A Beauty From Scott Walker Guitars
Not much to say about this one. It is simply a beautiful guitar from Scott Walker Guitars. I will let the guitar speak for itself.
Scott Walker Guitars
Scott Walker Guitars Headstock
Back of Scott Walker Guitars
Scott Walker Guitars
Scott Walker Guitars Semi Hollow Guitar
I was just checking out the new Semi Hollow Guitar from Scott Walker Guitars and thought I would share it here. As expected, this is another beautiful guitar. Great work as usual Scott!
Scott Walker Semi Hollow Guitar
Scott Walker Guitars Semi Hollow
Scott Walker Guitars Semi Hollow Back
Semi Hollow Guitar from Scott Walker Guitars
Back of Semi Hollow Guitar from Scott Walker
Interview With Scott Walker of Scott Walker Guitars
Interview by Ron of Boutique Guitar Resource
Boutique Guitar Resource: Tell us about your history and what got you interested in building guitars.
Scott Walker: I seemed to always have this incredible urge to create, this overwhelming desire, manifesting in all sorts of ways. From building human gliders, random electronic projects, to painting on huge canvasses, pencil portraits and petroglyph rock art. I seem to wander all over the place. This passion for creation seems to come from somewhere else sometimes, as if something else is in control of me.
I was constantly exploring every kind of music at the time, especially guitar oriented, and everywhere I went there were broken guitars and a need for fixing them, thus the inspiration and desire to build my own was born.
Boutique Guitar Resource: Are you a self taught luthier or did you have some formal education?
Scott Walker: I attended Roberto Venn school of luthiery in 2000 and then went on to work for Santa Cruz Guitar Company in California. This is a great company, known for their dedication to hand building in the traditional way, and offering an environment where the art of tone and manipulating tone become part of the experience of building guitars. I also shared with others there an intimacy with the woods, becoming one with every aspect of steel string guitar construction. This was the biggest influence on me in developing my approach to building. I worked there for six years, three as the foreman and still stop by when they need an extra hand. The guitar building community in Santa Cruz is great. There are so many talented builders and we all offer to help one another and bounce ideas off each other. During my time at SCGC I also worked with Rick Turner, mostly on his large Baker resaw. Rick has helped me tremendously with my electronics and guidance in general.
Boutique Guitar Resource: Where did the inspiration come from when designing your guitar models?
Scott Walker: I try to build guitars that look the way music sounds to me.
This is one of those things that I have worked really hard at, and at the same time feel it comes through in a very natural way. The designs and artistic styling is really just an extension of what I have always done, whether it’s engraving into a piece of sandstone or doodling on the napkin at the café.
There are elements to my carvings that are pretty classic, nothing super original, kind of old style elements. These have been around for centuries, touched upon by artist all over the world throughout time. I feel that I am one person channeling these elements and blending them with “guitar construction 2000″ technologies.
Some of the things that inspire me are the simple occurrences in nature, such as, lichen, old sunken boats, fire, water, clouds, etc. I draw inspiration form all parts of life, especially from the people who have helped me along the way.
After the aesthetic designs, tonally, there is nothing better than the clean, melodic, thick, sparkly sound of Knopfler, Kimock, and Garcia (among others). This is the real influence on my designs. The music is what moves me.
Boutique Guitar Resource: You obviously enjoy carving wood since your guitars feature a lot of hand carving. What got you interested in this and what made you decide to incorporate this into your guitar designs?
Scott Walker: Well, it really didn’t start that way. This is something that has evolved over time and I am not sure where it is going, but I have standardized a few things. It all started while I was sculpting the bodies and I simply began to doodle on them with a pencil, then carving over it and observing what came out. The evolution of this was pretty quick, taking me about ten guitars before having the elements worked out. This is another one of those things that seems to have a natural flow all on its own.
Boutique Guitar Resource: If you could pick one guitar builder to build a custom guitar for you, who would it be?
