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You are here: Home / Pictorials / Making a Spalted Maple Rosette

Making a Spalted Maple Rosette

The rosette on an acoustic guitar, along with the peghead and bridge designs, is a big part of the custom builder’s signature. Often a particular design will immediately identify the guitar as being made by a specific individual. Perhaps the amazing artwork created by Ervin Somogyi is the most extreme example among contemporary luthiers. I favor a more traditional, old school approach to design and yet I am drawn to using unusual woods in an artistic way. I am especially drawn to spalted woods, and I have some in my stash that dates back to 1983. The pictorial gallery below shows some of the elements involved with designing and building a segmented rosette using spalted Maple.

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1968 Fender Jazz Bass Neck Work

A customer brought me a very cool 1968 Fender Jazz Bass neck. The neck is fretless and- as the Beatles would say, "very strange"- it had no nut slot. There was also a piece of binding missing at the heel. The customer was interested in having the … [Read More...]

About Greg Maxwell

I've lived in central Ohio my entire life, and I've built things for as long as I can remember. I cut my teeth as a woodworker doing fancy interior wood trim for a custom home builder in the early 80's after deciding that performing music for a … [Read More...]

Voicing and Tap Tuning of Acoustic Guitars

Voicing and tuning are important elements of great tone. A great guitar has great tone, great playability, and great appearance, in that order. Fancy wood, a high gloss finish, and lots of Abalone inlay are visually beautiful but have … [Read More...]

Legacy Benchworks Furniture

Greg owned his own custom furniture making shop from 1983 through 1996. The company was called Legacy Benchworks, and most of the work involved high end one-off custom furniture, as well as the more standard cabinetry such as kitchen cabinets and … [Read More...]

Guitar Galleries

The guitars featured in these photo galleries are just a few examples of Greg's work. As a long-time high end furniture maker, Greg has a real passion for tools and figured wood. His guitars reflect these twin loves with their beautiful wood choices, … [Read More...]

Custom Guitars

Superb craftsmanship and exceptional tone are reflected in every handmade Dogwood guitar. Whether you are a singer-songwriter looking for an articulate instrument to express your creativity, or are part of a country band or a worship team and need a … [Read More...]

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Technical Articles

Why do old guitars sound better?

Why do some old guitars sound so good? Even inexpensive guitars can age into really good sounding instruments, and some old guitars attain legendary tone. Why is this? The answer can be found in one of three factors and the best … [Read More...]

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Viewpoint Articles

The Three Elements of a Great Guitar

Guitar players and collectors have so many choices available to them. New, used, factory brands, custom hand built...how do you narrow down the choices to the best option for you? In my opinion, any guitar should be measured by three … [Read More...]

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