John Scheda, Brockport native and proprietor of JS Custom Guitars, donated a custom made guitar for auction at the American Heart Association’s Heart Ball fundraiser, held May 21 at Oak Hill Country Club.
The instrument was custom-designed and built personally by Scheda, a mechanical engineer, musician and avid guitar builder. John saw the opportunity to combine his passion for building finely crafted custom guitars with community service when he heard of some longtime friends also participating in the AHA fundraiser.
As Scheda tells it, when he heard of the chance to have something he loves doing also benefit the AHA, he immediately liked the idea. However, he realized that time was short, since a true custom design and build such as this one has a substantial lead-time.
The process started in mid-March, with design work and sourcing of the wood and other components. The design was done all in CAD (computer aided design), and the major components cut on a computerized milling machine built by Scheda.
Although the components look like a guitar pretty quickly, the majority of the work happens after the machine cutting is done, including the final shaping, hand-fitted binding and multi-step dyeing process to produce the striking flamed maple top.
The back and neck consist of multi-piece black walnut construction, and the fretboard a single piece of ebony. According to Scheda, the neck is one crucial element of a great guitar, so he put extra care into the precise alignment and radiusing of neck, fretboard and frets.
Scheda was pleased with the outcome on this guitar, saying it’s one of the best-playing instruments he has made. A stickler for detail, Scheda readily notices these things; a more casual observer of the AHA instrument is more likely to notice the striking EKG-trace-and-AHA-logo theme inlaid to the ebony fretboard.
Scheda estimates that his total effort in the guitar took about 140 hours.
No stranger to community service, Scheda grew up in Boy Scouting (with Troop 111 in Brockport) and participated in dozens of community service projects over his scouting career, including his own Eagle Scout project. “I guess I learned in scouts and at home, that giving my time and energy to a worthwhile cause is pretty rewarding.”
Scheda is very pleased to have been an “instrumental” part of the great work being done by the American Heart Association.
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