2001 Greg Smallman CD/CSAR

This 2001 Greg Smallman is a cedar and CSA rosewood lattice classical guitar with a French-polished top, built with his sons Damon and Kym.

A Smallman of the 2000s

It is very similar to the guitars John Williams played in the years around 2000, and its label reads “Greg Smallman & Sons Damon & Kym, 2001”. The top is French polished.

Condition

This guitar is in excellent condition with no damage or repairs, only the most modest signs of minor playing wear.

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”.