John David Scott Guitars was founded in the summer of 1999 by three business partners; John Harb, David Amirault and Scott Fraser. They've gone through a few changes but they have always kept their sights on one goal; to produce a handmade guitar to the best of their ability. The operation was deliberately kept to a small manageable size in order to maintain a high level of quality control . So far the response from musicians, studio owners and engineers has been positive, to say the least.

Here's a little background on the builders...

John Harb and David Amirault were both employees of a major Vancouver based guitar company for a number of years and decided to team up and start a small shop based in Burnaby B.C. A small loan and a few months later the first hand-built guitars started to emerge. Already having all the skills needed to build these guitars, it was just a matter of establishing systems of doing things to get more consistent results. Over time and with a lot of advice from their friends such as John McQuarrie at Northwood guitars, Jeff Sigurdson and Jesse Brace at Legend and of course the father of Canadian guitar builders Jean LarriveÈ at LarriveÈ Guitars they were on track and headed quickly in the right direction.

Over the next year and a half, John Harb and Scott Fraser remained involved in their primary roles until increasing pressure from their primary carrers caused them to resign form the company. This brings us up to today with David Amirault being the principal owner/operator of the company.

With an increasing demand for the guitars an ever growing pressure to move to the next level and find a proper space in which to work David was fortunate to find space for his growing business in the summer of 2002. With the new shop, his journey which started almost a decade ago took a new and exciting turn and what started as a one-car garage was now a proper luthier's shop.

Wood Selection and Treatment

All John David Scott guitars start with a careful selection of wood. Proper wood processing & climatization is a key ingredient to a great sounding, structurally stable guitar. Some of the types of wood used are: Sitka and Engleman Spruce - for tops, Koa, Rosewood, Walnut, Mahogany, Maple, Blackwood - for backs and sides, Mahogany - for necks, and Ebony - for fretboards and bridges.

First; the materials are selected.

Now that all of the components are ready, the guitar is assembled. Backs and tops are joined and braced, sides are glued together with blocks at either ends and kerfed and finally the backs and tops are attached. At this point various bindings and in some cases abalone and perfling is then applied. The neck joint is dovetailed and rough-fitted. The neck is then rough shaped and the headstock is cut and drilled before the truss rod is sealed with tape & silicon and the fretboard attached.

The completed body and neck are now finished. JDS uses polyurethane varnish for its body finish and a satin finish on the neck for added playability. The guitars are cured for a week, rough wet-sanded and then cured for an additional week to ensure a smooth settled finish.

The finished neck is now attached to the body using glue and a hand-fitted dove-tail joint. The fingerboard has a compound radius sanded into it and position markers installed. The guitar is then fretted and the nut fitted. Finally, it reamains to position the bridge with accurate intonation so the guitar is able to play in tune. Once this is done the bridge saddle is set for string height, the truss rod receives a minor adjustment and the machine heads and a pick-guard is added. The guitar is then strung and receives it's final test: that of music.