Scott Walker: Wow! That’s a tuff one. I really don’t play enough of a spectrum of guitars to make the best opinion, but if I had to choose one this moment, I’d most likely go with Detemple.
Boutique Guitar Resource: Who are some other luthiers that you admire?
Scott Walker: Well, because there are so many facets to luthiery I admire different luthiers for different reasons. I admire Trougott for setting the bar so high, Bauregard for cleanliness and taste, and Turner for non stop innovations. Then there’s Hoover for steel string voicing and dedication, and Artinger for brilliance, youth full designs, and customer relations. I also deeply admire and appreciate Detemple for perseverance and building the holy grail as well as Jesselli for taste and mixed mediums. These are just a handful of the many talented luthiers who are an important influence for me in my own experience as a luthier.
Boutique Guitar Resource: What part of the guitar building process do you feel is most important and why?
Scott Walker: Neck angle and intonation are probably the most important. You have to have the bridge in the right spot, and if the neck’s not set right you can’t play it! After that it’s pretty much all up in the air.
Boutique Guitar Resource: Would you take us through the building process of one of your guitars?
Scott Walker: First there’s the blueprint or drawing where everything starts on a center line. After the guitar is drawn out I make the template, first out of masonite, then plexiglass. Here’s where it gets really fun, when I get to look through the plexiglass window at the different and often spectacular woods, profiling the top and lining it all up just how my customer desires. Then I begin laying out fingerboards, pulling out different neck woods and getting a sense of what works best together. All the while lots of things are running through my head, like what sound are we going after? What style of music will be produced? What pickups? What bridge? What scale length? What electronics? It is like a cyclical spiral of evolution as things come together.
I try to batch things up a little bit to help keep some flow going, like slotting and binding fingerboards or roughing out neck blanks. I usually have a 2 year supply of neck blanks roughed out and “de-stressing.” I find this helps maintain a good flow throughout construction.
Scott Walker The Attrezzo Electric Guitar
Scott Walker Guitars The Phoenix
Boutique Guitar Resource: What is your favorite part of the guitar building process?
Scott Walker: Starting with the design of the guitar and working it out on paper would be the first thing. The freedom of working with a pencil and erasure really unlocks the design. The next best part is seeing it take shape in the wood. After hours of carving and sweating, seeing the guitar at this moment makes my heart race.
Also I really enjoy wiring up the guitar. By this time I’m ready to put on some classical music and sit quietly and piece the puzzle together. I really enjoy the challenge of a crazy wiring scheme.
The other really great part is when you put the strings on for the first time, wind up the low E string and hear and feel the instrument come alive. Feeling the vibrations as you wind it up to pitch is as if the woods start speaking after being silent for 100+years. This is something that is really special, and amazes me every time. Giving life to an instrument and the mystery that lies ahead is very fascinating to me.
Boutique Guitar Resource: Do you have some favorite wood combinations that you like to use?
Scott Walker: When it comes to carving I’d have to go with Mahogany. It really likes to do what you want it to all the way through the process, from carving and sanding to staining and lacquer. It sounds good and looks great. I really like the antique cherry mahogany stuff. Combine this with a nice Brazilian rosewood fingerboard. Heaven!
Boutique Guitar Resource: What woods do you prefer to use for fretboards and necks?
Scott Walker: Well, the Brazilian is my favorite visually, but ebony sounds the best. It’s very dense and really whistles. The Brazilian is probably better for more overdriven music.
Mahogany necks are definitely my favorite. It’s stable, dependable, carves like butter, and is very accessible. I do work with other great woods though like maple, rosewood, and sycamore. I believe they each have their place.
Scott Walker Guitars
Scott Walker Guitars Cocobolo Top
Boutique Guitar Resource: What do you look for when picking wood for a guitar?
