Autobiography
I was born at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, California. I started playing my father's acoustic guitar at 12 or 13 years old. Around that time my family moved to the Sierra Foothills where we still reside. At 16 I left high school to attend a local community college where I studied computers, design, and music theory.

At the age of 18 a school friend got me a job as his assistant in the marketing/design department of a Sacramento retail company. This is the real start of my interest in design and soft computer drafting. Within a few months I had secured the job of the company's Webmaster and held that position for 3 years. It was during this time that I was first able to afford some decent instruments and became interested in their design and construction. I started getting more serious about the instruments I had been drawing since I was younger and developed some solid ideas. Without tools and the knowledge to use them my notebook and computer was as far as my plans and designs went. By the time I was 21 I'd had enough of sitting behind a desk 10+ hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week. I quit my job, lived off savings, and visited community college again.

At some point my mother asked what I would do if money was no object. I thought about it a while and said I would probably go to school and learn how to build the instruments I had been planning and thinking about for years. It turns out this wasn't a hypothetical question because she had just found out my grandmother put away a decent amount of money for me to go to school when I was younger. With the money from my grandmother along with savings and my continued consulting jobs I was able to start luthiery school within a few months. I packed up, moved away to school, spent months of 12 hour days and ended up finishing as one of the top few students in my class. I was able to beat out over 20 people to get one of the two spots at a great custom shop apprenticeship in Boston, MA. Once again I packed up everything I owned and moved away. During this time I was able to work on many unique instruments for many well known artists. At the end of this apprenticeship I made the decision to head back home to California and start up my own small shop building handmade custom guitars and basses.

So far the response from players and other builders has been very good. Players interested in modern designs and unique features have liked my instruments. These are the musicians I enjoy working with and I hope I can continue to do so for a long time.

Scott French