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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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Repair and Restoration

Greg's deep knowledge of guitar design and construction means your acoustic or electric guitar will play better after he has worked on it. As a graduate of the esteemed Galloup School of Lutherie, Greg studied under master repairman Bryan Galloup. … [Read More...]

Customer Testimonials: Martin Fret Work

"I took my Martin D-28 to Dogwood guitars to get it worked on, It was in pretty bad shape when I bought it used. Someone had tried to install frets on their own and it was buzzing and the action was hard to play. I called Greg and he said to stop by … [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...]

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...]

New! Online Setup, Repair, and Restoration Course

Purchase the course (or select individual classes) at obrienguitars.com … [Read More...]

Building a Monarch: Binding

The quality of the binding and purfling work is one of the factors that makes a guitar a true work of art. Some builders install bindings and purflings in one step, and this can lead to less-than-perfect results. Dogwood guitars are bound using a … [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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The Three Elements of a Great Guitar

Guitar players and collectors have so many choices available to them. New, used, factory brands, custom hand built...how do you narrow down the choices to the best option for you? In my opinion, any guitar should be measured by three … [Read More...]

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