Eight-year GAL member Gary Southwell makes modern and historical guitars, with a particular interest in guitars of the early 19th century. When not in the workshop, he can be found flying his birds of prey and walking the local countryside with his dogs.
▪ bio current as of 2024
2024
AL#152 p.38
Gary Southwell
▪ Bog oak is the ultimate sinker wood. Giant oak trees sank into peat bogs thousands of years ago. Now they are being dug up, sawed into planks, and carefully dried. Innovative traditionalist Gary Southwell loves the stuff.
2021
AL#142 p.6
Cyndy Burton Jose Romanillos R.E. Brune Jeffrey R. Elliott Kevin Aram Gary Southwell Simon Ambridge
▪ The great classical guitarist Julian Bream was well known for supporting and encouraging contemporary composers and promising young players. Less noticed by the public, but of special importance to luthiers, was Bream’s work with a handful of classical guitar makers from whom he commissioned the fine instruments that he played. In this article, those luthiers offer memories of their interactions with Julian Bream. Mentions Hermann Hauser Sr.
2009
AL#100 p.6 ALA5 p.60
Gary Southwell
▪ Southwell on using historical influences in contemporary work and design. From his 2006 GAL convention lecture.
2009
AL#97 p.68
Gary Southwell Koen Padding
▪ An experiment involving two pieces of European Spruce, testing the effects of oil finish VS French polish and the use of olive oil in particular.
2008
AL#93 p.20 ALA6 p.64
Mike Doolin Kerry Char Gary Southwell Fred Carlson
▪ Harp guitars have undergone a renaissance of sorts, in construction alternatives as well as the music that is being invented for them. Players want banks of super treble strings as well as an extended bass range. Luthiers have responded with new designs and different string configurations that make newer harp guitars more user friendly, more graceful, and musically more pertinent. The four members of this panel discussion are among the leading small builders of these interesting mega-guitars. With 53 photos and 2 sketches.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2000
AL#63 p.61 BRB6 p.533 read this article
Gary Southwell
▪ The reviewer likes these high-end tuning machines for their precision and elegant appearance.
2000
AL#64 p.6 BRB6 p.118
Jeffrey-R. Elliott Greg Byers Eugene Clark Gary Southwell
▪ Four note-worthy builders of the classical guitar talk about their influences, their building philosophies, and some of the their construction techniques in a panel discussion that should inspire anyone interested in the instrument. With 26 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
2000
AL#62 p.26 BRB6 p.48
Gary Southwell
▪ The evolution of the guitar was not a straight-line event. Though both the classical and the steelstring have been more or less fixed in form for over a hundred years the century before that has not been well-documented. Here Southwell has begun to repair that oversight. A luthier with a keen sense of history, he has used the guitars of this period to inform and guide his own creations. With 37 photos of historical and Southwell guitars.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
1999
AL#58 p.38 BRB5 p.366
Cyndy Burton Gary Southwell
▪ Southwell makes gut-strung guitars that may be strange or more-or-less conventional, but always elegant, and he makes them for some high-profile patrons. His specialty is pre-classical or “salon” guitars. He’s an eloquent Englishman whom you’ll be happy to meet. With 6 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.