2007 Fritz Ober SP/IN

This 2007 Fritz Ober is a spruce and Indian rosewood classical guitar made in Munich, Germany – a concert instrument in the Torres/Hauser tradition with no cracks or repairs.

Astounding Attention to Detail

In our opinion, Fritz stood in his own right as one of the great contemporary guitar makers in the world. His workmanship, choice of materials and quality of sound are not just outstanding but nearly unmatched, and his attention to detail is astounding. Playability is excellent.

A Sound That Seems Decades Old

The sound is clear, focused and powerful. As with all of Ober's guitars it is quite complex, with a harmonically rich texture that gives it a very intriguing, mysterious quality, and the looseness, transparency, balance and inner chordal harmony make it sound much more like an instrument that has been aging for 50–60 years. It was in great condition with no cracks or repairs – only some finish work to give the guitar a refreshed look, likely to remove wear. Overall, a top-level concert and recording instrument for the discriminating performer.

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.