Beartone guitars and basses

Designed by Ron 'the Bear' Barker
Built by Robin 'Rossli' Day

The Beartone features

Coming back to guitar playing after many years, Ron found that, like many people, he still liked the old guitars but they were now “vintage”, collectable and expensive and the age old problem of having a different guitar for each style still very much existed.

The Beartone is a collage of the things Ron likes best about particular vintage guitars. There are at least 5 incorporated into the Beartone. Some are obvious, some may be a bit of a challenge to identify. Additional features include:

• Half slotted headstock for easy reach tuning
• Chambered body
• Reverse jack socket to run lead under shoulder strap

Telecaster fans create the Beartone

Ron and Robin are Telecaster fans and Ron visualised the guitar as a “hard-tail”. Robin finalised the blueprint and built it. Someone who’s more at home playing metal on an Ibanez Jem saw it and said "it’s a Beartone."

Then Rob Smith happened along and found the guitar at home covering many Fender, Gibson and Gretsch assignments in finger-style, jazz, blues and rock’n’roll. He wanted one but it had to be pink and have a Bigsby! It has gone on with various models for various players since then and then came a bass.