{"id":9171,"date":"2026-06-25T16:17:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T20:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/?page_id=9171"},"modified":"2026-07-31T21:34:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T01:34:31","slug":"053-falcate","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/?page_id=9171","title":{"rendered":"053 Falcate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Serial Number 053<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Grand Concert – Falcate <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Started on June 25, 2026, completed on July 31, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This guitar build will be more experimental – I know there are so many bracing methods out there and this build I tried the Falcate bracing method as it seems to be popular amongst some luthiers. This build would be a guitar of “normal” blueprint specs but I would have to alter the bracing in the future for my “modern” spec builds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Falcate bracing incorporates laminated carbon fibre bracing which I won’t be doing. I used a hardwood in between the Spruce as I have been doing on current builds. I did ask my CNC guy (who has a 3D printer) if his machine can print carbon fibre. He explained to me that it isn’t actually carbon fibre that is printed but it is platic resin with bits of carbon fibre in it – which was what I had already guessed. I decided not to try the printed route at the moment to see how just laminated wood braces hold up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I chose a Red Cedar board that I had purchased off local luthier, Tom – it is already glued together and has some work done on it. I also found a large rosette that closely matched the already-routed channel. I finished the routing as it was a little on the small side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After looking through the lists and managing to look at some actual boards from doing some reorganizing of my tonewoods. I found a set that is new (to use) and different in a sense: Imbuia (which is not real Brazilian Walnut). Looks interesting and I did read that it does have some decent tonal qualities. During the sanding process, I found that the back has some great figure in it and the sides almost have some bear claw-like marks. It smells like wet paint when you work the wood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From looking at pictures of the Falcate bracing, I knew it would be a challenge to bend the braces. It took a long time to bend them on the hot pipe – about half an hour per brace and in the end, they didn’t come close to what I see in the pictures. So, the bracing would be more “inspired” by Falcate bracing, I guess. If I tried this bracing again, I believe the best way to approach it would be to bend the strips before gluing them together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were some unique laminated necks that I got off Luthier Tom and I decided on one of those for this build. It is a Black Walnut and Maple neck; very nice but it didn’t come with a heel block which isn’t a big deal. I’ve got some big solid cut off pieces I can use. I was very pleased with how the neck turned out for this build: Good, smooth and thin neck shape and a good contour at the heel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An Indian Rosewood fingerboard and bridge piece were decided after checking the list. These were also from Luthier Tom’s stash of woods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe this is the third guitar build that I have used Luthier Tom’s wood for most of the build. He did build himself a decent collection of tonewoods over the years and I am hoping that we could do a build together in the future. I believe he was trying to build ukuleles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SPECS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Body <\/strong>Grand Concert<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scale<\/strong> 24.9\u2033<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top <\/strong>Red Cedar<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back<\/strong> Imbuia (Brazilian Walnut)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sides<\/strong> Imbuia (Brazilian Walnut)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neck <\/strong> Walnut\/Maple <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fingerboard<\/strong> Indian Rosewood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bridge <\/strong>Indian Rosewood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuning Machines<\/strong>\u00a0Gotoh 381<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strings<\/strong>\u00a0D\u2019Addario EJ26 Phosphor Bronze<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Serial Number 053 Grand Concert – Falcate Started on June 25, 2026, completed on July 31, 2026 This guitar build will be more experimental – I know there are so many bracing methods out there and this build I tried the Falcate bracing method as it seems to be popular amongst some luthiers. This build […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9171","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}