From The Craftsman
My first love is tools.
Tools enable us to increase our capability and capacity when creating things. Tools also have the ability to inspire us in ways that are not easily defined. One of my favorite tools is a No 6 hand plane from around 1919. Every time I pick it up, I imagine the craftspeople who used this same tool to create things before I was even born. There are also many tools in my shop that I made myself to solve a specific problem. I get a huge amount of satisfaction from using something that I created to create something else.
I see guitars through this mindset. For me a guitar is a tool used to make music and everything else comes secondary. Many guitars are built to be a status symbol, or a piece of art. Mine are made to be a functional tool.
For me, a guitar needs to be functional, comfortable, sound great, and be repairable. It also needs to be beautiful in a way that inspires the user, but simple in its aesthetic as to not undermine its primary functions.
As such, my workshop generates simple and well built instruments that are within the realm of real musicians (and not just lawyers and doctors). Every guitar is hand-built in my small shop using local materials whenever possible. I would be thrilled to have my craft become an integral part of yours.
– Scott W. Klaasen
