About the maker

Damian has been building and repairing guitars since the early 90’s. Damian builds guitars and violins that are renowned for their amazing tone and great playability which are also aesthetically beautiful. Damian combines the traditional building approaches with technological advances to produce guitars than have increased dynamics and better volume and projection. Damian has been playing the guitar for over twenty years and as a player admired the skill of famous classical guitarists Julian Bream and John Williams. The tone of the classical guitars played by Julian Bream and John Williams are very different. The different tone of the guitars are due to different players but also due to the differences in the way the guitars are built and constructed. Julian Bream used a traditionally built guitar using a spruce top, Brazilian rosewood back and sides with an ebony fingerboard and rosewood bridge. John Williams uses a guitar which is built by Greg Smallman who revolutionised the way classical guitars are made by reducing the thickness of the cedar top to under 1.0mm, balsa and carbon fibre sandwich as braces and a lattice bracing pattern instead of the traditional fan bracing. Smallman also made the sides very thick and used a braceless arched back.

Damian has studied these guitars heavily and has adapted many of the designs, bracing and timbers to reproduce the tonality for the classical guitarist wishing to play guitars that sound like Williams and Bream.

Damian has been playing the acoustic and classical guitar for many years. The video samples on this website are of Damian playing the instruments he builds. As a player and builder he demands only the best from his instruments in terms of tone and playability.

Damian was born and raised in Tasmania (which has arguably the greatest natural timbers in the world) and now lives in Wagga Wagga in NSW Australia. Damian is married to the lovely Justine and they have two beautiful children.