1992 Greg Smallman CD/CSAR

This 1992 Greg Smallman is a cedar and CSA rosewood classical guitar from the Russell Cleveland collection – the Smallman featured in “The Classical Guitar – A Complete History”.

A Smallman of the John Williams Era

This is a fine example of a classic Greg Smallman, very similar to the one John Williams used for the recordings he made throughout the 1990s. As on his other guitars, small pieces of Blu-Tack inside the top tame its wolf notes. It is in excellent condition with no damage or repairs, only some modest signs of playing wear, and includes the custom wooden case originally supplied by Smallman. Olivia Chiang plays Bach and Lauro on it in the videos above.

From the Russell Cleveland Collection

This guitar comes from the Russell Cleveland collection and is featured on pages 90–93 of the book “The Classical Guitar – A Complete History”:

The Classical Guitar – A Complete History

Greg Smallman and the Lattice Guitar

Australian maker Greg Smallman (born 1947) is the builder behind the lattice-braced concert guitar, which he first built in 1974. His cedar soundboards are very thinly built and reinforced internally not with any kind of traditional fan system but with a unique and intricate lattice of balsa wood, reinforced with carbon fiber, while a heavily domed and very thick back makes the body a very rigid and stiff outer shell, forcing all the vibration to the soundboard. These instruments are known for their great power and piano-like sustain.

John Williams and Other Players

Smallman’s instruments have been played for years most famously by John Williams, who recorded on them from the 1980s on, but also by several other concert artists, including Xuefei Yang, Ben Verdery, Craig Ogden, Tim Kain, Nicola Hall, Carlos Bonell, Miloš Karadaglić and even Paul McCartney. His sons Damon (from 1993) and Kym (from 1996) build with him, and from 1999 the labels read “Greg Smallman & Sons Damon & Kym”.