Canadian firm seals neck technology patent

Canadian firm Riversong Guitars has secured a worldwide patent for its NeckNology system, which allows players to quickly adjust the string height on the guitar.

Dubbed NeckNology by CEO and founder Mike Miltimore, the system allows players to adjust the height of their strings in seconds. Normally that requires taking a guitar apart, but for one of Riversong’s guitars it just needs an Allen Key. 

Miltimore said: “We developed a system that makes the guitar stronger, resonate more and give the player the ability to control string height,” he says.

“We filed for worldwide patent, you get patents for each country,” he added “And those patents are just starting to pour in.”

The patent will help legally protect Riversong from companies trying to copy the guitar’s unique structure around the world, but doesn’t automatically mean growth.

“It’s business as usual from when we were patent pending to patent,” Miltimore says. “We’ve been patent pending for a number of years.”

The firm builds 30 to 60 handmade guitars a month, depending on the design and complexity of the instrument. However, the space they’re in right now could handle 440 guitars in a month. Right now 80 per cent of the guitars are made with 100 per cent domestic wood.

“The guitars really reflect what you can get in and around Kamloops [Canada],” he said.

That includes maple, walnut and special, local varieties of spruce, including one variety only found in the Skeena Valley and another from the northern end of Vancouver Island.

“It’s iridescent,” he says. “It’s just beautiful sounding, beautiful looking wood.”