Calgary, AB (September 9, 2003) - The Griffiths Active Bracing System,™ a one-piece glass fibre unit that forms the structural frame of all Garrison Guitars, produces the most affordable, high-quality, solid wood acoustic guitar in the world while enhancing the instrument's sound and playability. Chris Griffiths, of St. John's, Newfoundland, has won the prestigious $25,000 Manning Award of Distinction for his innovation, which has vaulted Canada to centre stage in the global guitar-making industry.

This is the third major national Manning Award won this year by an innovator in Atlantic Canada.

Griffiths, president and chief executive officer of Garrison Guitars, disassembled his first electric guitar when he was 12, fascinated by its inner workings as much as its outward beauty.

Nine years later, on a flight home to Newfoundland from a North American tour of guitar-making factories, he sketched out the idea on an airline's napkin for a revolutionary way of building guitars. Instead of assembling the guitar's internal frame from numerous wooden components — the way it had been done for the last 170 years — he envisioned a top-quality, affordable guitar made all of one piece.

"It took me six minutes to come up with the idea and six years to make it work," Griffiths says.

The reinforcing structural frame of every Garrison Guitar is a single unit made of injection-molded long-glass fibre. This material has sound-reproduction qualities equal to or better than a similar-quality guitar's conventional frame, made of more than 30 individually machined and installed wooden pieces. Complementing the backbone of the Garrison Guitar is the patented Griffiths Integrating Blocking System.™ Made of the same strong, resonating glass fibre, it includes the neck block, which locks into the bracing system, and the end block, which ties the bottom of the guitar together.

The crowning touch — for superb acoustics and visual appeal — is a guitar with top, sides and back made of solid wood, not laminated plywood which is typical of many guitars in this price range.

Garrison Guitars has taken the international guitar market by storm.

The company's entire annual production capacity of 12,000 guitars is pre-sold to authorized Garrison distributors around the world, including Canada, the U.S., UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden Denmark, France, Austria, Belgium, Greece, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Ireland and Spain.

In less than a year, Garrison Guitars has captured the spotlight as one the largest acoustic guitar manufacturing facilities in Canada, with projected revenues of $5 million to $6 million this year.

Made exclusively in Atlantic Canada, Garrison guitars are sounding the perfect notes for both the beginning player and the professional recording artist. "They are beautiful on every front — visually, sonically, and conceptually," says Rob Baker of The Tragically Hip.

Griffiths has won the $25,000 Award of Distinction, sponsored by CanWest Global Communications Corp.

Since 1982, the annual Manning Awards program has encouraged and recognized leading Canadian innovators with more than $3 million in prize money. This year's four major winners, who will be honoured at the annual gala dinner Oct. 3 in Halifax, will share a total of $145,000.