This article originally appeared in Acoustic Guitar magazine. © String Letter Publishing, all rights reserved.
Bear Creek Guitars
Until relatively recently, the name Weissenborn meant nothing to all but the most devoted lap-slide guitarists. Hermann Weissenborn built his unique hollow-neck slide guitars for a few short years during the '20s and '30s, and only the surviving examples and a small number of similar instruments by makers like Knutsen and Hilo were available to modern guitarists. High-profile players such as David Lindley, Ben Harper, and Bob Brozman introduced these guitars to a wider audience, and soon they were in short supply. The new demand for lush-toned lap guitars gave rise to a handful of luthiers, including Hawaii's Bear Creek Guitars, offering contemporary reproductions of the guitar that, as Lindley puts it, "eats Dobros for lunch."
Bill Hardin founded Bear Creek Guitars (PO Box 1057, Volcano, HI 96785; [808] 985-7545; www.bcguitar.com) in 1995. He started out in California after five years of working for the Santa Cruz Guitar Co. and another five at OMI/Dobro and then moved his shop to Hawaii's Big Island in 1999. He now runs the company with the help of his wife, BJ, who handles sales and marketing.
Hardin's interest in Hawaiian-style guitars dates back to the late '70s. He collected and repaired then-affordable Weissenborns and learned important lessons about their construction. He met Don Young while the two worked at Dobro (Young is now vice president of National Reso-Phonic Guitars). "Don was a really big influence in Hawaiian guitars and Hawaiian music, and he really helped direct me," Hardin recalls.
These early influences can still be seen in the guitars offered by Bear Creek today. At the heart of the lineup are Weissenborn Style 4inspired hollow-necks (starting at $1,995) and Kona-inspired solid-neck instruments (starting at $4,500). The Big Island affords Hardin access to some of the greatest koa available, and the beautiful figured wood is a core element of most Bear Creek instruments.
Hardin was also influenced by slide player Bob Brozman, whose input resulted in the seven-string baritone Beartone with a huge, 27-inch scale, as well as the short-scaled (23 inches), high-tuned Rocket. "Bob Brozman is kind of like my ear," Hardin explains. "When he says that something is right on, then it is. He's very honest with his opinions. Plus he comes up with ideas, like the seven-string. He's also a great resource because he's got lots of old Weissenborns to look at. He's been very helpful in the whole expansion from the original design."
Hardin has a healthy respect for the original Weissenborn design, but he's also found ways to improve on it. "The bracing pattern that I use is similar to the original, but I'm scalloping things, and I'm definitely lighter on my bracing than the originals," he says. He also uses modern glues and much greater care in the assembly of his instruments, so they're considerably sturdier than the fragile originals. "I'm taking the knowledge I got at Santa Cruz and integrating it into the Weissenborn world," he says.
Hardin's work space is divided into two areas-a wood storage and machine room and a separate shop for assembling the instruments. He uses different stations for different steps of the building process and multiple jigs, a reflection of his formative years in high-volume guitar manufacture environments. He doesn't rely on premanufactured parts and instead handcrafts everything, right down to such labor-intensive details as the Weissenborn-style rope binding. The binding is glued together from multiple strips of wood and then cut at a 45-degree angle, and it's easily damaged in the process of bending it into the guitar's shape. Soundwise, Bear Creek guitars have a lot more volume, and possibly more sustain, than their vintage counterparts.
Bear Creek also offers a Spanish-style guitar and a line of high-quality ukuleles. Based on the Martin design, the ukes are available in soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone sizes, starting at $995. These tiny axes feature the same high-quality figured koa found in larger Bear Creek instruments, and they are stunning.
With a combination of great sound, gorgeous woods, and excellent craftsmanship, Bear Creek's vintage adaptations and custom creations serve a growing niche in the acoustic guitar market.
-Teja Gerken