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You are here: Home / Building A Monarch / Building a Monarch: Top and Back

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 other woods can be used, and the choice is primarily one of personal taste.

The top and back sets are carefully laid out for best use of grain and figure, glued up, and thicknessed. The shapes are cut out using templates and the braces are glued into place. In a standard build, the braces are carved and shaped at this time. If the builder voices and tunes the top and back, this is done as part of the boxing process… see Part Two of this blog. The photos in the gallery below show the steps involved to make and brace the back and top of a Monarch guitar.

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Blog: Jumbo Neck Set

It is always exciting to arrive at neck setting day when working on a new build. Several weeks of careful work precede setting the neck: Rosette making; bending and boxing; bindings and purflings; inlay work; voicing and tuning; all separate skills … [Read More...]

How to Correctly String a Guitar

When I went to lutherie school I discovered that, like many guitarists, I was stringing my guitars incorrectly. And judging from the inspections that I give to all the guitars that come into my shop, this is a very common problem. I can hear some … [Read More...]

Lutherie Classes: Acoustic Guitar Building Class

Guitar Building Class Please Note: Due to my heavy repair and restoration schedule, I am no longer able to offer the build class. This is an archive page. Have you ever wanted to build your own high quality acoustic guitar, but were intimidated … [Read More...]

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...]

The Importance of a Good Setup, Part One

I've played guitar since I was in high school, which was longer ago than I care to dwell on! I am also the sort of person who lives by the axiom, "If it ain't broke don't fix it!" Because of this, I did not understand the benefits of having my … [Read More...]

Customer Testimonials: European Maple Eminence

"Several years ago when I found out that Greg was starting to make hand made guitars, I knew that I wanted one. Did I need one? No, but that didn't mean I wanted it any less! This past January my wife out of the blue said I should contact Greg and … [Read More...]

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Technical Articles

Humidity, Temperature, and Your Guitar

Maintaining your wooden instruments at an appropriate level of humidity year round is vital to their health and well-being. It is surprising how many owners of expensive instruments are unaware of this. I suppose that the primary reason is a lack … [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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