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You are here: Home / Building A Monarch / Building a Monarch: The Box

Building a Monarch: The Box

Bending the sides begins the process of making a guitar body. A bending form is required for each type and size of body, and the appropriate form is installed in the bending machine. This jig uses a heating blanket and spring loaded cauls to gently bend the sides to shape. The sides are carefully laid out and matched for best use of grain and figure prior to being bent. The bent sides are clamped into a building mold that is unique to each body type, and the head and end blocks are glued into place. A parabolic sander contours the top and back sides of the rims, and kerfing is installed to strengthen the rims and to provide more gluing surface for the top and back.

Dogwood Guitars are voiced and tuned as part of the boxing process. The braces are tapered to fit notches in the rims and the top is glued on. The top braces are carved while Greg voices and tunes the top using FFT analysis software to verify the progress. When the back and top are fully voiced and tuned to the correct fundamental resonances the back is glued on, closing the box. The back and top are flush cut and the box is sanded smooth. The photos below show the progress as a Monarch body is made.

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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...]

Customer Testimonials: Monarch 12 String

"Greg Maxwell's 12-string Monarch guitar is the product of an artist. I played the guitar among a small of group of rock-climbing paramedics during my interim stay in Richmond, Kentucky, before returning to Kailua, Hawaii, and the comments about the … [Read More...]

Baking Tops

A number of guitar builders (including a couple of well-known factory-made brands) follow the practice of baking the Spruce tops in an oven at low heat prior to using them in the construction of an instrument. This practice has caused a lot of … [Read More...]

Lutherie Classes: Setup and Repair

Acoustic and Electric Guitar Repair and Setup Classes Have you thought about learning guitar repair and setup? Have you considered attending a lutherie school but found the distance and cost to be prohibitive? Or maybe you simply want to learn how … [Read More...]

Customer Testimonial: Taylor Custom setup and upgrades

Greg, when I met you and talked with you, it helped ease my apprehensions. You were very professional and explained in detail what, why, and how you would make my guitar play and sound better. You said that guitars sound what they sound like, but you … [Read More...]

Fine Handmade Guitars

  Hi, and welcome to Dogwood Guitars of Kansas City, MO. My goal is to provide you with the best sounding and playing guitar possible. Whether this means settingĀ up your current guitars to play their best, or working with you to build your … [Read More...]

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Technical Articles

The Science and Theory of Tonewoods

Search out any discussion about tone and tonewoods on the internet and you will quickly find a wide variation of opinions among players and builders alike. However, the majority will almost always list "tonewoods" and/or specific species of Spruce … [Read More...]

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Viewpoint Articles

Exploring Common Guitar Myths

I am going to divide this article into two sections: Myths and misunderstandings about playability and care; and myths about tone. We will take these two topics in order. Playability and Care So, your guitar is a little hard to play, the … [Read More...]

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