Hand-Crafted Classical Guitars

Luthier Dan Kellaway,  fine-tuning the art of creating classical  guitars for over five decades. His life’s work has been to evolve the sound of these instruments. The essence of the sound must have sweetness, clarity, projection, separation and an even response.

Luthier – Maker of Guitars and String Instruments

I first trained as a Gold and Silversmith but after that I decided to build instruments as a far more worthwhile career. I began by building three classical guitars in 1973 after which I began a long period as a repairer and restorer. During this time I worked on very many high end instruments from every spectrum of the guitar world, resetting necks on early Martins, restoring early classical guitars, some orchestral harps, violins and mandolins, and all kinds of guitars from Rock to folk , jazz and classical. I made many lutes, a few steel string acoustics, many electric guitars, but in 1993 I began specialising exclusively in Classical Guitars.

I began by following Torres and Rominillos and then worked on Archangel Fernandez, Esteso, Ramirez, Fleta, Bouchet, Conde Hermanos, Rubio, Hauser, Smallman, Marty, Lacote, Fabricatore, Bernabe, and several that I forget. From this experience I formed some opinions about design and construction to create my own sound and direction. My soundboards began with fans which I developed  extensively but which ultimately came full circle back to the Rominillos design. But during that development I began a parallel  evolution  of my own version of Lattice bracing. My goal has been to produce louder instruments that retain the beauty of the Spanish tones while giving a more even tonal response over the whole fingerboard. I  am confident that this has been accomplished. I build instruments with clarity and warmth, strength and sweetness.