Chris Amer

Scottish guitar player Chris Amer has established a reputation for his tasteful, distinctive, musically intelligent playing style. As a guitarist and composer, Chris has developed an original sound characterised by space, texture and carefully chosen notes. Primarily playing electric guitar and a unique theorbed tenor guitar - the Amer Tenor - Chris’s playing comfortably sits on the ever-blurring boundaries between jazz and traditional Scottish music.

The Amer Tenor & Amer TEnor II

“I first visited Rory at some point in July 2014, with an idea for a custom instrument that I had been mulling over for a wee while. For most of my life I’ve had restricted rotational movement in my left arm, which makes playing full-size guitars difficult. I thought that a tenor guitar scale length might suit me better, but I also wanted a wide harmonic range – wider than what a standard tenor offered.

At the time I was studying for a jazz degree, and was really getting excited by harmony and chord voicings. I wanted something that gave me as broad a spectrum of notes to choose from as possible, all within a small design that suited my body.

From that very first visit, Rory totally got my vision, and agreed without hesitation to take on the project. Over the next few years he invested such a lot of time, care and thought into my instrument to make sure it was as near perfect for me as it could be. Everything about the construction was done with the utmost care, and Rory was so quick to advise and help me with things like wood choices.

Truly, his only priority is to make the most beautiful instruments possible, and that is so evident in his work ethic and practice. You won’t find a nicer, more sincere, more hard-working, more talented luthier anywhere!

The finished guitar was as perfect as I’d hoped it would be, and has given me a year of renewed enthusiasm and liberated technical capability. I’m indebted to Rory for so much; it isn’t an exaggeration to say that the instrument he built for me has changed my life. I’ll tell anyone and everyone who’ll listen how highly I rate Taran Guitars. Flawless!”

Chris Amer, 2017

Working with Chris was an absolute pleasure. The project demanded a fresh look at the ergonomics of an instrument as this was the fundamental element of the design; allowing Chris to have a playing position unattainable in a standard guitar shape and also giving him the sonic spectrum that he needed for his progressive music style.

The Amer Tenor II was built as a progression of the ideas we explored in the first Amer Tenor. We spent a long time with Chris, discussing and refining what this new instrument should be, always guided by his own ideas and vision.

Completed in 2024, the Amer Tenor II features seven strings: the lowest four arranged in paired courses of nylon and steel, tuned an octave apart. The fingerboard extension on these lower courses is now two frets longer, giving Chris greater flexibility in keys and tunings without sacrificing the comfort and playability that were so fundamental to his first instrument.

It’s always a joy to work with Chris, and we’re enormously proud of how the Amer Tenor has continued to evolve.