2010 Tobias Braun SP/MP

A 2010 classical guitar by Tobias Braun, with a bearclaw German spruce top and flamed maple back and sides.

In the video above, Scott Wolf plays John Dowland's "A Fancy" on this guitar.

Eye-Catching Details

Tobias chooses spectacular materials: a spruce top covered in bearclaw with irregular, tight grain, and flamed maple for the back and sides. Along with his distinctive aesthetic details come custom Rubner tuners engraved with his initials.

A World-Class Guitar

The small tornavoz, about 16 mm deep, gives projection and clarity, and the tone is very clean, open and extremely loud – robust, rounded and thick, yet clear. A world-class guitar in every regard.

Read more: Orfeo Magazine No. 17 – The Viennese Guitar (with a feature on Tobias Braun)

Tobias Braun: A Romanillos-Trained Maker in the Vienna Woods

Tobias Braun was born in Holzminden, Germany, in 1960 and grew up in Perchtoldsdorf, just outside Vienna. He built his first guitar on his own in 1983, then took four courses with José Luis Romanillos between 1984 and 1992, earned his Master Craftsman's Certificate in Vienna in 1989 and helped translate Romanillos' book on Antonio de Torres into German. Since 1998 he has worked in Gaaden, in the Vienna Woods.

Santos, Ramírez and Rare Woods

His guitars grow out of the old Spanish masters – above all the 1924 Santos Hernández of Luise Walker, which he has studied and lectured on, and a 1912 Manuel Ramírez. Many have a small tornavoz for projection and clarity, and he is one of the few makers since García and Simplicio to work with satinwood. He was featured in Orfeo Magazine No. 17, "The Viennese Guitar".