Classical

The specs above are the concert classical Greg Smallman still builds with his sons Damon and Kym, not one catalog sheet. The 1981 date is the thin top he sold to John Williams. A lattice guitar he built in 1974 is earlier, and he later called that top too thick. A 1975 guitar Jedistar records from Shannon Dale is a different instrument: the photograph note calls it non-lattice. A fan-braced Fleta, a Ramírez, a Hauser, a double-top, and a lattice signed by another maker are other guitars. Scale figures in the sources are 650 mm, 65 cm, and 655 mm. Nut figures are 52 mm and 53 mm.

Construction

The job was a classical guitar you could hear at the back of a hall, with the note staying itself when you played louder. John Williams was already filling those halls on an Ignacio Fleta. He wanted more musical room in the instrument, not a copy of the one he had.

Greg Smallman was born in Cronulla on 19 June 1947 (Wikipedia). Robert Ferguson, in Soundboard 51 no. 2, quotes an ABC Radio National interview on the long way round: engineering he could not cope with, a tech course, a short turn as a Qantas cadet, boats, a service station, a little drag racing, going broke, teachers’ college, and then guitars. Ferguson calls that conversation 2011. The ABC page for the program with Williams and Craig Ogden is dated 28 November 2009. Ferguson adds taxi and bus driving. He studied woodwork at the University of Newcastle and in 1972 started in his kitchen, self-taught from A. P. Sharpe’s Make Your Own Spanish Guitar (Clifford Essex, 1957, with later editions in 1963, 1971, and 1975), building on the Fleta pattern in spruce or cedar (Ferguson; Robbie Smallman’s biography).

The lattice is older than the guitar players mean. Ferguson and Matt Withers, quoting Smallman in CutCommon (29 May 2018): the first lattice guitar was 1974, the top still too thick and too heavy, and he did not see that until 1979. Withers: the step that counted was 1981, a soundboard 1.5 mm thick all over. He expected the strings to tear it. They did not. That guitar was sold to John Williams, who played it for many years. Robbie Smallman’s biography puts the same purchase in 1981. The 1981 date is that thin top, and that sale. The 1974 guitar is the failed first lattice.

How thin, and how light, depends on who is measuring, and when. Ferguson: 1.5 mm down to a few tenths of a millimetre, about 55 grams against a traditional 110 grams. Withers: Torres-style tops about 110 g, Smallman’s about half that, and a few tenths of a millimetre in places. Philip Smith, posting on 25 July 2004 what he heard at a Dundee festival talk: thickness down to 1.8 mm against a typical 2.3 mm, the top 65 g against a typical 120 g. Gardiner Houlgate, on one 1996: less than 1 mm in places, and 64 lb of string tension. Smith also heard Smallman compare the load to half a bag of cement, held for twenty years. Ferguson’s 55 grams, Smith’s 65 grams, and the auction house’s 64 lb are three reports. They are not one measurement.

Smallman’s own line, in Ferguson’s article, is that the lattice is the means, not the point. “What makes those guitars work,” he says, “is the fact that the tops are very light, and the only way to make them light is to have something like lattice bracing underneath to hold the light top together.” Withers has him putting on more carbon than the top needs, then scraping it back with his hands inside the finished guitar, and parking wolf notes with Blu-Tack — the ones above the fifth fret on the first string — so a bad resonance sits between frets. Guitar Salon’s note on a 1988 mentions the same Blu-Tack. Smith heard the other adjustment: liquid epoxy in the gap between a stiff inner frame and the top, the frame not touching the board, to move a tap tone from G-sharp up to A or A-sharp at the sides and from E up to F or F-sharp at the bottom. He also heard that some tops had cracked near the edge, and that carbon cloth, scraped back to fingers of fibre, was the fix.

The heavy shell is the other half, and Nicholas Scott says Smallman tells it that way. Scott, who has built on this pattern since 1996: Smallman had tried bracing patterns on ordinary bodies and heard the same guitar every time. He remembered Torres’s papier-mâché experiment and went the other direction, a back thick as a dining table, sides cut from the laminated block, a normal top on top of that. It sounded different. The reason, as Scott reports it, is the bridge trying to drag the lower bout toward the upper bout and push the sides out. A rigid frame does what the table did, on purpose. Then the balsa-and-carbon lattice. Smith’s weights for the laminated back and sides, 2.8 kg against 1.5 kg, belong to that talk. Wikipedia still describes a high arched carved back in Madagascar rosewood, and a top that is always western red cedar. guitar-list, citing the maker’s site on 18 May 2022, says the same carved rosewood back. London Guitar Studio’s 2026 is a hoop-pine core with a pau ferro veneer. The carved rosewood back and the veneered core are two generations of the shell, not one sentence.

