2017 Florian Blöchinger SP/CSAR

This 2017 Florian Blöchinger is a classical guitar with a spruce top and CSA rosewood back and sides, built in Dorfen, Germany, by the son of master luthier Edmund Blöchinger – a young maker whose guitars GSI offers exclusively worldwide.

A Remarkable Guitar from a Young Maker

Florian's guitars are among the most impressive we have seen from a maker this early in his career, and this one is built to an incredibly high standard in terms of materials, craftsmanship, playability and sound quality. The woods selected are stunning – the perfect quarter-sawn spruce top, with its dark annular rings and banded rosette flanked by half-herringbones, beautifully complements the CSA rosewood back and sides, with their dark, straighter-grained sections accented by a generous amount of blonde sapwood.

Miguel Rodríguez Meets Pepe Romero Jr.

This guitar is the sonic fusion of Miguel Rodríguez guitars and those of Pepe Romero Jr., with a fast, aggressive attack much like a flamenco and an extremely quick string reset, which gives the right hand the freedom to play as quickly as possible. Florian achieves this with a fan-braced top, by tapering the edges of the plantilla, and with a treble stiffener. Also impressive is the amount of volume above the 12th fret, in part achieved by a thicker fingerboard connected to a section of the soundboard with extra doming in it, allowing for unfettered tone and resonance in the higher registers.

Sound

The basses are thick, powerful and dense. This is balanced beautifully by the singing, vibrant and fully resonating trebles. The projection is excellent, with a warm, robust tone and a dense core to the note, providing plenty of clarity for each note amid the wide sound.

Condition

Although a second-hand instrument, this guitar is in excellent condition with only minor signs of prior use. A first-rate guitar by any standard.

Florian Blöchinger: Guitarist and Guitar Maker of Dorfen

Florian Blöchinger (b. 1992) is a German classical guitar maker and concert guitarist – known on stage as Florian David – who works in his own workshop in Dorfen, about 30 miles outside Munich. He is the son of the world-renowned luthier Edmund Blöchinger, and GSI is proud to be the only dealer of his guitars in the world.

From birth, Florian has been immersed in the culture of the classical guitar. Not only has he been around the construction of instruments his entire life, but he has also studied the guitar as a player since the age of 6. Seeing that he had really taken an interest in playing, his father built him a smaller-scale instrument when Florian was 9 years old, and since then he has always had one of his father's guitars to play.

His First Guitar, Built with His Father

In 2013, at the age of 21 and under his father's guidance, Florian built his first guitar and completely fell in love with the entire experience from start to finish. He made the decision the very day he finished that guitar to become a professional luthier. He later spent a considerable amount of time with his close friend Pepe Romero Jr., studied the Romero family's collection of historic guitars, and graduated from the luthier school in Mittenwald in 2016.

A Synthesis of Blöchinger, Pepe Romero Jr. and Miguel Rodríguez

Though his guitars look similar to his father's (most noticeably the plantilla and headstock shape), they are a synthesis of father Edmund's guitars, those of long-time friend and mentor Pepe Romero Jr., and the guitars of Miguel Rodríguez. Florian successfully blends the tonal elements he desires into his own designs, with the understanding of a luthier and the ear and physical criteria of a player. He has performed with such maestros as Pepe Romero and Vicente Coves, and constantly works on his playing alongside the construction of these fine instruments.