Meet The Craftsman: Scott Gordon

Hi. I'm Scott Gordon, and building custom handmade guitars has been a longtime passion of mine. I can remember buying my first electric guitar for all the wrong reasons. I wanted to impress my friends by owning the same model as my guitar hero of the month. It didn't really matter if the weight, balance, neck or fingerboards felt comfortable or fit me. Like many other kids just starting to play, I thought of a guitar more as a prop than as a musical instrument.

After playing for all these years, I now believe that factory-made guitars are designed to fit the "typical" consumer. By working directly with a custom builder, guitarists can get an instrument that is not a compromise. How many players have one instrument for rock, another for jazz, and so on? A single instrument can be made with a wide tonal range, so that it can be played in any style of music.

My first priority in making a guitar is making sure that it is mechanically sound. My background is in engineering, and I share my new designs with my friend, engineer and mechanical simulation guru, Le Phan, who then "builds" the guitar using Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. We can "ask" the computer to calculate certain physical aspects of the design such as the weight and center of gravity. The computer shows where and how much the neck will bend under string tension. Care should be taken to insure that the neck on your guitar is right for you. Listen to your body on this one. Your music will be better for it. Many guitars seem to have been designed for looks first with comfort coming in a distant second. But a guitar should almost melt into the musician’s body while being played, and this should be true regardless of playing position. The player’s discomfort takes something away from the music.

It once occurred to me that I had never spoken directly with any of the builders of the guitars I've owned over the years. I believe that musicians can tell me many things that I would like to know about my guitars. That’s why I offer annual maintenance, free, for the life of the original owner. I clean and adjust everything and send back the guitar with a new set of strings. It’s a great way to stay in touch with my customers and their instruments and to make good use of knowledge that could otherwise be hard to come by. If you'd like to talk about the custom guitar of your dreams, call me at 610-857-0280, or email me at scott@scogo.com.