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Exceptional Axes from Scero Guitars
Pueblo guitar maker Scero Guitars handcrafts one-of-a-kind guitars from a garage.
By John Bueno
If drums are the heart or rock and roll, the guitar is undeniably its soul; and every guitarist will tell you they have their favorite, a devotion to their chosen instrument whether it be brand new high end or pawn shop salvaged; they all come with a history and, if they’re lucky, a future. From BB King’s “Lucille” to Eddie Van Halen’s “Frankenstrat”, they serve as the artistic conduit for the art that is rock and roll.
It is precisely this connection and devotion to craft that brings me to a nondescript garage in Pueblo’s Eagleridge neighborhood. It’s here that Louis Scutti launched his Scero brand handmade electric guitars in 2012. A musician for nearly two decades, Scutti hadn’t really planned on launching a line of boutique instruments. It was pure chance that he landed upon local master luthier Ed Lynch’s workshop with a friend who opened his eyes to the idea of making his own guitars. “I must’ve bought two of Ed’s guitars in two months. I loved them. So I started hanging out, bugging him to teach me. Before working on that first guitar with Ed, I had almost no training working with wood, other than some carpentry work. But Ed helped me build the first one, and it hasn’t really stopped since.”
With high end hardware, electronics and custom builds that take inspiration from classic electric guitars while adding new facets, the Scero guitar is a truly unique beast.
But it wasn’t always so pretty or easy, according to Scutti. “The first guitars I built myself were such crap!” Louis remembers, “They played fine, but one guy said the finish was an 80 mile per hour job; that it looked good if you were driving by doing eighty!”
Even so, there must have been something about the Scero guitars. “In that first seven months, I received over thirty orders,” he adds. So after taking a break to take an additional six months of apprenticeship with Ed, Louis began slowly and surely cranking out high quality customs that now play and look amazing.
When asked about the big guitar names in the biz, Scutti doesn’t seemed worried. He believes it’s his attention to both detail and quality materials that helps Scero stand out as an emerging custom shop. “Fender and Gibson aren’t doing things the way they used to in the 50’s and 60’s, you know? Their guitars today are mostly machine made, and there’s almost no connection with the builders. That’s one of the reasons I love doing this. That connection to the instrument.”
“I think that some people just want something that’s hand crafted with care, and not just stamped off an assembly line. You can feel the difference.”
“I have put blood, sweat, and sometimes literal tears into pretty much every guitar that I’ve made,” Scutti says when asked about the process in birthing such a detailed undertaking. “Some are easier than others, but 20 to 40 hours of labor plus go into every guitar from start to finish.”
A former salesman, Scutti also emphasizes the importance of the relationship with clientele before the guitars even make it to their new homes. “I do a personal picture album for every guitar made; every step of the process, not just a few photos here and there. In fact, I’d probably get more guitars built if I wasn’t always taking so many photos.”
With a small number of up-and-coming clients now proudly playing on Scero guitars (including blues-rock virtuoso Josh Smith and pop-punk band Emery), Scutti feels that if the demand rose, he could take Scero to a new level. “I would love to move into a bigger space, get some more help. It would mostly be nice not to spend so much time cursing at the hoses I trip over because it’s so cramped (in the workshop)”.
Which isn’t so say he’s looking to sell out his line anytime soon. “I’ve put a lot into this, and I have my limits. There’s no way I’d want to sell something that wasn’t hand-crafted or that is mass produced. That isn’t what I want. I’ve only gotten better over the years. It feels like the first thing I’ve ever felt really good at.”
“With each new guitar I make, I’m always pushing to make it better than the one before it. To do something new.”
More on Scero Guitars can be found on their YouTube channel and online at sceroguitars.mybigcommerce.com
