1988 Fritz Ober "7-Course Renaissance Lute" SP/YW

This 1988 Fritz Ober is an Elizabethan-era 7-course Renaissance lute with a spruce soundboard and a 13-stave yew back, made in Munich, Germany – an early example of the pre-Torres instruments Fritz built alongside his guitars.

A Renaissance Lute by Fritz Ober

Fritz was known for building some of the best Torres/Hauser style guitars of his generation, but he also built a fair number of pre-Torres instruments. This early lute shows his creative and elegant craftsmanship, notably an ornately carved bridge and soundhole "rose" as well as the 13-stave yew back.

Seven Courses, Thirteen Strings

The strings are arranged in seven "courses" of two strings each, though the highest-pitched course has only a single string, called the "chanterelle". The courses are numbered from the highest pitched, so the chanterelle is the first course, the next pair of strings the second, and so on – giving this 7-course lute a total of 13 strings. Also notable are the movable "gut" frets (nylon frets can also be used).

For the Guitarist Who Plays Lute Music

Condition-wise, there are no known repairs or cracks, only normal playing wear. It is a particularly beautiful example of Fritz's work and a great instrument for the guitarist seeking a more authentic quality of sound when playing lute music from the Renaissance into the Baroque – with the additional 7th course, much of this music can be played as written, with no arranging required. Julian Bream popularized the lute starting in the 1960s, and several prominent lutenists have been regular members of the wider classical guitar community, including Ronn McFarlane, Nigel North, Edin Karamazov (who recorded the music of Dowland with Sting), Evangelina Mascardi and many others. Lutes like this enter the market very infrequently, so this was a rare opportunity to own a masterfully crafted and great-sounding instrument by one of the great builders of the past 40 years. The original custom-fitted gig bag is included.

Orfeo Magazine No. 4: Hauser III, Blöchinger and Ober

Fritz Ober (1955–2020): From Rosenheim to Munich

Fritz Ober was born in 1955 in Rosenheim, Germany, and spent his youth in the small village of Übersee am Chiemsee, where he learned to play the guitar and discovered an early love for woodworking. He built his first guitars mainly for himself, learning largely from books, then served a two-year apprenticeship with Helmut Buchsteiner – at the time the only known luthier in Upper Bavaria besides Hermann Hauser II – before opening his own workshop in Munich.

Old-World Methods and the Great Masters

In Munich he found surprising demand for pre-Torres instruments such as Panormo-style guitars and Renaissance lutes. Through Robert Lundberg, a leading expert on historical stringed instruments, he learned the methods of the old masters: working without machinery or sandpaper, with natural hide glues and resins, and with hand-split spruce – he even sought out his own trees in the nearby Alps. Soon he was restoring some of the most important guitars in Europe's great collections, by Torres, Hauser I, Santos Hernández, Manuel Ramírez, Esteso, Simplicio, Bouchet, Friederich and Fleta, among others.

The Torres/Hauser I Tradition

What he learned from these masters shaped his own style, and for the rest of his career Fritz built almost exclusively in the Torres/Hauser I tradition, aiming, in his words, to "create the deep and profound singing qualities of the Spanish tradition (Torres), combined with the harmonic clarity, evenness and transparency of Hauser I." Working alone, he made only 10–12 instruments a year, and his players included the Romeros, Wulfin Lieske, Jürgen Ruck, Earl Klugh, John Ingwerson, Doug Rubio and Andy Summers. GSI was Fritz Ober's exclusive US dealer during his lifetime.