Every guitar Greg Smallman makes has a soul embedded in its rosewood heart - he sees it as his job to put it there. For the reclusive craftsman, who lives in a mud-brick home in Glen Innes, New South Wales, and who rejects even the telephone, guitar making is an art for both heart and intellect. For more than 20 years he has been hailed as one of the country's finest guitar makers, the sole supplier for Australia's classical guitar virtuoso, John Williams.
Mutual admiration is another bond.
The locals may not know it, but they are harboring an Australian great, says Williams, who met Smallman when the self-taught craftsman approached him with a selection of his guitars in Sydney in 1981. Smallman returned with another prototype, and this time Williams was hooked. Smallman, a former taxi driver and schoolteacher, has also driven buses and worked on sailing boats. The Age Company Ltd 2000. Any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.