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Sometimes a luthier has to throw everything he’s got at a project … every tasteful aesthetic upgrade, that top he has been saving for a decade, the very best exotic set of back & sides, absolutely everything learned in the last 25 years of professional building … the whole enchilada. Sometimes the sound of a [...]

Don’t get me wrong … I am all for the new innovations that private luthiers are incorporating into their guitars these days. Bring on all of the built-in bevels … put as many ports as you can possibly squeeze in and inlay it to within an inch of its life … I LOVE that kind [...]

As a luthier, more often than not, your sound evolves very slowly over the course of your career … so slowly, that it is sometimes difficult to notice. But every once in a while a new building concept solidifies in one instrument and your tone jumps to a new level. This is one of those [...]

  You’re an accomplished guitarist who has been playing for quite some time. You’ve owned a number of good guitars over the years … all of them did the job but none were exactly what you wanted. It sounds to me like it is time to order that guitar-of-a-lifetime from a veteran luthier … someone [...]

  OK, you’re stranded on a desert island … what guitar do you want there with you? Well there is pretty stiff competition to say the least, with all of the talented luthiers out there. So what is the criteria? Personally speaking, I want something with staying power … a guitar that I won’t get [...]

  Sometimes you pick up a guitar, strum one chord and everything just feels and sounds right! The new Concert model Brazilian rosewood guitar from G.W. Barry is certainly one of those guitars! With over 30 years of building experience Mr. Barry has set his instruments apart from most of his competition through the beautiful [...]

Helmholtz resonance, tap tones, Chladni patterns, top deflection specifications, tone bar placement, strutting configurations, back plate reflective properties, top radius, frame stiffness, scale length, bridge mass, saddle downbearing, soundhole aperture, finish thickness & flexibility, vibration absorption qualities of glue, machine head mass, top plate strength-to-weight ratio, tonewood species … would you believe that these are [...]

It just struck me that when I play an instrument made by G.W. Barry, I don’t have any of my usual questions. You know … questions like “I wonder if I used heavier strings if I’d get more oomph out of the bass?” or “Why do the strings feel so stiff on this thing” or [...]

OK, I think I’ve finally figured it out. For years I have been wondering how G.W. Barry gets his sound. This builder has been quietly devoting all of his waking hours for the last twenty-eight years to building the best sounding flattop steel string guitars possible and has successfully created his own totally unique sonic [...]