About me
in our current day and age we are having a lot of available options in regards to electric guitar designs and philosophies. historically established, ergonomically perfected, low or off the charts high quality, … still there is a lot we as a young company want to do different. find out more about us and our approach to guitar building, design, components and materials. with a workshop located in a small part of an old paper factory that ran out of business in the 1980’s we are filling these historic walls with a completely different spirit.
who I am
sts guitars was started in January 2022 by Jonas Mehne, a bachelor of engineering as well as a seasoned guitar player with over twenty years of playing experience.
Jonas worked for 9 years in the automotive industry for one of the largest automotive suppliers as a successful project manager. next to his job, the first own guitar designs and design philosophies developed and matured over time.
In the end it was time for a change, time to fully focus on things and especially values that personally matter and may have a positive impact. time to start – sts guitars. influenced by japanese design, culture and teachings, sts guitars put a strong focus on supreme quality as well as attention to detail and strive for perfection in everything they do with the required respect for the material, the final product and every single customer.
my philosophy
quality, sustainability and regionality are the core values behind everything we do. below you find a few explanations on how these are the basis of our instruments’ designs.
sustainability (by design and quality)
a high quality electric guitar is already an instrument made to last decades, even generations, if it is taken proper care of. therefore the first point in being more sustainable is for sure to create high quality and long lasting instruments. sts guitars reaches that goal with the following improvements over most of the other standard and high quality electric guitar manufacturers
- exclusive use of threaded inserts and mechanic screws for all bolted connections of the instruments (except pin straps). This ensures easy maintenance and endless assembly / disassembly operations without introducing wear and always reaching the same tightening torque and required fit of the components
- exclusive use of stainless steel fret wire which is proven to be more wear resistant than regular nickel-silver alloy fret wire
- exclusive use of potentiometers with higher lifetime. the standard range of regular and good quality parts is between 10.000-20.000 turns, we use min. 50.000 turns lifetime potentiometers
- exclusive use of low tolerance electronic components (capacitors, resistors, potentiometers) to ensure a steady result in regards to the tonal impact of the electronics
nevertheless the balance can be further improved by addressing the used materials and processes. therefore we are only using local wood for our builds, components from local manufacturers wherever possible and we do not apply an
‘industrial’ finish, but a high quality oil and wax finish. the finish is built up in several steps and properly protects the wood but doesn’t completely seal it like an industrial type finish. this ensures an amazing feel of the wood surfaces and can have a positive impact on the instruments resonances. neck and body are treated and optimized differently in regards to the applied surface finishes. if the instrument may ever be worn to the point the owner doesn’t enjoy their ‘relic’ guitar, this type of finish allows us to refurbish the guitar neck or body surface and rework the finish.
sustainability (by choice of wood / lumber)
we at sts guitars believe that we find all the wood / lumber required to build beautifully sounding, long lasting and wonderful looking instruments within our regions and continent. there is no requirement to import any lumber from overseas. especially in germany we have a high standard for maintaining and cultivating the forests. especially our fretboard materials (pear, plum, apple, …) are from local trees out of someone’s garden or from open nature and were not explicitly taken down for our guitars. we always try to find those special trees.
regionality
regionality plays an important part in being more sustainable. manufacturers located in germany are chosen for mechanic and electric components wherever possible. this secures high standards in regards to environmental protection, labor ethics, income and social standards of employees, especially when compared to asian suppliers. choosing local suppliers reduces the carbon dioxide footprint of the product as well, due to shorter supply routes. In addition, these local suppliers secure a high quality standard for all their products contributing to the overall consistently high quality and longevity of our instruments.