He did not patent it. Ferguson and the 2022 site note, via guitar-list, both say the ideas were shared. That is why a lattice from someone else can look like this and still be another guitar. Michael Edgeworth: the lattice idea was already around, and Kohno and Paul Fischer came to lattice designs of their own; Fischer’s, with Bernard Richardson, is the Taut, not this shell. Kevin Hall, on the same thread as Smith’s report, remembers Pat Lister in Canada in the early 1960s, a spruce lattice and no synthetics. Ferguson sets Matthias Dammann and Gernot Wagner beside Smallman as the double-top makers, a different construction. A Jerry Roberts, an Ian Kneipp, a Eugene Philp, or a Gerhard Arns sold as Smallman-style is that maker’s guitar.

The family label is 1999: Greg Smallman & Sons Damon & Kym (Wikipedia; Ferguson; Robbie Smallman). When the sons started is the split. Withers, from the family: Damon in 1993, Kym in 1996. Robbie Smallman: both in the shop since 1994. Ferguson: by the mid-1990s. Damon has a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Newcastle, in advanced materials and composites. Kym started with his father at 16 (Robbie Smallman, on Ingrid Riollot’s site). Output, Ferguson: about four to six guitars a year at the 1999 change; fifteen to twenty a year now. Each one, in that same notice, is five to six hundred hours to build and then twelve to fourteen months of daily adjustment after it is strung. Smith, in 2004, heard three weeks to build, a week to adjust, and three months left under tension. Those clocks do not describe the same claim.

The shop moved. Many years in Glen Innes, New South Wales; a short stay on the Mornington Peninsula, outside Melbourne, in 2002; then near Esperance, Western Australia (Wikipedia; Jedistar puts the Esperance workshop in 2012, which is also when Wikipedia says the website appeared). Jedistar also notes at least one 1975 instrument from Shannon Dale. The photograph note calls that one non-lattice. The maker’s page, read on 29 October 2026, gave an email and no price.

Players

The Fleta is the guitar Williams was holding when they met. It is not this one. A Hauser, a Ramírez 1a, and any lattice with another maker’s name inside are not the guitars below.

John Williams — from a Fleta to this design, and more than one Smallman. Sources differ on the meeting. In a 1998 interview for Classical Guitar Alive he says the mid-1970s, and that the guitar he was playing was an Ignacio Fleta. Ferguson dates the approach to 1978, a guitar festival in Sydney. Smith’s Dundee report has Smallman seeing the Fleta in 1979. The purchase is the date they share. Ferguson, citing Williams’s own tribute in that Soundboard issue, Robbie Smallman’s biography, and Withers: 1981. In the 1998 interview he says that once Smallman had developed the design, in the early 1980s, he played Smallmans from then on.

What he said it was for, in named places: Tony Bacon’s The Classical Guitar Book, as Wikipedia quotes the 1993 line, “Basically, he is making the guitar a more musical instrument.” The Australian Guitar Journal interview, again via Wikipedia: “I feel that the loudness of Greg’s guitars is a by-product of their musical qualities rather than an end in itself.” Smith heard him demonstrate fifteen levels of crescendo, sweet to ponticello, at every one of them. Scott, at the London visit in the summer of 2004: the thing Williams valued most was that the sound did not change its character when he played loudly.

The recording credit is The Seville Concert, Sony Classical, 1993, recorded at the Royal Alcázar, Seville, 10–18 November 1992. Discogs’s entry for the Australian CD (SK 53 359) transcribes the sleeve line as “Guitar made by Gerg Smallman.” Sevilla and Asturias are on that disc, and so is the Adagio from Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez. The film issued under the same title lists Greg Smallman as an interviewee, with Glen Innes among the locations (the 1993 laserdisc record). The 1981 guitar Withers describes, and the guitar credited on the 1993 disc, are both his. Neither source prints a serial that makes them one instrument. Artist-owned — not a comp.

Matt Withers — a 1999, on Songs of Yesterday. His CutCommon piece is about the Smallman & Sons he waited for. The same piece says the 1999 is the guitar on that album, which also has duets with Tim Kain. Artist-owned — not a comp.

Also known to play, in the GFA’s 2025 notice, Wikipedia, or Robbie Smallman’s biography, without a song named in those places: Xuefei Yang, Craig Ogden, Miloš Karadaglić, Carlos Bonell, Tim Kain, Ben Verdery, Nicola Hall, Stepan Rak, David Tanenbaum (the GFA notice spells it Tannenbaum), Yameng Wang, Ingrid Riollot, and GFA winners Judicaël Perroy, Thomas Viloteau, Gabriel Bianco, Raphaël Feuillâtre, and TY Yang. Robbie Smallman’s list includes Tengyue Yang. Siccas’s 2026 profile says Karadaglić performs on a Smallman built in 2017. That year is the profile’s. A 1990 Reverb listing says Julian Bream played that guitar. The GFA notice, Wikipedia’s Smallman page, and Robbie Smallman’s biography do not name Bream. The line is the seller’s.