Scott Walker: Good question. Mostly out of pure curiosity I choose woods based, on aesthetics. When I choose woods it’s generally based on something that excites me and not really based on what I think other people would like. For instance, at one point I was really into Cocobolo but after the fifteenth Cocobolo guitar I was ready for a new flavor. Although I have a killer stash of Cocobolo I use for customers, and am still amazed at how each piece is so unique and dazzling, my personal preference switched to spruce and redwood. I find my taste for the wood changes as I change and explore different styles of wood.
I also look for tone and balance as I select wood. Not only do I want the guitar to show off mother natures’ brilliancy and randomness, but it has to have something going on sonically. This is one of the main reasons I have gravitated towards the spruce and redwood tops. These guitars sound amazing! They are also very unique in the electric world.
Boutique Guitar Resource: Do you prefer nickel or stainless steel frets and why?
Scott Walker: Tonally, I am not certain about. This is one of those things that people go on for days about and really I think is relative to the instrument, player and rig. I have heard many talk about tone and how “rosewood is dark” or “rosewood is bright.” I really try to stay out of this, but to answer the question honestly, I like stainless because it lasts longer but dulls the tools, so I pretty much just use nickel.
Boutique Guitar Resource: What type of neck carve options do you offer?
Scott Walker: I don’t really have a catalogue of neck shapes and dimensions worked out to correspond with the rest of the world. I do a basic, what I call a contemporary, medium, thin, round carve. It starts at about .830 at the first fret and goes up to .930 at the 14th. It stays thin all the way up (that’s the contemporary part). It has a nice symmetrical round profile with no flat spots. Ninety percent of the necks I carve are like this although I do offer custom profiles and dimensions. This is a specialty of mine, having carved over a thousand necks at SCGC, many of them custom. One of my favorites I did recently for a customer was a “V” at the first five frets that then morphed into a round. I have also done the super thin rounds, and super fat rounds. I also take specs from customer’s guitars and mimic what is going on. This is another area that has so many variables to it. Nut width and width at the last fret play into the way the neck feels when the profile is carved to a certain thickness and shape. I take all of this into consideration before I carve the neck.
Boutique Guitar Resource: Can you give us some information about the neck tenon on your various models?
Scott Walker: I really like to have as much stability at the neck joint as possible. On my set neck guitars I run the tenon up into the bridge pickup, so in a way the pickups are “inlaid” into the neck. I like the idea of getting the neck and body to work together as a system mostly for strength and energy transfer. It’s kind of inbetween a standard set neck and a neck through.
For the guitar I call the Phoenix, I am doing a standard bolt on style neck but there is an extra tennon on the bottom of the heel that extends into the body. This helps with alignment and energy transfer. The Jazzmaster style pickups are actually mounted to the tennon, theoretically giving them opportunity to get all the string energy available.
The guitars are built to have maximum sustain.
Scott Walker Deep Set Neck Tenon
Scott Walker The Phoenix Guitar Body
Scott Walker Guitars Bolt On Neck With Extra Tenon
The Phoenix Guitar Neck Joint
Boutique Guitar Resource: Tell us a little about the pickups you use?
Scott Walker: Right now I am using mostly Lollars’. They are a great pickup and great company to work with. I have yet to come across anything that didn’t sound good or fit the description of the pickup. I know there are a lot of talented builders out there but I seem to gravitate towards Lollars’. I haven’t had to replace even one from any of the custom builds that requested Lollars’. So far everyone is very satisfied with them. And again, they are a fabulous company and very reliable and dependable.
Right now I am favoring their “humbucker sized single coils.” They really work great with the preamp I use and have a good chime and piano like definition and clarity.
I use a variety of their humbuckers as well. The low winds are a favorite of my customers. When I get to choose pickups I go for the high winds because they sound powerful and heroic.
Boutique Guitar Resource: Can you describe the finishing process that you use on your guitars?
Scott Walker: I do a pretty standard nitro set up. Stain, seal, poor fill, clean up and spray. I spray four coats a day for three days. Twelve coats overall, scuffing and leveling in between days. Then I let the whole thing gas off for a couple weeks. Then wet sand up to 2000 grit and buff.
