NGD: GR Bear OM

[Cincy2]

GR Bear, a luthier born in Australia and now living in Vancouver British Columbia, began his career building classical guitars. A member of the “Australian School”, Mr. Bear’s instruments featured the very thin, lattice braced sound boards common in this variant of the acoustic guitar. The hand-built guitars produced by Greg Smallman, Kim Lissarrague, Ashley Sanders, Graham Caldersmith, Jim Redgate, Simon Marty and many others have evolved over the years to take their place as internationally acclaimed instruments used by concert performers the world over. I own a Lissarrague and find it to be revolutionary both in volume and tone. So, what are we to make of Mr. Bear’s offering of a steel string OM guitar designed with the same performance objectives in mind? Ben Montague of The North American Guitar graciously provided me with a sample of Bear’s work to trial. Ben’s TNAG website has videos of his interview with GR and also Will McNichols playing this specific instrument and a smaller OO that is also available.

First, let’s talk about Bling. This guitar has none of the abalone, mother-of-pearl, complex inlays, bevels, exotic head shapes and cutaways common in luthier built, low volume guitars. It has nicely figured Tasmanian blackwood (an indigenous Australian species) back and sides with a “salvaged” Western Red Cedar top. According to the luthier, he found a cedar log on the beach in British Columbia and salvaged the soundboard with his chain saw. This is recycling at its best! There are also some other interesting wood choices. The neck is Queensland Maple and the bridge Padauk. The upper bout has a sound port. I am noncommittal on these. If the luthier incorporates one, that is fine by me. We judge the sound irrespective of the number of ports and/or the location. The guitar’s attractive rosette is thin by comparison to peers, but fully supportive of the minimalist design. As a long time classical guitarist, the instrument’s understated elegance attracted me like an overstuffed leather club chair.

I am not familiar with Tasmanian Blackwood as a guitar tonewood. Here is what the Taylor website has to say about it:

Tasmanian blackwood is an acacia wood species that is sometimes compared to Hawaiian koa, another acacia species. Its tonal range is similar to both koa and mahogany, featuring a strong midrange focus that is dry, clear and warm, with a splash of top-end shimmer and richness comparable to Indian rosewood. The overall volume and projection are strong. Blackwood also is sourced from forests that are responsibly managed, making it a sustainable wood for guitar making.

While Australian classical guitars use a lattice pattern of carbon fiber reinforced soundboard bracing, this instrument employs “falcate” braces. According to Mr. Bear,

“...falcate bracing, originally developed by Australian luthiers Gore and Gilet, incorporates laminated curved braces reinforced with carbon fiber to reinforce the top. This produces an extremely responsive instrument, with massive tonal range, volume, sustain, clarity and projection.”

The picture displayed below from the Bear website shows an example of this technique integrated with a traditional bridge plate. Fascinating, as Mr. Spock would say.

The back uses more traditional transverse reinforcement except for the addition of small, short radial wood braces located NE, NW, SE and SW above and below the last brace on the lower bout. The sides deserve some mention. All guitars I have owned to this point in time have rings of tentallones top and bottom of the body to serve as a shelf for gluing the back and soundboard. Not this guitar. The sides are much more than doubled. They are thick enough to serve as the base for top and back with no other means of support. They must be made from a very light wood as the guitar while not lightly built is nowhere near the weight of my Halland which has doubled sides. You get a sense how thick they are from the picture of the soundport below. This is not just reinforcement around the hole. The inside is flush all the way around the guitar. I doubt the sides are solid wood. They must be some sort of laminate with a wood veneer on the inside. The carbon fiber dressing around the sound port hides the true nature of construction. Other factoids: The lower bout is 15.25 inches wide. The body is 3.75” thick at the neck and 4.5” at the heel. I would estimate the weight at about 4.5 lbs.

However, the sides are constructed I’m sure they serve the purpose of supporting the top as it vibrates. I ran my fingers around the inside of the sound hole. It is bound very attractively with a dark wood and is much, much thicker than I was expecting. Tapping the lower bout confirms it is very thin and responsive. The luthier must have started thick at the top and carved away mass under the bridge. The neck is a medium carve and very comfortable. The Gotoh’s have synthetic knobs made from a material I do not recognize. Very tasteful.