Rarity

You can still order one. The workshop near Esperance is building them. It is not a factory model, and it is not a 1974 experiment.

No lifetime total has been published. Ferguson’s figures are a rate, not a census: about four to six a year when the sons’ names went on the label in 1999, and fifteen to twenty a year in the 2025 notice. A label dates a guitar. It does not count a year. Withers, in May 2018, was told one to two years on the list, and the site that month showed A$22,000. The maker’s page on 29 October 2026 showed neither a price nor a wait.

Thinner than the run: a guitar still labeled Greg Smallman, before the 1999 change; a Brazilian back, against the pau ferro and ziricote veneers on 2026 dealer guitars; Williams’s 1981 guitar, which these sources do not show is the one credited on the Seville disc. The 1974 lattice, too thick by his own later account, is one guitar, and these sources do not say where it is. A 1975 from Shannon Dale, called non-lattice on Jedistar, is outside the concert design.

Value

Informal estimate, 29 October 2026. Not an appraisal.

Asks are labeled as asks. The 2024 hammer is a hammer. Williams’s guitars and Withers’s 1999 are not comps. A new veneered 2026 is not a 1996 cocobolo, and neither is a lattice with another maker’s name. No sold median was on the Reverb Smallman pages checked this day. The maker’s own site showed no price.

New street. London Guitar Studio, a 2026 cedar-top Smallman & Sons, pau ferro veneer, ziricote armrest, new Leona case, £27,500, and the page still showed it in stock on 29 October 2026. That is a shop price, not Esperance’s. Guitar Collection’s 2026, cedar and ziricote, was offered with no public price; the shop’s Facebook post of 10 June 2026 said it had sold. The last direct price these sources print is Withers’s, A$22,000 on the maker’s site in May 2018.

Used. Named asks, not sales. A 2005, French polish, one owner, the seller says played by Minh Le Hoang, carbon-fibre case, $27,000, free shipping, listed about six days before this estimate (Reverb). A 2003, Brazilian and western red cedar, carbon fingerboard, 65 cm, Rodgers machines, armrest, Dormer case, $38,499 plus $350 shipping, listed about a month before (Reverb, Cottonwood Music Emporium). A 1990 Brazilian, $52,000 plus $150 shipping, listed about seven days before. That listing’s Bream claim is the seller’s sentence, not a second price.

Vintage / collectible. Gardiner Houlgate, 3 December 2024, a 1996, cocobolo and cedar, lattice of balsa and carbon fibre, nut 52 mm, scale 650 mm, sold for £11,000 against an estimate of £13,000–£18,000. One guitar, with play wear on the top. An ended 1986 ask, Brazilian and cedar, ebony board, last shown at $26,167.32, listed about a year earlier, is not that hammer and is not a sale. A La Mancha, a Philp, or an Arns at another price is another maker.

See also

• ramirez-1a — Madrid’s fan-braced concert nylon, the long scale and the cedar 1a; not a balsa-and-carbon lattice
• hauser-segovia — Hauser’s 1937 for Segovia, seven fans under spruce; not this shell
• torres-la-leona — the Torres pattern those fans come from; the papier-mâché story Scott retells is Torres’s experiment, not this guitar

