I'm thinking of getting a Monson guitar made. (Opinions?)

[Bossk]

I like the redemption.
http://www.monsonguitars.com/guitars/redemption.html
Something string-thru and with that sexy goat inlay.

What is the general consensus on Monson guitars in general?

[D.o.S.]

Skip/Astro has one, I think he loves it:

As promised its super secret new guitar day!!!!!!!



Monson Nomad #9

Right when I was pondering getting the OD120 or a Gibson LP standard Brent posted this to facebook at a price I couldn't say no too! I have barely gotten to hold it as I picked it up at lunch but the neck is amazing and all the little touches, such as the perfect angling on the bridge to allow wider range of intonation and to follow the natural angle of your hand when palm muting, to the recessed neck bolts on the back (yeah its a bolt on), make it totally worth it. I'm putting a set of SD Black Winters in it tonight before I plug it in, I pondered BKP's but after talking to a few people I decided to get the SD's for half the price. Overall I'm FUKKIN STOKED.




And a full frontal pic for you gear voyeurs:

[Bossk]

That is a hot little number right there.

I'm definitely considering it considering Brent can possibly do a 4 payment kind of deal. Which is ideal for me considering I'm working while going to school while interning while saving up to move out. That could be a great break for me and they seem way more awesome than buying any other guitar around.
I just have no idea about building a perfect guitar. Like... what pickups would be good for doom etc. Would the stock pickups he puts in the guitars be ideal?

[skullservant]

If you're planning on spending the amount of money that a Monson costs I seriously suggest doing some research before you make a down payment, in regards to neck thickness, type of fret, scale, pickups, bolt on, string through, etc.
Play as many guitars as you can. Write down what you like and what you hate about each of them.

Re: pickups. This is something you also need to experiment with. From what AA told me, Monson uses pretty okay stock pickups, but they are put in there for people to replace if they want.

Personally, I play heavy stiles on music on several different types of pickups, a few which some people would not consider 'doomy' but they can be awesome. Example: I use a Jazzmaster in C standard with flats with a stock Jazzmaster single coil in the neck and a jazzmaster sized humbucker in the bridge.

[Bossk]

The stock pickups are

-EMG Select
-Lawrence
-Powered by Lace
-GFS

Which of those would be best?
Average necks and all are usually good in my hands. I'm more picky about tones than feelz.

[Bossk]

And I think those pickups are interchangeable.

[misterstomach]

there's several folks on here with monsons. ancient, ridingeternity, ethan from vancouver who doesn't post much these days and i can't even remember his user name on here, and will/humancertainty has two of them. they're fucking killer guitars and brent seems like a really good guy to work with. i've seriously considered trying to get one myself, but have been struggling with whether or not i can get along with guitars as pointy as the ones he usually does. as far as bang for the buck, i think he's definitely the best thing going in the custom guitar world these days.

i would really reiterate what skully said. you may get along easily with a lot of guitars, but you're paying for custom work. make sure it's a forever guitar. you don't want to drop that cash on a guitar that you could make any way you want and then a year or two later just happen to pick up some guitar that for some reason feels better to you. that would be a bummer. go to stores and play a bunch of shit. you can be like, "i like the neck on this whatever guitar x that i played", "i've done some research and i think i want this scale length." "i like neck through better than bolt on, but can you do a set neck, cause that's my favorite." get the most for your money. take some time to figure it out. none of his pickup options are really home run keepers if you ask me, but those can be changed later. or you can find something you like better and send them to him to put in it. the neck construction, wood used, and scale length are forever though.

[chamberpain]

I've got Doomsayer #5. I went in pretty blind, but knew I wanted something special. Brent was great at walking me through all the options and how they affected playablility and tone. Absolutely no regrets and if I can dig up some money, I'll gladly hand more over to him for another one day. I knew I wanted walnut and a neck similar to an explorer and an ebony fretboard and string through. Everything else he walked me through. He maintained great communication throughout the process. And let me tell ya, when he sent the first batch of "in process" pics, it was better than christmas.

[Ancient Astronaught]

As pointed out I have Nomad #9 and absolutely adore it. Best neck and fertboard I've ever played. The fretwork is better than any stock guitar I've ever picked up at GC. And the fit and finish are all top notch.

Brent is amazing to deal with and his communication is superb.

As far as the stock pickups he can install what ever you want, SD's, Dimarzio's, BKP's.... just about anything but it adds on to the cost. He uses cheap pickups as his standards because the percentage of people that swap out pickups on their guitars is staggering. If you polled everyone here asking who still has the bone stock pickups in their guitars probably not many would say they do. So he uses the cheap pickups to save on the end cost to the customer from him, which I think is amazing as he's thinking ahead and thinking about the customer.

As also pointed out if your going to order a custom made guitar from him make sure you know what you want. Neck shape and size can be determined easily by telling him what you currently have and really like or what you've played that you really like. The big things are body / neck woods and fretboard wood IMO. That's what you want to decide and he will definitely walk you through that aspect of the order to make sure you get what you want.

If your looking for top shelf "doom" pickups I suggest BKP WarPigs or Avedessian Rail's, mid level go with SD or Dimarzio (theres so many different models from these two that its hard to narrow down the choices), and if you wanna go with the cheap stock pickups he installs I'd get GFS Rail humbuckers they're pretty good and great bang for the buck.

[humancertainty]

Like Parker said, I have two Monsons and I'm an endorsed artist.

http://www.monsonguitars.com/artists/wi ... ndian.html

By the way, that picture was taken of me when I was still in WITTR and before I was in Indian. I'd never wear my own shirt.

I have Doomsayers #1 and #3. They're the only guitars I use and have been the only ones for years, although I still have my Les Paul that I play at home. I absolutely love them.

Brent is a great person and a great friend. I can't recommend him highly enough.

[pelliott]

Your Doomsayers are easily my favorites of all the Monsons I've ogled, particularly #3. Damn, Mike's and AA's Nomads are gorgeous too.

[Bossk]

Im really into the redemption. The doomdayer was a close second too. Ive been emailing Brent asking him a lot of questions. Hes really good at helping me figure it out too. Its great hes into all this music so hes really helpful for knowing how to set it up with whichever styles.

[humancertainty]

Your Doomsayers are easily my favorites of all the Monsons I've ogled, particularly #3. Damn, Mike's and AA's Nomads are gorgeous too.

#3 is my go to. If I were the type of person to get buried when I die, that would be the one that got interred with me. I haven't even thought about buying another guitar since.
Brent made that one with walnut that I got from my grandpa's shop when he died. Some of it ended up in Mike's first Monson, too.

[Bossk]

The more I look at it, the more Im leanining towards the Doomsayer.

[D.o.S.]

All the cool kids have one.