Photos by Jason Shadrick
Matt Schofield's Gearbox
Guitars
1961 Fender Strat, Daytona
Blue SVL 61, SVL 59
hardtail, Tele-style SVL
Custom Deluxe (below)
Amps
Two-Rock Classic Reverb 50
with dual GZ34 rectifiers and
6L6 power section, Two-Rock
4x10 with Eminence Ragin
Cajun speakers (live), Two-
Rock 2x12 with Two-Rock
spec Eminence and WGS
speakers (studio)
Effects
Providence SOV-2 Overdrive
(“My favorite overdrive
ever”), Klon Centaur (for
clean boost), Mad Professor
Deep Blue Delay (“It’s always
on, but barely audible—set
just longer than a slapback
for a bit of extra ambience”),
Mad Professor Forest Green
Compressor (studio),
Providence Final
Booster (studio)
Strings, Picks, and Accessories
Curt Mangan Matt Schofield
Signature strings (.011,
.014, .018, .028, .038, .054),
1mm Curt Mangan Curtex
picks, Sonic Research ST-200
Turbo Tuner, Providence
cables (E205, S102, and
P203 models)
SVL Guitars’ Simon Law
on Schofield’s 6-strings
“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.”
Photos courtesy of SVL Guitars
“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 hardtail
with custom-wound Amalfitano pickups (above left and
right). Up until this one, he had been using the Suhr Fletcher
Landau Classics.”
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, something
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.”