Sources

• Guitar Foundation of America, Robert Ferguson, *Soundboard* 51 no. 2, Greg Smallman (2025 notice) — 1972 kitchen, Fleta copies, Sharpe’s book; first lattice 1974, too thick, seen in 1979; Williams approached in 1978 in Sydney; first purchase 1981; sons by the mid-1990s, label 1999, then four to six a year, now fifteen to twenty; Glen Innes, Mornington Peninsula, Esperance; tops 1.5 mm down to a few tenths of a millimetre, about 55 g against 110 g; the light-top sentence; heavier neck, sides, and back; adjustable neck; armrest; 500–600 hours and 12–14 months of adjustment; the player list, including David Tannenbaum as printed; no patent
• Matt Withers, *CutCommon*, 29 May 2018 — meeting in the 1970s, Williams on a Fleta; Damon 1993, Kym 1996; first lattice 1974, the thick top understood in 1979; 1981 top at 1.5 mm all over, sold to Williams; Torres-style tops about 110 g, his about half; a few tenths of a millimetre; carbon scraped from inside; Blu-Tack above the fifth fret, first string; site price A$22,000 and a wait of one to two years; his 1999 on Songs of Yesterday
• Wikipedia, Greg Smallman — born 19 June 1947, Cronulla; arched heavy back, Madagascar rosewood, top always western red cedar; balsa and carbon lattice against a fan; Williams, Karadaglić, Xuefei Yang; label 1999; Glen Innes, Mornington Peninsula 2002, Esperance; no website until 2012; Williams in 1993, via Tony Bacon, and the loudness line via the Australian Guitar Journal
• guitar-list, Greg Smallman — quoting the maker’s site on 18 May 2022: carved rosewood back, western red cedar, balsa and carbon lattice, patent not taken; P.O. Box 2378, Esperance 6450
• Greg Smallman & Sons — read 29 October 2026: the sons’ names, an email, no price and no wait on the page
• Jedistar, Greg Smallman — 1947 Cronulla; 1972 Glen Innes; a 1975 instrument from Shannon Dale, the photograph note calling it non-lattice; label 1999; Mornington Peninsula 2002; Esperance workshop 2012
• Robbie Smallman, biography, on Ingrid Riollot’s site — 1972, Fleta copies in spruce or cedar; first lattice soundboard 1974; late-1970s experiments, steel and nylon; 1981 purchase; both sons building since 1994; label 1999; Damon’s Newcastle degree; Kym from age 16; the player list, including Tengyue Yang and Ingrid Riollot; Ron K. Payne, The Twang Dynasty (2012), for the Torres-and-Fleta line
• Philip Smith, rec.music.classical.guitar, 25 July 2004 — Dundee talk with Williams: Fleta in 1979 in this telling; 1.8 mm against 2.3 mm; 65 g against 120 g; back and sides 2.8 kg against 1.5 kg; five layers and three; fifteen levels of crescendo; epoxy and the tap tones; carbon-fibre fingerboard cast on nylon-string fret formers; hinged neck; carbon-fibre bridge pins; armrest clear of the top; three weeks, a week, three months; half a bag of cement; carbon cloth scraped back after edge cracks. Kevin Hall’s reply on the same thread: Pat Lister’s spruce lattice in Canada in the early 1960s
• Nicholas Scott, interview with Kazu Suwa — the table experiment and the frame, as Smallman tells it; London, summer 2004, the six aims, and Williams on loudness not changing the sound; acrylic on the top, too thin to buff, shellac too thermoplastic; back and sides need no particular species
• Classical Guitar Alive, John Williams, recorded 1998 — mid-1970s meeting; the guitar then an Ignacio Fleta; Smallmans ever since the early-1980s design
• Discogs, John Williams, *The Seville Concert*, Sony Classical SK 53 359, Australia, 1993 — Royal Alcázar, 10–18 November 1992; sleeve line transcribed “Guitar made by Gerg Smallman”
• CiNii, *The Seville Concert* laserdisc, Sony Classical SRLM 1073, 1993 — Greg Smallman as interviewee; Glen Innes among the locations
• London Guitar Studio, Smallman 2026 — £27,500, in stock on 29 October 2026; cedar, pau ferro veneer, hoop-pine core, ziricote bindings and armrest, merbau bridge, durian neck, balsa braces, sycamore rosette, Leona case
• Guitar Collection, Greg Smallman & Sons 2026 — cedar and ziricote; header 655 mm and specs block 650 mm; nut 53 mm; Exagon; Leona case; no public price
• Guitar Collection, Facebook, 10 June 2026 — that 2026 cedar and ziricote guitar already sold
• David Schramm, adjustable-neck video, 6 March 2024 — the neck design he copies, which he dates to Greg Smallman and his sons around 2000
• Guitar Salon International, 1988 Greg Smallman — cedar, CSA rosewood, 650 mm, nut 52 mm, oil; balsa and carbon lattice; Blu-Tak; thick domed back
• Siccas, Greg Smallman & Sons 2009 — cedar, rosewood, lacquer, 650 mm, nut 52 mm, Schaller
• Siccas, luthier profile, 10 June 2026 — Karadaglić on a Smallman built in 2017, in that profile’s wording
• Michael Edgeworth, lattice and double-tops — Smallman, Kohno, and Fischer as separate lattice designs; Fischer’s Taut is not this guitar
• Reverb, 2003 Smallman & Sons — ask $38,499 plus $350, listed about a month before 29 October 2026; Brazilian, western red cedar, Tasmanian blackwood neck, carbon fingerboard, 65 cm, Rodgers, armrest, Dormer case
• Reverb, 2005 Damon & Kym, French polish — ask $27,000, free shipping, listed about six days before; seller says one owner, Minh Le Hoang
• Reverb, 1990 Brazilian — ask $52,000 plus $150, listed about seven days before; the Bream sentence is this listing’s
• Reverb, 1986 lattice, ended — ended ask last shown at $26,167.32, listed about a year earlier; Brazilian, cedar, ebony board. Not a hammer
• Gardiner Houlgate, 3 December 2024, 1996 — sold £11,000; estimate £13,000–£18,000; cocobolo, cedar, ebony, nut 52 mm, scale 650 mm; less than 1 mm in places; 64 lb