Filmmaker branches into custom-made guitars

When it came to asking Shonie De La Rosa why he began building electric guitars, his explanation couldn't have been said better.

"I figured that if I can't play bad ass guitar then I'll build a bad ass guitar," De La Rosa said.

That's how Navatone came to be, a custom guitar shop operated out of the De La Rosa home.

Shonie and Andee De La Rosa are perhaps best known for their independent film company Sheephead Films. The couple produced and directed the documentary "G: Methamphetamines on the Navajo Nation" and the indie reservation hit "Mile Post 398."

They also helped lobby the Navajo Nation Council to pass a law criminalizing the piracy of creative work, such as DVD bootlegging.

"I've always like guitars," Shonie said as he tuned up one his creations, Navatone No. 002, which combines a Fender Stratocaster body with a custom-made neck and pick-ups.

"I've always wanted to play guitar," he said. "My daughter Audrey plays guitar. She's really good."

He decided to learn and admits to trying the quick and easy method that famed guitarist Esteban, real name Stephen Paul, sold on the QVC and HSN cable TV networks.

"It was too fast for me to learn so I started using tabs," he said, referring to an older method where the fret number is shown in the guitar string.

"The thing about learning (guitar) is, you want to learn something that you can play right away," he said. "You don't want to just strum chords and notes like they teach you. You just want to learn to play something quick."

He researched tabs on the music of Pink Floyd, Jeff Martin, Led Zeppelin and Tea Party. That's where he also learned how different tuning methods are used to help a musician or band achieve a unique sound.

Guitars and how they're made have always been at the back of his mind. Building and creating with his hands was always a part of life. He spent his younger days working as a mechanic and recently remodeled his home.

"I've always liked building things and if I didn't know anything about remodeling or whatever, then I would research it," he said. "Most of it is just trial and error."

Three years ago he began researching how to build a guitar, leading to his recent completion of his first three Navatone guitars. All use the Fender Stratocaster body with custom-made necks and a head in the shape of an Eagle. Each is finished with a custom paint job.

It's not so much cutting the guitar body from wood, but ordering parts from manufacturers. The customization comes in the sound produced by the pick-ups, which are purchased separately and, if needed, can be custom built to fit the musician's need.

The first guitar took a month to finish, he said. The second one he built has won praise from no less an authority than blues virtuoso Levi Platero, who is featured playing it on video posted on the Navatone Web page, www.navatone.com.

De La Rosa presented the third guitar he built to Platero as a belated 18th birthday present.

"It's awesome," Platero said of the guitar. "It's great."

It was also a complete surprise, he said.

"All my dad said was we needed to move some stuff at my uncle's place," he said. "Then he said we needed to go to Shonie's house for something. I had to show him where because my dad didn't know where he lived.

"Then Shonie came and said, 'Happy birthday,'" Platero recalled. "It feels real nice. The neck on the guitar is so distinctive. I was all freaking out because people give me guitars all the time but no one has ever made me one. It's colored candy green, my favorite color, and has an ebony fretboard with Rio Grande pickups."

Among musicians, the Rio Grande brand has special significance, he explained.

"Like the state flag for Texas, the Texas state pickups are Rio Grande because it gives off a certain kind of sound," Platero said. "The sound is perfect. It's Shonie's handiwork and everything is perfect. I know that if it wasn't anything but, Shonie would go back and fix it."

"I just love building things and if people want me to build a guitar for them, just let me know what you want," said De La Rosa.

He said prices are on par with a good quality electric guitar - around $1,200 - and he requires at least a half down as a deposit with the remainder due on delivery. Each guitar will have a custom neck and headstock along with Navatone decals and an engraved Eagle on the back neck plate, indicating that the instrument is custom built with a serial number. A case is included.

De La Rosa approaches each guitar with reverence, saying, "I look at music as something we, as Navajo, hold sacred. The same with instruments. Music has always been a part of Navajo traditions."

Information: www.navatone.com.

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