2018 Dominik Wurth CD/IN

This 2018 Dominik Wurth is a classical guitar with a cedar top and Indian rosewood back and sides, built in Germany, with a lighter, looser cedar top voiced for warmth and a fast attack.

Torres, Friederich and Marín

Dominik cites Antonio de Torres as his greatest influence; his first guitars for us followed the basic Torres plan, with seven fan struts in a domed top and a tunneled lower cross bar, and early influences came from Daniel Friederich and Antonio Marín Montero. His style has become more personal over the years through studying the instruments of the great makers of the past - he came to GSI shortly after we acquired the Cleveland collection, to evaluate a large number of fine instruments all at once.

A Cedar Top, in Dominik's Words

For this particular guitar, Dominik says:

"This cedar top has 5 fan braces. I am always looking for a darker color in the trebles and 5 braces are better for this than 7. Also I am using two small cross struts under the bridge and a tunneled harmonic bar beyond the soundhole like Torres. The Barbero models I've been building have helped me incorporate a lot of new ideas to my model, especially when it comes to the top thicknesses and the arrangement of the struts. Actually, I've been wanting all of my cedars to become less stiff so I've been reducing the top thickness step by step and adjusting the height of the cross bars under the bridge, resulting in a good compromise between warmth and clarity/brightness. Also by having a looser top I am getting a faster attack, something I've always wanted to improve upon. But I have not sacrificed sustain for attack and feel that this is a balance that I will stick with for my cedar top guitars for now, because the best guitar is always the next one."

Sound and Condition

To us, this guitar has improved responsiveness in all registers and a bigger, more robust sound all around. Easy to play, with immediate attack and a lively, full sound behind every note, this is overall a joy to play - fantastic in every regard. Although used, it is in excellent condition with only minor wear in the finish from normal use.

Dominik Wurth: From the Black Forest to Granada

Dominik Wurth was born in 1982 in Ettenheim, near Freiburg, Germany, and spent his childhood in a small rural village at the foot of the Black Forest. He discovered the guitar in his early twenties, and soon wanted a better instrument than his beginner guitar - so he decided to build one. In those early years he learned with the aid of books and from Sascha Nowak of Freiburg, who taught him the traditional techniques of guitar making. In 2007 he enrolled at Zwickau University (Faculty of Applied Arts, Schneeberg), the world's only university offering the study of stringed-instrument making, graduating in 2012; along the way he also earned the German master title for plucked-instrument making.

A Gitarrenbaumeister in Bad Krozingen

Dominik then spent several years in the south of Spain, in a small village in the Alpujarras near Granada, where he interned with Andrés D. Marvi and then opened his own shop. He later moved back to Germany, where he builds guitars full time - today in Bad Krozingen, just south of Freiburg. GSI is his US dealer.