The Stuff Of Legends
To add to the pressure of starting a guitar company in a country with little domestic market and the necessity to import all woods, B&G also wanted to create a classic…
With some 800 Private Build guitars made to date in Israel – including the new Step Sister, launched earlier this year, the Chinese-made Crossroads version of the original Little Sister, and the impending launch of an acoustic line – the 14-strong team at B&G Guitars are nothing short of ambitious. “We never wanted to be a boutique company – even the word ‘boutique’ doesn’t fit our vision,” states founding partner Avi Goldfinger when we catch up with him at B&G’s Tel Aviv base. “Since day one, we always wanted the Little Sister to be the next classic.”
Luthiers Eliran Barashi and Yotam ‘Kiki’ Goldstein had already been plying their trade well before Avi Goldfinger met them. “I’m an artist and I needed a refret for a vintage acoustic,” says Avi. “I was recommended the best two guys for the job – Kiki and Eliran – who are now my partners in B&G. They worked together for years before I met them, doing repair work on vintage instruments and making custom guitars. After a while they showed me the concept for the Little Sister. I told them we had to start a company and make it the next classic electric guitar.”
You could say the 14-fret Little Sister, not least in its non-cutaway form, is almost like an electric guitar for the acoustic player. “Yes, definitely,” confirms Avi. “It’s one of the reasons I fell in love with the guitar, because I mostly play acoustics. The Little Sister is the only electric guitar I have at home, the only electric I feel really good playing. It’s half acoustic guitar and very intimate, so you don’t have to reach too far to play the first or second fret. It changes your approach to the electric guitar and gives you inspiration. It throws you back to the era of when blues was starting.”
Jewellery artist David Weizmann is also part of the B&G story. “He actually created the prototype of the Little Sister with Kiki and Eliran,” explains Avi. “He came with the design principles, such as the slotted headstock and the tailpiece, and the parlour shape – this prototype was actually the guitar that I [initially] saw. From that time Kiki and Eliran were working for around 10 months to refine the design.”
“Kiki and Eliran showed me the concept for the Little Sister. I told them we had to make it the next classic electric” Avi Goldfinger
Labour Of Love
Currently, B&G batch-build 30 guitars a month – each is effectively a custom order and, from Avi’s perspective, a labour of love. “Building the Private Build instruments is expensive,” he says. “We have to import everything and then make our own hardware and pickups – it’s a lot of labour and high cost. But we started getting a lot of people on social media asking us to make one they could afford. If we want to create a new classic it has to be available for people to buy and, of course, not everyone can afford such expensive guitars.
“We considered making a lower cost version in Israel and we did all the calculations for the machinery and the rest. We realised we could invest some $4 million in machinery alone to make a guitar using lower cost materials, but it would still cost $2,500. That was when we realised we’d have to go to Asia.
“It was my job to find the right factory. I started discussions with factories not only in China, but in Korea and Indonesia too. Eventually we went with the one that could provide the best wood – that was a key demand – along with the best quality of work. We’ve been to the factory three times to work on the specifics of the Little Sister. We showed them what could improve, and slowly but surely we got the guitars to the level we wanted.
“We don’t perceive the Crossroads version as an Asian replica. If we consider the American guitar, they have their Custom Shop models that are the equivalent of our Private Build models and then they have their ‘American Standard’ or plain Standard models that are made in their US factories. So, on the one hand we don’t have that factory facility, but we also don’t have the need to protect that kind of product by lowering the quality of our Asian guitars. So, we could afford to do a really high-quality Asian guitar – compared to many other Asian guitars – because we wanted to fight the American Standardlevel guitars.”
A Conventional Sibling
If the Crossroads broadened the appeal of the Little Sister, the new Step Sister offers a more conventional take. “Yes, the original Little Sister concept has its limitations in terms of playability and has its benefits in terms of inspiration, tone and mojo, if you like. We always had the Step Sister model in mind, with the emphasis on playability and to give up a few of the ‘romantic’ features. It wasn’t actually a request from customers but from what we actually play. Eliran, for example, plays in a Guns N’ Roses cover band. He plays the solos just like Slash! And he can’t use a Little Sister for that.”
And will we see a Crossroads version of the Step Sister? “In short, yes. The difficult answer is when. Maybe a year from now?”
So what does the immediate future hold for B&G? “Well, first of all we are working on a new electric model, a hollowbody that will also throw us back to the early 60s, something luxurious and unique and it will sound amazing. It’ll be slightly larger than the Step Sister but not too large. We love the golden era of guitars and we only make things we love ourselves. One of the main issues we have is designing something unique but looks old. So right now we’re designing the final visual features of that guitar. We hope to build the first prototype within a couple of months.
“Another really big thing for B&G is we’re going to launch an acoustic line soon, which’ll be made here in Israel. We’re going to keep the production capacity at 30 guitars a month and just split it between electric and acoustics depending on the demand. It will be in the same kind of price range as the Private Builds.”
On the evidence of the quality, vibe and indeed mojo of their electric guitars so far, we can’t wait to get our hands on the new acoustics. Watch this space!