2007 Fritz Ober "Apprentice" CD/IN

This 2007 Fritz Ober "Apprentice" is a cedar and Indian rosewood classical guitar built in Fritz's small Munich workshop, to his specifications and under his direct supervision.

The Fritz Ober "Apprentice" Guitars

This guitar was built in Fritz's small Munich workshop under his direct supervision, exactly to his build specifications, with the assistance of an apprentice who worked with him for a short time. Only a handful of these instruments were completed, and they are virtually indistinguishable from the guitars made entirely by Fritz himself – a tremendous value.

Sound

Fritz had a long reputation for building exacting, highly accurate Torres/Hauser-style guitars. His style of sound is best described as reminiscent of the "Spanish-style" Hauser I guitars from when Hauser was largely under the spell of Torres and Manuel Ramírez: the great clarity, balance and transparency of the Hauser style, with a very lyrical, warm quality, particularly in the trebles. This guitar has precisely these qualities, with some added warmth thanks to the cedar soundboard. Condition was excellent with no damage, only some very minor, respectful playing wear.

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.