Greg Smallman

[blackalex1952]

I met Greg in the 1970's at a conference where I worked. My job was to do an audio recording of a presentation by Greg and his associate at the time, Peter Biffin. These two guys had me so entranced that I completely mucked up the recording levels, something I never did, usually! I have the tape somewhere, I don't know if it is playable or not, I remember that is is badly distorted. I had the opportunity to chat with him later, in fact I watched him tapping and carving the guts out of a guy's guitar, which totally improving the sound. Free of charge, I might add. Greg told me of his love of Indian classical music, a love we shared. During their presentation, Greg and Peter had a demonstration guitar that had wing nuts holding the back in place, so it could easily be removed. Pete played the guitars and demonstrated, then Greg did things like open up the back and rip a brace from the soundboard with an almighty CRACK!!!- then replace the back and demonstrate the changes! This demonstration seeded my interest in building guitars....These guys were so unusual in their attitude, totally unconventional thinkers.
Here is a link, for those interested, to an ABC interview with Greg,Craig Ogden and John Williams.
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/pro ... transcript

[dshaker]

Man, sounds like a hell of a demonstration. I'd love to see/hear it!

[routout]

I was thinking i know that name the inventor of the lattice brace hidden away from the world in a peaceful retreat making Instruments.