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In addition to the
intricate inlays on
the hcadstock and
fretboard, Baxendale
collaborated with
another artist, Wes
Freed, to customize
this guitar with sap-
phires, rubies, and
four LED lights.
Three arc inside the
guitar, allowing it to
glow from the stage.
M A Y B E T H E R E ’ S S O M E T H I N G
in the water in A thens, Georgia,
that attracts great musicians.
R .E .M ., the
B -
5 2
S ,
W idespread
Panic, Ravenstone, the Indigo
Girls, Love Tractor, and many
more have taken root and flour-
ished there. N ow you can add
Scott Baxendale to the list.
You probably haven’t heard
o f Baxendale, but rest assured
that professional musicians
in A thens know he’s in tow n,
recently relocated from Denver.
Baxendale, 57, is a master luthier
who has made custom guitars
for the likes o f W ilco, Carl Per-
kins, and John M ellencamp.
H e has traveled a rough road
to this place, living through
more than his share o f turmoil
and loss. W hat has saved him
- at one point, literally - is the
m eticulous craft process he has
honed into a livelihood over
many years, to the delight o f
elite guitarists across the coun-
try. It’s an art he now plans to
teach to others.
Baxendale says he strives
“to make an instrum ent that’s
an individual piece o f art itself
that inspires the musician to
create even more art.” In that,
guitarist Patterson H ood says,
he has triumphed. “H e’s as good
as it gets - as fine as anyone
building guitars anyw here,”
says H ood, w ho plays for alter-
native country band D rive-B y
Truckers, another A thens off-
spring. “Som e o f the best m usi-
cians in the world” - H ood cites
Booker T. Jones, for one -
“marvel at how fine [Baxen-
dale’s guitars] are.”
H is painstaking attention
to detail starts long before he
picks up any tools. H e builds
“an individual instrum ent for
the individual,” he says, w hich
requires him to analyze the
m ost minute details o f each
m usician’s idiosyncratic hand-
ling of, and feeling for, his or
her guitar. H e w ants to know:
W hat w as your first guitar?
T he first guitar you lusted
after? W hat music do you play?
W hat music do you admire?
0 5 0 a m e r i c a n c r a f t
a u g / s c p n
C o o l e y b i r d
L E D g u it a r p h o t o : P a m e la B a x e n d a le
