2000 Fritz Ober SP/MP

This 2000 Fritz Ober is a spruce and flamed maple classical guitar from Munich, Germany, fitted with Reischl "Superstar" tuners, with no damage or repairs.

Flamed Maple and Gold-Plated Reischl Tuners

This particular instrument features beautiful aesthetics, including the rosette and purfling details. Materials are all first-quality, with incredibly gorgeous flamed maple for the back and sides. The tuning machines are Reischl "Superstar" (their top model, with hand-brushed gold plates) with mother-of-pearl buttons.

Second to None in the "Spanish-Style" Hauser Sound

Playability is excellent, and the sound is clear, focused and perfectly balanced – superb, with excellent clarity and power and a very woody, deep natural tone. We have always believed that Fritz was second to none in capturing the loose, warm sound of early "Spanish-style" Hauser I instruments. Its looseness, transparency, balance and inner chordal harmony make this guitar sound much more like an instrument that has been aging for 50–60 years. Although it has been played in beautifully over the years, it has no damage and no repairs, only some normal aesthetic wear in the finish from regular use.

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.