After giving the guitar the evening off to adjust to the climate, I sat down to play. Intonation was spot on wherever I traveled. I almost always have to retune to get a C chord to sound right after playing in an open key that uses E. Not on this guitar. Both perfect at the same time. We all have different hot buttons when it comes to tone. Mine is the ratio of fundamental to overtones. When both are strong with the fundamental still shines through the angelic chorus, I’m a happy guy. The Bear does not disappoint. Although the top is cedar, the basses have that a spruce snap and growl I love. Loud and resonant, they are slightly more prominent than the trebles. This didn’t bother me because of the age of the guitar. It needs to be played in. They will develop quickly. Note separation and clarity were easily the match of my Matsuda spruce, which cost twice as much. The volume is impressive but not quite up to the level of the Halland. Having said that, my Halland has more volume than any acoustic guitar I’ve ever played and a much bigger body at 16" so the Bear need not feel shamed. I swapped between the Bear and Matsuda frequently as they are very similar in volume, overtones and note to note separation. Their overall timbres however are much different. The Bear is brighter but not in a bad way. Both are immensely pleasing.

In summation, GR Bear makes a very unique and satisfying guitar at what has to be called an affordable price compared to his custom build, low volume peers. He is not a household name in the luthier world, but I believe this will change soon as more samples of his work are available. The guitar’s voice is unique and very pleasing. I can’t send it back. I’m off to try to explain why to my wife………

Cincy

[Guitars44me]

That bracing is very intriguing! Beautiful woods. Very nice esthetics to my eye.

Thanks for sharing this

Have fun with it!!!

Paul

[colins]

Looks great and from your review it sounds great too. Congratulations!

Now I just need to think about how a fellow Aussie can cope with Vancouver's winters.....

[gitarro]

Great to read of luthiers trying different things! Looks like he combined trevor gore's ideas with the laminated side construction methodology. I recall reading that Gore espouses loading the rims with more mass at certain places in order to increase the power of the guitsr but I did not get the impression he used laminated sides.

[gypsy rye bear]

Hi Cincy2,

Lovely to read your review and thoughts on the Blackwood/Cedar OM. It's always great as a maker to read players reviews of ones instruments.

While I do offer all of the "Bling" cutaways, bevels, fancy inlay, abalone etc..... as options. I prefer to make instruments with a clean, elegant and restrained aesthetic keeping the price point more accessible. I enjoy spending more time focussing on the acoustics of the instrument rather than the bling. I find more often than not people listen with their eyes instead of their ears. You clearly do not.

You are almost spot on with your construction observations. The double sides are actually triple sides with a kerfed inner core. The side construction is made up of a 1.5mm outer side, 6mm kerfed core in cedar and a 1.5mm inner veneer of cedar, for a total side thickness of 9mm. While Trevor Gore adds the majority of side mass at the end of the build process attaching it to the sides, I build IN the majority of side mass into the side construction. My instruments are definitely on the heavier side of the spectrum. The use of the structural laminated sides with their higher mass and stiffness has a positive impact on volume, sustain and projection.

The top thickness varies from instrument to instrument but on this OM is about 2.8mm in the centre of the top, down to about 2.2mm at the edges of the top. The soundhole has a reinforcement patch that doubles the thickness of the top around the soundhole. This is not only a positive structurally but also acoustically. The high stiffness around the soundhole lets less of the air traveling in and out of the soundhole (air hole) to move the soundhole and focus more of that energy into driving the instruments Main Air Resonance and Top Resonance, among other important vibrational modes of the top.

I often post on social media the different construction and tuning techniques I use on my instruments and have links to both my Facebook and Instagram on my website www.grbear.com

I've just started two more instruments for TNAG. One 12 fret Australian Blackwood/Lutz Spruce 00 with a cutaway and one 12 fret Padauk/Lutz OM with a cutaway. Im very much looking forward to these builds and there will be threads on this forum for both (I think).

If anyone has any other questions please feel free to ask!

Cheers,

Rye

[gitarro]

Thank you for your explanations- that is very enlightening. What you are doi looks similar to what Taran Guitars does with the inner kerfed core in the laminated sides.

Do you still install additional weights to the sides in addition to the triple lamination or are the triple laminated sides imparting sufficient mass for your purposes? Also do you vary the thickness of the kerfing or the laminated sides at certain points in order to boost the mass here and there le is the mass uniform throughout the sides?

Originally Posted by gypsy rye bear

Hi Cincy2,

Lovely to read your review and thoughts on the Blackwood/Cedar OM. It's always great as a maker to read players reviews of ones instruments.

While I do offer all of the "Bling" cutaways, bevels, fancy inlay, abalone etc..... as options. I prefer to make instruments with a clean, elegant and restrained aesthetic keeping the price point more accessible. I enjoy spending more time focussing on the acoustics of the instrument rather than the bling. I find more often than not people listen with their eyes instead of their ears. You clearly do not.

