davegardner0 - 2026-04-12 12:24 PM

I haven't posted in a while, but I have some good progress to report on this project...

Right now I think the straightedge on the neck is just a little too low at the bridge?

Yes, the neck angle is a little too shallow. It should be at the top of the bridge, or slightly higher. (~1/16" - 3/32")

Neck I turned my attention to the rosette. I don't have the epaulets, and I wanted to do something a bit creative. I spent a LONG time thinking about and sketching out designs. I settled on a concept that would sort of "copy" a traditional Martin black and white rosette, but in a creative way.

...

I glued the strips in by simply dripping acetone onto the plastic while in the channels. You can see how much the white plastic swelled as it absorbed the acetone.

Ovation glues the purfling/binding the same way. Unlike the purfling we get that is a combination of fiber and plastic, Ovation uses stuff that's all plastic. This allows them to clamp everything into place, then run acetone to glue the layers.

2 days later, all of the acetone had offgassed and the plastic was hard again. I chiseled off the bulk of the plastic, then scraped it smooth with a scraper.

The treble side soundhole rosettes, which I did first, are a little sloppy in a few spots. But I'm still happy with them. The bass side is nearly flawless!

Lastly I drilled the soundholes with some forstner bits on my drill press. The rosettes are 1/4" away from the edge of each soundhole, and it was the plan all along to have the soundholes intersect some of the rosettes.

Done! What do you think of my design?

I think it looks really cool.

It reminds me of the original design for the prototype nylon-string Adamas that features miniature oak leaf rosettes surrounding the sound holes.

So that's where I'm at! Next step is to glue on the braces. I hope you liked this step-by-step write up so far!

I do like it. Keep up the good work!