2016 Tobias Berg CD/CSAR

This 2016 Tobias Berg is a classical guitar with a cedar top and CSA rosewood back and sides, built in Germany with mother-of-pearl "stars" set into the back.

A Thousand-Star Hotel

This guitar uses a very old set of CSA rosewood for the back and sides that Tobias bought in the late 1990s from a German colleague who had just stopped building guitars. Tobias really liked the tap tone of the wood and was very careful to pair it with a well-selected top (in this case, cedar). But the inspired moment to finally use this precious material only came a few months before, when Tobias was listening to the radio while working. He heard a story about a woman who had been traveling after an apprenticeship, sleeping in a "thousand star hotel" (outside, under a clear night sky). Tobias recalled his time at guitar-making school in Canada in 1996, where he spent many summer nights watching the stars and northern lights. The wood had several small "knots" throughout, and Tobias decided to fill them with small, circular mother-of-pearl inlays of different sizes, adding "stars" to the beautifully textured back (and one in the head veneer). The result is unique, very beautiful and, of course, tastefully done.

Sound and Design

Its voice is as elegant as its appearance - velvety and rich across the registers, sturdy and powerful in the bass, smooth and creamy in the treble. The look is unmistakably Berg - bold and unique, with a headshape, rosette and bridge that reveal his fondness for traditional Japanese architecture and its understated elegance of perfect lines and sharp edges, delicately woven into a design all his own.

Double Sides

Like his other recent guitars it has double sides, a method Tobias has been refining for years - our blog post tells the full story. Tonally, the doubled sides lend a deeper, almost "cathedral-like" presence to the sound, which we had only heard before in modern Friederich guitars. By all standards a fantastic concert instrument: a bold, beautiful voice and a unique, classy appearance.

Tobias Berg: From Sweden to Germany

Tobias Berg was born in 1972 in Helsingborg, Sweden, and grew up in the fishing village of Viken. After building his first classical guitar in 1995, he set out to learn the art and craft of guitar making, with courses and diplomas in Canada, England and the USA and time spent with top luthiers including Robert Ruck and Jeffrey Elliott. In 1998 he settled in Germany, where he worked for six years at Lakewood Guitars before earning the German master title (Meister) in Mittenwald in 2004 and opening his own workshop. Today he works in Kirchhain-Anzefahr, in Hesse.

Light, Compact Guitars with Double Sides

Tobias builds traditional, lightweight guitars with a slightly compact body, in the spirit of the Spanish makers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and since 2011 he has built them with double sides - a practice known from Madrid builders and from Daniel Friederich, whom he holds in very high esteem. His headstock, rosette and bridge designs reflect a fondness for traditional Japanese architecture. GSI has been working with Tobias since 2005, when he sent us his 20th guitar; in 2026 he built his 50th guitar for us.