SVL GUITARS’ SIMON LAW
ON SCHOFIELD’S 6-STRINGS
Photos courtesy of SVL Guitars
“I have known Matt for many, many years, and I’ve always known him to be a real player—a real tone guy,”
says Simon Law of SVL Guitars in Gloucestershire, England.
Law has worked as Schofield’s guitar tech since 2006—the same
year the two began discussing building a guitar that Schofield
could take on the road instead of his precious 1961 Strat.
“Matt is such a killer guy to build and mend stuff for,
because he gets it: He plugs the guitar straight into the amp
and it sounds like Matt playing a good guitar through a good
amp. He’d sound good with a Squier Strat and a solid-state
amp. However, give him a good guitar and amp, and he
sounds like a million dollars.”
“His ear for what makes the difference was obvious to me
from the start,” Law continues. “I had built a Tele-type guitar
called the SVL Custom Deluxe, which is an ash-body hardtail
with two mini humbuckers—an absolute killer guitar. He
used the guitar when he played with Ian Siegal at the North
Sea Jazz Festival that year, and later he told me what he liked
about that guitar and what he didn’t like. I made notes on nut
width, neck radius, and profile, etc., and the next year I made
the first SVL 61 in Vintage White with a flatter Brazilian
[rosewood] fretboard. He really dug it, but it just wasn’t quite
right for him. I realized I was going to have to dig deeper.”
It took a few more prototypes before Schofield was happy,
with each one getting closer and closer, “until I cracked
the vintage code a couple of years ago with his SVL 61 in
Daytona Blue (above middle). That guitar was just right
for him—I even measured the exact neck-pocket depth to
make sure his pickups could be set the same as on his old
’ 61 Strat. The contours are bang on, and even the feel of the
neck. It took me about a year to build, but he bonded with
it instantly and has played it ever since. I have built him one
more guitar since, his SVL 59—a one-piece, ash-body hard-
tail with custom-wound Amalfitano pickups (above left and
right). Up until this one, he had been using the Suhr Fletcher
As for the setup of Schofield’s guitars, Law says they’re
pretty straightforward. “He’s got medium-high action with
.011–.054 Curt Mangan strings. I also fit his guitars with
Oak Grigsby double-wafer switches so his tone controls
are not in the circuit at all when he’s using the in-between
sounds—it makes for a way funkier-sounding guitar.”
Asked what new things are in store for Schofield’s rig, Law
says, “I’m currently building something else for him, some-
thing more like an old SVL 61 that someone has stripped
and waxed—a real tone guitar with almost no finish on it.
Hopefully, you’ll be seeing this guitar out pretty soon.”
