rosette can be found in mosaic work in ancient Roman, Greek,
and Arab architecture and in a wide variety of textiles. The work of other luthiers provides
additional inspiration. I particularly like the work of Manuel Ramirez, Manuel Velasquez,
Francisco Simplicio, and Ignacio Fleta.
 Materials
The raw materials used
for the rosette are different
colored woods of various
colors. While it is possible
to dye wood to get desired
colors, I prefer to use only
the palette of colors found
in natural wood.
All of the wood for the
rosette must be carefully
prepared to precise
thicknesses. Thin slices of
wood can be cut with a
bandsaw (left) and then
thinned with a scraping
tool, known as a filire
filets, made from a sharp
plane blade (right). Veneer
also is thinned to the
required thickness with the
same tool. Similar tools have been used by luthiers and other artisans for centuries.
Preparing the Central Mosaic
The sequence of making the central mosaic is
shown to the right. The central mosaic is first laid
out on graph paper (a) and is designed so that it
forms a repeating pattern. In this case, the
repeating unit (heavy lines) is 10 columns wide and
10 rows high. This pattern is broken into its
constituent columns (b) and each column of 10
small strips of wood is made up separately (see
below). The columns are then glued together to
form a mosaic loaf (c) from which tiles (d) are cut
so that they can be fit together side-to-side (e) to
form the central mosaic.

Each of the columns in the rosette design starts with strips of thin wood (left photo) about
10-15 mm wide (a) that are glued together in the correct order (b) to form slabs. A thin slice (c)
is cut from the edge of the
slab on a bandsaw. Right
Photo: The thin slice is
carefully thinned with the
scraper so that the
individual pieces of wood
have a square cross section.
This process is repeated for
each of the columns in the
design.

The ten different columns that comprise the mosaic

design have been glued together to form the mosaic loaf. In
this design, each of the individual pieces of wood has a
cross section of 0.5 x 0.5 mm. Individual tiles are then cut
from the loaf to be used in making the rosette.
Decorative Bands
The diagonal or braid pattern that forms
the inner and outer decorative bands is made
from additional pieces of veneer. These are
glued together in a repeating sequence (a).
A thin slice is cut on the diagonal from the
edge (b). A backing strip of veneer is glued
to one side (c) to provide stability and
becomes part of the rosette design. This
braid also may be used as part of the
purfling around the edge of the top and on
the bridges tie block so that the decorations
form a coherent whole.

Completing Preparation
Additional strips of veneer are prepared to make up the various rings in the design and a trial
section of rosette is assembled to allow the design to be evaluated. The rosette is installed in
three steps, the inner rings first, then the
mosaic tiles, and finally the outer rings.
The veneer strips and associated sections
of braid pattern are organized into these
groups. The soundboard, which makes
the background for this photo, is prepared
for the rosette by sanding both sides
smooth and drilling a hole in the center
of the soundhole location. The hole is
mounted on a bushing protruding from a
work board.

The rosette must be let into a 2 mm deep recess cut

into the soundboard. To cut the boundaries of the channel
I use the circle cutter shown to the right. It consists of a
sharp blade mounted in an arm that can be moved in or
out to change the radius of the cut. It pivots on the
bushing at the center of where the rosette will be
installed. This is another tool that would be at home in a
17th century shop.

.
Inlaying the Rosette I
The channel for the inner rings of
the rosette is prepared by cutting the
outlines with the circle cutter (left) and
then using a sharp chisel to remove the
waste in between (right). The rosette
does not make a complete circle. The
missing section will be beneath the
fingerboard and therefore hidden when
the guitar is completed.

The pieces that make up the inner rings

of the rosette are organized in the
proper order and then glued into the
channel.

Inlaying the Rosette II

After the first section of the rosette
has dried, it is planed down to near the
surface of the soundboard and then the
channel for the mosaic tiles is cut. Tiles
are cut from the mosaic loaf and are
then glued in place between bordering
rings of wood.

.
Inlaying the Rosette III
The channel for the outer section
of the rosette is cut next and those
pieces are glued in place.

.
The Finished Rosette
The finished rosette has been
sanded down flush with the soundboard.
The sound hole will not be cut out until
after the top has been cut to shape and
worked down to the final thickness.

.
I like my rosettes to have a clean, uncluttered look. For the rosette illustrated here, the
mosaic utilizes a white field with a pattern executed in two different dark woods that I expect
will age differently to yield some interesting subtleties in future years. Bordering the mosaic are
rings of a dark red wood that tend to pull the eye to the mosaic and define that design element.
To provide coherence to the design, woods used in the central mosaic also are used elsewhere. A
braid pattern is used for the inner and outer decorative elements. This braid and its bordering
strips are made from three different woods. The braids converge to the center of the rosette to
give it a sense of movement and to lead the eye in to the mosaic. The rings of the field are made
from lighter colored woods and are intentionally fairly bland to avoid too much going on in the
design.
The rosette shown here uses three
different woods to produce a sinuous
curve on a white field with small
accents in the convex parts of the curve.
A herringbone pattern forms the outer
decorative bands that are arranged to
produce a counterclockwise sense of
movement.

My current practice is to create a different rosette for each guitar I build. While inlaying the
rosette into the top is one of the first steps in building a guitar, it establishes the pattern for
decoration on the instrument as construction progresses. Inlaying the rosette also gives me a very
tactile and direct sense of the top wood's properties. This helps me to get a better sense for the
sound that the top wood is capable of providing, and guides me in the critical task of graduating
the top thickness to achieve the sonority that I want the guitar to have.