Misplaced Pages

Bear Creek Guitars

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Bear Creek Guitars
Company typePrivate
IndustryMusical instruments
HeadquartersCalifornia
Area servedGlobal
Key peopleBill Hardin
ProductsCustom Weissenborn-style Hawaiian lap steel guitars
WebsiteBear Creek Guitars

Bear Creek Guitars is a California-based manufacturer of Hawaiian instruments. Luthier Bill Hardin founded the company in Hawaii in 1995 after working at O.M.I Dobro and the Santa Cruz Guitar Company. Bear Creek primarily builds acoustic lap steel guitars in the tradition of the Weissenborn, one of only a handful of manufacturers basing their instruments on the original Weissenborn design. Hardin has collaborated with guitarist and ethnomusicologist Bob Brozman in designing an updated 7-string baritone version of the Style IV Weissenborn, called the BearTone.

History

Bill Hardin was introduced to the Weissenborn by Don Young of National Reso-Phonic Guitars while they both worked for Dobro. One day Don brought in a Weissenborn copy and Bill was impressed with its sound. "It was such a pure slide sound and just amazing," he recalled in a 2007 Fretboard Journal feature article.

Instruments

Bear Creek builds both hollowneck and Kona roundneck copies of the Weissenborn, as well as Spanish steel-stings, ukuleles, and resonators. The BearTone can be heard on Bob Brozman's Nankuru Naisa, his second collaboration with Takashi Hirayasu (their first collaboration, Jin Jin, features Brozman on a Bear Creek "Kona Rocket.")

References

  1. Aldrich, Margret; Michael Dregni (2003). This Old Guitar. Voyageur Press. p. 151. ISBN 0-89658-631-6.
  2. Gerkin, Teja; Michael Simmons; Frank Ford; Richard Johnston (2005). Acoustic Guitar: The Composition, Construction, and Evolution of One of World's Most Beloved Instruments. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 125. ISBN 0-634-07920-4.
  3. Volk, Andy. "Hollow Be Thy Name: Bear Creek's Bill Hardin and the allure of the Weissenborn-style guitar." The Fretboard Journal, issue number 8 (Winter 2007), p. 18.
  4. Diego, César. "Weissenborn.es: Today's Incredible Builders". Retrieved Jan 17, 2011.
  5. Brozman, Bob. "Bear Creek Hawaiian Guitars". Retrieved Jan 17, 2011.


Stub icon

This article about a musical instrument company is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories: