Hand Crafted Guitars (and why they are better than factory made guitars)

If you’re serious about playing guitar or you just love a nice well made instrument, there are a number of reasons why you’ll be miles ahead with a custom hand made guitar crafted by an experienced guitar maker/luthier.

Let’s start with the fact that from the get go, it’s a personal experience. You start with talking to your guitar builder about the choice of tonewood and what sort of sound to expect with the different timbers. One timber will give you a warm mellow sound and another a brighter sound or in combination with yet another timber you can get a completely different sound again. In addition to this your luthier can also adjust the sound and tone to your liking, shaving a bit off a brace here or thickening the timber there using his experience to arrive at the desired outcome.

The shaped bracing under the soundboard
The shaped bracing under the soundboard

Your luthier will also custom make your guitar to suit your hands so that it fits you and your playing style. You can also have the appointments on your guitar just the way you want them such as purfling, bindings, rosettes and other inlays to really give your guitar its own personalised look.

These are just some off the things a luthier does that simply don’t happen in a guitar factory that churns out hundreds of guitars each week.

Luthiers on the other hand are passionate about their work and take the necessary time to get every part of the guitar making process absolutely right. They are careful to make sure they get to know exactly what their customers are looking for, placing a high priority on meeting and exceeding each customer’s needs in order to produce unique hand made guitars to love, own and play.

Just off the bench: Southern Belle Acoustic

Southern Belle handmade acoustic guitar
Back and sides: Australian Cedar, Top: Bearclaw spruce with sheoak and paua shell rosette, Rosewood fingerboard, Neck: New Guinea rosewood and sheoak headstock with Birdseye maple name strip

Just off the bench: New style headstock

New Style Headstock - Australian Sheoak with Birdseye Maple center strip
New Style Headstock – Australian Sheoak with Birdseye Maple center strip

For Sale: Southern Belle Acoustic

This is one of my Southern Belle steel string Acoustic Guitars, hand made using all Australian timbers, beautiful tone and great playability.
This is one of my Southern Belle steel string Acoustic Guitars, hand made using all Australian timbers, beautiful tone and great playability.

For Sale: Selling for a great price, Please call the luthier Glenn Bird on 0418476272 to ask about this Guitar and the special price.

Working on It: New GR3

Doing a little bit different top on this one - Blackwood and Ash top
Doing a little bit different top on this one – Blackwood and Ash top

Just off the bench: Custom GR3 electric

Here is one of my GR3 electric guitars, custom made for a West Australian guitarist. Look at that fiddleback blackwood pop!

GR3-NF, A stunning Fiddleback Blackwood top finished in natural oil
GR3-NF, A stunning Fiddleback Blackwood top finished in natural oil

Custom made to fit you

Here at Glenn Bird Guitars we are careful to make sure the guitar fits the player. Here’s one I made for music producer and studio session musician Tim Dutton, and just like any other of our guitars it had to be just right.

Custom made Southern Belle cutaway acoustic
Custom made Southern Belle cutaway acoustic

Roger Hodgson of Supertramp fame, playing a Glenn Bird hand made guitar

Sometimes you get to meet some really great people! I was lucky enough to meet a real Gentleman of Rock and Roll, none other than Roger Hodgson of Supertramp fame. I was also able to let him try out some of my hand made acoustic guitars.

Roger Hodgson and I playing a couple of my Hand made acoustic Guitars
Roger Hodgson and I playing a couple of my Hand made acoustic Guitars

He was so impressed he wanted me to make him a twelve stringer, so I made him my Jumbo Belle twelve string model.

Beautiful Top Grade Tonewoods

We only use the best timbers available, each set is hand selected by the luthier.

Stunning Australian Fiddleback Blackwood
Stunning Australian Fiddleback Blackwood

New Stuff

New headstock designs
We are always trying to do things a little better every day. Here’s an example of some of our new headstock designs.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.