The perfect rosette

I read a fairly interesting book with a bland title (Guitar: An American Life) by Tim Brookes, which intersperses the story of the construction of his custom-made acoustic with the history of the instrument. Brookes does fairly well with the history until the twentieth century. I think the amount of compression he has to do there overwhelms his writing skills, which are strongest in the descriptive writing about the wood and loving craftsmanship of the luthier, Rick Davis of Vermont. The intricacy of the craftsmanship is fascinating and extremely educational, and so are some of Brookes' chosen historical anecdotes, but I think he's best as an essayist. His agony when his chosen rosette (the decorative yet functional ring of wood around the sound hole) turns out not to be quite what he had envisioned is hilariously memorable.