Serial Number 050

Left Handed Ramirez Modern

Started on January 31, 2026; completed on March 10, 2026

This is the first guitar build of 2026 but the back and sides of Pau Ferro was decided before the build of S/N 048 in December.

This guitar would be an attempt of a “premium” build and I have done a couple before. This means, the materials would be more expensive than most of the other builds that I do. Maybe it is like a test I do with myself to see how much the workmanship has come along.

The initial choice for a soundboard was bear claw Spruce but I only had two sets left in stock. It took a bit of looking around before I managed to find some but by that time, I had already chosen a set of 2A Englemann Spruce.

Me and The Sander were looking at some tonewoods yesterday (January 30, 2026) to decide what we could use on the build. We decided with a Pau Ferro fingerboard to match the body. However, during the build of the body, I decided to change the fingerboard to Ebony as I was using Ebony accents on the body.

A moon shaped sound port was cut to match the moon sound holes that I currently do. And an arm bevel with an Ebony lamination accent on the lower bout was built into the guitar.

A couple of things I need to keep in mind on this build is to narrow the width of the fingerboard and neck and add a truss rod. These two things slipped my mind as I was building the last two modern classical guitars. I think having those two changes would draw some players that are more used to a thinner neck from playing electric or even steel string acoustic guitars.

As the body was being finished, I needed to decide on a neck wood. I would normally use Spanish Cedar for a classical guitar build but I have only wood for 6 more guitars. Spanish Cedar is harder to get a hold of now as it has been CITES listed for a couple of years now and I cannot even find any through my regular suppliers. Spanish Cedar wasn’t easy to get a hold of even when I started this business.

With that, a laminated Sapele neck will be used for the guitar. I was thinking of a darker centre strip – maybe some Wenge but decided on the opposite and used White Limba. The Sapele isn’t dark or light so I think either end of the colour spectrum works.

I was thinking of doing a narrower head to match the fingerboard but it was a good thing that I checked the tuning machine shafts. I wouldn’t have had enough wood in the middle to support the shaft ends.

The fingerboard has a few extra slots at the end. This spot on the end will be the new place to stamp the Monkey logo (something new moving forward). I added some abalone inlays onto the fingerboard as well as some white side markers.

SPECS

Body Classical Ramirez modern, left handed

Scale 660mm

Top Engelmann Spruce 2A

Back Pau Ferro

Sides Pau Ferro

Neck Sapele with White Limba strip

Fingerboard Ebony

Bridge Ebony

Tuning Machines Gotoh 35G350N

Strings D’Addario EJ45 Pro Arte