Right now Addam Stark is helping me with my finish. He sprays out of Rick Turners spray booth. Addam is a true master at finish. He does finish full time and is an encyclopedia of guitar knowledge.
Sometimes I spray my guitars over at SCGC. At the moment I am working on an oiled guitar. They have a great feel and I am very intrigued by the simplicity of it. This will be on my new single cutaway model.
Boutique Guitar Resource: Can you list the different guitar models you offer and briefly describe them?
Scott Walker: The “Special” is my first model, it’s a 24 3/4 scale guitar, kind of small and lively. It is my first model and one that I have made the most of. I have done it in all sorts of scale lengths and pickup configurations and have come to the 24 ¾ two humbucker deal. The spruce top and ebony fingerboard weighs in at 6 lbs and is very responsive. It comes either chambered or solid. It’s loosely based on a Les Paul Jr.
The “Santa Cruz” is a solid body guitar, 25” scale, 24 fret. It is a larger guitar than the Special and a little different ergonomically. It’s loosely based on a PRS with a set neck.
The “Attrezzo” is the 25 ½ scale neck thru model. It has three single coils and is a based off the Strat type guitar.
The first three models all come with my standard electronics package. A built in effects loop, master volume, tone and master gain knob. There is an active/passive switch, effects loop bypass switch, and a 3 way pickup selector. The effects loop allows the guitar signal to go down to your effects, then back up to the guitars volume and then out to your amp. So your effects always read 100% output from your pickups no matter where your volume is at. You have a master volume over your effects. Then you can toggle between going right to your amp, or kick in the effects.
The built in preamp changes the signal form high impedance to low impedance, so you really hear the instrument and don’t get any loaded signal from cables and effects. With the active/passive switch you get the best of both worlds.
The Phoenix is the Stereo/mono guitar and is 25 ½” scale. It’s loosely based on the Jazzmaster.
I am just getting ready to release a new single cutaway model as well as a semi hollow body guitar with bent sides. So stay tuned in!
Scott Walker Guitars The Walker Special
Scott Walker Electric Guitar
Scott Walker Guitars The Santa Cruz
Boutique Guitar Resource: What is the wait time when ordering a custom guitar and can you describe the ordering process?
Scott Walker: Having to wait for a custom guitar can be one of the hardest parts of the process as the wait time tends to be anywhere from 6 months to a couple of years. It can be a challenge to make the call on exactly how long but I try to feel it out the best I can and let the customer know anything goes when building a custom guitar. There is always a chance of fluctuation in the time for the completion of the guitar. So usually the average time is about one year.
The ordering process usually begins through email or on the phone. Here the customer and I discuss options and pricing for their choice of guitar. Once we come up with a rough idea, they give me a deposit so I can begin collecting the necessary parts and the customer receives a spec sheet to create their custom order. That way one can spend as much time as they like going through specs and honing in on the instrument. At that point is when the guitar goes on the production schedule.
Boutique Guitar Resource: Even though I like all of the models you offer, I would have to say The Phoenix is my favorite (at least it is right now). Out of the guitar models you build, which is your favorite and why?
Scott Walker: Right now, I’d have to agree! The Phoenix is a great guitar. The stereo quality is truly amazing. The ability to switch pickup-to-amp on the fly and/or switch to mono in either amp is an ultimate feature for a guitar. The ability to have one amp clean and a little delay and the other overdriven, is just heaven. This guitar REALLY wants some time to play. It will pull you right out of your skin and take you somewhere you haven’t yet imagined! I am really excited about this guitar. Also, it is a very versatile guitar. Those who have their own amps, effects and different styles of playing, this guitar will really enhance and benefit each. The preamp Cutler built for it has such clarity and chime, and the ability to play it active or passive really makes this an artists guitar. It sounds like a chorus of angels playing in the devils band!
