Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Kia Ora,

Finished "Roreka" (Sweet Singing) on Saturday, been quite an experimental build but I'm thrilled how it looks and sounds,
I've used a couple of NZ natives which I havn't used before, a new hybrid double X bracing an armrest
and a rosette made from Kauri leaves and baby paua shells.
Features.
Top: Kahikatea
Back: Heart Rimu
Sides: Heart Rimu
Neck: Matai
Fretboard: Puriri
Bridge: Puriri
Headplate: Heart Rimu
Rosette: Baby Paua shells & Kauri leaves
Soundport: Kauri leaf silhouette
Rounded arm rest
Mitred Body
Bracing: Hybrid Double X Bracing
Bridge pins End: Boxwood with Paua dot
Position markers: 2 & 5mm: Paua dot

Cheers,

Christian.

Hi Christian
Congratulations on a beautifully crafted guitar. Could you please give us
an idea of body size/scale length and how you made the rosette?

The way you manage to get the top and back fit with mitres just amazes me Christian. Very sweet indeed. I really love that rosette. But what are the odds that one would get by the blokes enforcing the Lacey Act?

Allen wrote:The way you manage to get the top and back fit with mitres just amazes me Christian.

Agreed Allen....Very Cool Indeed ...perhaps a tute Christian?

I love the look.

John

Beautiful instrument as always Christian, beautifully crafted. I just love Rimu, it's such a beautifully warm looking timber & has some really stunning grain features. I've never actually considered using it as a tonewood more for fine furniture . I'll have to look at it differently from now on. Also the three dimensional rosette is a stunner.
(Still no word on the Oak either )

sorry left off the sizing specs they are
Body size: 000 Auditorium/long classical
Upper bout: 274mm
Lower bout: 268mm
Depth at heel: 87mm
Depth at butt: 95mm
Body length: 510mm
Scale length: 650mm
Number of frets: 21
Frets to body: 14
Nut width: 44mm
14th fret width: 54mm
Saddle spacing: 56mm

The rosette is relatively simple,
-mark the centre of your soundhole
-glue a contrasting timber to the underside of the top in a pentagon shape as a soundhole patch.
-set up a router/dremel with a sharp wide bit( I used 12mm) and however you normally cut out circles
-set and cut to a depth of 5mm which will cut through the top an about 1.5 mm into you patch
-should end up with a nice clean channel, seal the channel well and organise whatever you wish to embed
-line the outside edge of the rosette with bluetack to act as a wall
-mix up some epoxy resin pour into the channel typically takes 8hrs to cure
-remove the bluetack and sand flush.

Allen, I will will be testing the bloke and the lacey act with a guitar like this in Dec
I will definetely come prepared.
The mitred body is one of those tricky things to explain but easier to show
with pics, so i'll piece a complete tutorial together for you someday.
thanks for the kind comments guys.

Christian.

Hey Nick,

A few years ago Rimu was my fav, but had some problems with it twisting and moving on me.
it can be very volatile especially when your at 3mm thick, hahaha.
so I reluctantly abandoned it, only recently I found a small but nice source of it from Taranaki (where the best Rimu grows)
that is nicely quartered and well air dried.
Its an amazing tonewood on a par with rosewoods for tap tone I reckon.
So best you get down to the chch salvageyards and pickup some, there must be huge amounts of it lying around
since the quakes.

Kahikatea is a cracker too, very akin to sitka spruce in my opinion, the density falls between 400-450 kg/m3 and has a modulus of elasticity or stiffness at 10.7 so its comparable to sitka spruce at 430-455kg/m3 and stiffness of 11
I am trying to secure a heap of it, so I can offer it to the good folk on here.

Cheers,

Christian.

That rosette is absolutely amazing, as is the technique you describe to make it!
And it is a very nice guitar anyway. Great choice of materials, everything seems to be harvested just in your back yard, right?

Thanks Markus for the generous praise.
backyard....hahaha well yes pretty much, the baby paua shells come from a friend whos family owns a paua farm and the little guys I used are ones that didn't make it, the kauri leaves I literally picked up on a walk around the amazing Trounson Kauri park , Its a great way to build utilising whats around you, giving new life to the seemingly dead, paying homage to nature and the source of our instrument materials.

Cheers,

Christian.