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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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Building a Monarch: Top and Back

The building of any guitar begins with selecting the woods to be used. A bookmatched set of Spruce or Cedar is selected for the top, and a back and side set is chosen for the body. Standard woods for the latter are Rosewood, Mahogany, or Maple. Many … [Read More...]

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. … [Read More...]

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...]

About Our Name

Many people ask about our name. One of my wife's friends even asked her if I made guitars from any other wood besides Dogwood! For those familiar with the Dogwood tree, this brings a chuckle since this flowering beauty attains only a small size… … [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...]

Customer Testimonial: Gibson Setup

"I thought my new Gibson acoustic played pretty well until I had Greg set it up for me. Wow! I could tell a real difference in the action. Based on that experience I had him do a fret dress on an older Ibanez and again, I was surprised at how much … [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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Why Buy a Handmade Guitar?

There are a lot of choices out there for the prospective buyer of a fine guitar. It's no secret; a handmade instrument can cost a lot. For that matter, any of the better guitars purchased from a quality manufacturer is going to command what most … [Read More...]

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