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

Building a Monarch: The Neck

Guitar construction can be divided into to major sections: The body and the neck. Neck construction begins with gluing up a blank. Although some guitar necks are made from one solid piece of wood, many builders make necks using a laminated blank. This adds visual appeal to the neck as well as making it stronger and more resistant to warping. One or two laminations of contrasting wood are used. The Monarch neck is made from a blank that has two Maple stringers. The neck is bandsawn from the blank and the fretboard is made and glued on. The peghead is shaped, tuner holes are drilled, and the neck profile is carved and shaped. Finally, the neck is set to the body, leveled, and fretted. See all of what goes into making a Monarch neck in the gallery below.

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1932 Martin 0-18 Parlor Guitar

It's not often that a luthier has the opportunity to work on a pre-war Martin. This little 1932 Parlor 0-18 came to the shop in very rough condition. It took a tumble down some stairs, resulting in a long crack in the treble side of the body and … [Read More...]

Pearl and Abalone Inlay

One of the most beautiful customizations to a musical instrument is the addition of shell inlay. Typically this might include peghead decorations, fretboard position markers or more elaborate motifs such as vines and flowers, and body purflings. … [Read More...]

Customer Testimonial:

"My stage guitar had buzzing strings and the sound from the pickup was unbalanced. Greg made me a new bone saddle to replace the poorly fitted plastic one and did a setup, now I have a guitar with no issues. His knowledge of guitar geometry is … [Read More...]

The Kingston Jumbo

I've always been particularly drawn to jumbo-size acoustics. I learned to play guitar in the early 1970's when John Denver was at the height of his career, and the sound he got from his jumbo Guild 6 and 12 string guitars made an impression on me … [Read More...]

1975 Gibson Hummingbird Restoration

While meeting with a customer and his daughter about designing a guitar for her, he showed me his Gibson Hummingbird that his daughter had been playing. Using the serial number and other identifying characteristics, I was able to date the guitar … [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...]

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Technical Articles

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...]

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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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