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

- Dave Burrluck

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.”