Growing up on a farm in rural New South Wales, Australia. I started my woodworking journey at a very young age with my father, who is a trained wooden boat builder and traditional timber framer. I then started building guitars at the age of 15 when I apprenticed with violin and guitar maker Graham Caldersmith. Graham had been building classical guitars and violins for over forty years, with a Masters in Areophysics and a comprehensive background in acoustic studies, he built world class instruments using modern building and tuning techniques.

Using the knowledge that I accumulated during my seven year apprenticeship under Graham Caldersmith, I have gone on to create my own acoustic steel string and classical guitar designs. Utilizing modern bracing techniques, acoustic resonance tuning and a clean defined aesthetic. I make instruments with far more volume, sustain, clarity and projection than you will find in most other guitars. For steel stringed instruments I use Falcate bracing, incorporating laminated curved braces reinforced with carbon fiber above and below the brace to make the tops light and flexible at the edges, yet strong and stiff where they need to be. For classical guitars I use a graded rectangular lattice bracing capped with carbon fiber to create an instrument that plays with amazing volume, sustain, clarity and projection from the first fret to the twentieth.

I am currently living and building instruments on Vancouver Island with my beautiful wife Celina Jacinto and our two sons, Koa and Elio.

Falcate Braced Guitar Top. Handcrafted in Vancouver, British Columbia by Luthier G. R. Bear