You are almost spot on with your construction observations. The double sides are actually triple sides with a kerfed inner core. The side construction is made up of a 1.5mm outer side, 6mm kerfed core in cedar and a 1.5mm inner veneer of cedar, for a total side thickness of 9mm. While Trevor Gore adds the majority of side mass at the end of the build process attaching it to the sides, I build IN the majority of side mass into the side construction. My instruments are definitely on the heavier side of the spectrum. The use of the structural laminated sides with their higher mass and stiffness has a positive impact on volume, sustain and projection.

The top thickness varies from instrument to instrument but on this OM is about 2.8mm in the centre of the top, down to about 2.2mm at the edges of the top. The soundhole has a reinforcement patch that doubles the thickness of the top around the soundhole. This is not only a positive structurally but also acoustically. The high stiffness around the soundhole lets less of the air traveling in and out of the soundhole (air hole) to move the soundhole and focus more of that energy into driving the instruments Main Air Resonance and Top Resonance, among other important vibrational modes of the top.

I often post on social media the different construction and tuning techniques I use on my instruments and have links to both my Facebook and Instagram on my website www.grbear.com

I've just started two more instruments for TNAG. One 12 fret Australian Blackwood/Lutz Spruce 00 with a cutaway and one 12 fret Padauk/Lutz OM with a cutaway. Im very much looking forward to these builds and there will be threads on this forum for both (I think).

If anyone has any other questions please feel free to ask!

Cheers,

Rye

[Cincy2]

Originally Posted by gypsy rye bear

Hi Cincy2,


If anyone has any other questions please feel free to ask!

Cheers,

Rye

Rye,

Many thanks for the additional detail. Don't give up on conservative cosmetics. A lot of us love that look!

Regards,
Eric

[SJ VanSandt]

Very intriguing construction so I though I'd listen to the sound and found this Youtube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...ature=emb_logo

This (different) guitar sounds phenomenal to my ears! Very clean but gutsy at the same time. I'd love to hear one in person.

[gypsy rye bear]

Originally Posted by gitarro

Thank you for your explanations- that is very enlightening. What you are doi looks similar to what Taran Guitars does with the inner kerfed core in the laminated sides.

Do you still install additional weights to the sides in addition to the triple lamination or are the triple laminated sides imparting sufficient mass for your purposes? Also do you vary the thickness of the kerfing or the laminated sides at certain points in order to boost the mass here and there le is the mass uniform throughout the sides?

Yes the laminated sides are similar to what Rory Dowling of Taran Guitars is doing. I got the idea from Dion James of Dion Guitars who got the idea from Jeremy Clark of 52 Instruments Co. and Mike Kennedy of Indian Hill Guitars and they both apparently got the idea from Sergei de Jong when they were working under him. If you don’t already know of these builders they are all doing awesome innovative work that deserves a listen! If I’ve mistaken the lineage of these sides maybe one of these makers will chime in and set me straight.

I do sometimes install additional weights in the lower bout of the instrument if I need to use the mass for shifting a particular top resonance. Mass in the sides, particularly in the lower bout lowers the Air resonance and the Top resonance. But unless I need to do this the mass is evenly distributed along the sides and the thickness is always uniform.

[gitarro]

Thank you for sharing in such detail on your techniques! Apart from the rims, the very unique feature of your guitar is the carbon fiber reiforced falcate bracing. Is the bracing made of pawlonia or spruce?
How would you describe that it
differs in terms of the tone produced from x bracing?

[gypsy rye bear]

Originally Posted by gitarro

Thank you for sharing in such detail on your techniques! Apart from the rims, the very unique feature of your guitar is the carbon fiber reiforced falcate bracing. Is the bracing made of pawlonia or spruce?

How would you describe that it

differs in terms of the tone produced from x bracing?

Sorry for the slow response. I took the day off yesterday to hang out with my two year old son Koa and I try not to be on my phone when I’m hanging out with him.

I make my Falcate braces from Paulownia. Paulownia has one of the highest strength to weight ratios of any wood in the world. It’s like a cross between balsa and spruce.

Falcate bracing offers more balance and clarity across the fretboard, having less “sweet spots” and “dull spots” It also offers great sustain and good projection that holds beautifully as to play up the neck. With the carbon fibre it has great structural integrity as well. The top will not deform any more than it does when it’s first strung up. I’m very happy with the results I get from using it and the feedback from players has always been great.

[hubcapsc]

The tree book I have says Royal Paulownia grows in "waste places"...
There's a big old gnarly one growing up next to the abandonded old
house up the road from here. It has seed pods and big old droopy
purple flowers in the spring. The book also says that Japanese (I
think) treasure the wood for making lightweight boxes out of...

I had to look it up in the tree book some number of years ago because
I was so curious about the purple flowers...

-Mike