2013 Tobias Braun SP/MP

A 2013 classical guitar by Austrian luthier Tobias Braun, with a bearclaw German spruce top and flamed maple back and sides.

In the videos above, Fret X (Taso Comanescu and Mak Grgic) play Telemann's Canon – Mak on this guitar, Taso on a 1965 José Ramírez – and Capital and Rumi play Pixinguinha's "Vê Se Gostas" on it.

Flamed Maple and a Stone-Marker Key

Gorgeous flamed maple frames a spruce top covered in bearclaw. The key motif in the rosette is taken from an ancient stone boundary marker near Tobias's workshop outside Vienna, and his Rubner tuners have snakewood buttons engraved with his initials.

Clean, Open and Loud

Tobias's own plantilla and bracing draw on Luise Walker's 1924 Santos and a 1912 Manuel Ramírez. The result is very clean, open and extremely loud, robust and round yet clear, helped by a 16 mm tornavoz – remarkable volume for a traditionally built guitar.

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".