Today I received the first look at my soon to be here ’61 Reserve from SVL Guitars, and what a beauty it is. But let’s step back; who is Simon Law and what makes his ’61 Reserve special?
Simon Law is a UK guitar builder and guitar tech that works with many big names. His guitars are used by some of the blues greats (Robbin Ford and Matt Schofield to name a few) and are revered for feeling, sounding and playing like old guitars but with new guitar reliability. He also works as a guitar tech for a number of other artists, and in fact part of the reason my guitar took so long to complete (more on that later) is the fact that he was on tour with the WHO for some time.
So he definitely has the knowledge and ear to build a fantastic instrument, but there are lots of great builders, why go with him? Lots of reasons. His guitars are hand built, to spec, with old wood and experience of what makes a vintage guitar sound and feel the way it does, and how to get as close to that as possible. As good as the best at Fender, at a price that is remarkably doable, and with a much more reasonable wait. When some of the best blues players go to him for instruments that respond to their touch and feel, you know he’s doing things right.
So now let’s talk MY guitar. Vintage radius fretboard, Katalox fingerboard (like Brazilian Rosewood but more consistent) 6105 sized frets; this vintage with taller frets combo is what I’ve found to be the perfect mix of comfort and playability and was what I had on my vintage ’59 and Silver Sky.
Pickups are ’59 Reserve set from Mark Foley with some custom tone cap values, everything high quality and vintage spec. Vintage style hardware rounds out the build, and a medium relic to the black body with tortoise pickguard gives it a story.
All in all it costs only around the same price as a standard custom shop Strat from Fender, but with master built options and quality. The only downside? This is a one man operation and his main gig is with the stars, so from order to delivery your looking at around 9 months. Roughly the same amount of time an expecting father would have to wait, and certainly worth the wait.