Boutique Guitar Resource: What do you see in the future for Scott Walker Guitars and do you have any new guitar models in the works that you would like to share with us?
Scott Walker: Another good question. It feels like I am just getting going and starting out having built around 75 guitars and well, doesn’t really seem like all that many, although a very full and rewarding experience.
This year I have a new single cutaway model and a semi hollow coming out. Next year I plan on creating an acoustic guitar and see where it goes. I also have some new carving elements I hope to integrate. Also you’ll most likely see more of the metal pickgurads and engravings, which keep giving me a good time. I will be doing some sand casting and lost wax hardware pretty soon as well.
I am very tuned in the quality of the stereo sound right now and am planning on making a video about it and also some more reviews with this guitar, so stay posted!
I want to thank Scott Walker of Scott Walker Guitars for taking the time to answer these questions. You can visit Scott Walker Guitars at:
Scott Walker Guitars
Scott Walker Guitars – The Phoenix
The Phoenix is a collaboration between Scott Walker, Steve Kimock, John Cutler and Jason Lollar. I have to say The Phoenix is absolutely beautiful. The woods, the pickguard, the design….just an amazing looking guitar!
The specs for The Phoenix are as follows:
25.5 Scale Length
21 Fret
1 11/16th Bone Nut
2 1/4 String Spacing at the Bridge
String Through the Body
Double Action Truss Rod
Kluson Tuners
Graphite Reinforced Neck
Chrome Hardware
Lollar Blade Style Pickups
Cutler Preamp
Curly Mahogany Body and Neck
Brazilian Rosewood Fingerboard
Medium Jumbo Frets
Tone Pros Bridge
Copper Pickguard
The guitar comes standard with a rare, curly Mahogany body and neck and a Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard. These woods have been collected by naturally fallen timbers and stumps. There is a limited supply of this wood and Scott Walker Guitars will be building between 15 and 20 of these instruments.
The Phoenix From Scott Walker Guitars
The Phoenix Stereo Electric Guitar
The Phoenix features a unique, two channel preamp that was designed and built by John Cutler specifically for The Phoenix stereo guitar. It also features a solid copper pickguard to help shield the electronics as well as add the final touch to face of the guitar. The copper pickguard allows Scott Walker to incorporate his patina and engraving skills that provide each guitar with a unique and distinguished appearance.
Scott Walker Guitars Copper Pickguard
The Phoenix Copper Pickguard
The Phoenix Two Channel Preamp
The Phoenix Stereo Electric Guitar is exactly what you would expect from Scott Walker Guitars and then some. It features beautiful woods, carvings, and it just screams of class.
The Phoenix Curly Mahogany
Scott Walker Guitars Headstock
Back of Scott Walker Guitars The Phoenix
The Phoenix is loaded with features. To learn more about The Phoenix from Scott Walker Guitars, visit:
Scott Walker Guitars The Phoenix
Scott Walker Guitars Construction – Deep Set Neck, Nitrocellulose lacquer, and more pictures
Scott Walker Guitars Construction:
All Materials are kiln and air dried prior to use.
Each guitar is sprayed with nitrocellulose lacquer.
All cavities are grounded and have three coats of shielding paint.
All instruments feature sculpted horns front and back with arched top.
Necks include a double action truss rod and two carbon fiber reinforcment bars.
All instruments feature a deep set neck, running the neck tennon into the bridge pickup cavity for string energy transfer, sustain and strength.
Scott Walker Deep Set Long Neck Tennon
(Notice how the neck extends through the neck pickup and into the bridge pickup cavity.)
There are just way too many beautiful Scott Walker Electric Guitars so here are some more pics:
Scott Walker Custom Electric Guitar
Scott Walker Custom Electric Guitar
Scott Walker Custom Electric Guitar
Scott Walker W Carve in Electric Guitar
Scott Walker Santa Cruz Electric Guitar