2018 Dominik Wurth "Torres" w/tornavoz SP/AR

This 2018 Dominik Wurth "Torres" is a classical guitar with a spruce top and African rosewood back and sides, built in Germany, his second Torres model for GSI and the first with a tornavoz.

A Torres Model with Tornavoz

Although he has built many Torres models (indeed the first guitar he showed us was one of his maple Torres models, based on FE 17), this is only our second from Dominik and our first with a tornavoz. Dominik cites Antonio de Torres as his greatest influence - his regular guitars follow the basic Torres plan - so we always like to have a Torres model from him from time to time. The structural dimensions and internal details follow the mid-sized to slightly smaller Torres guitars, mainly from his first epoch. Dominik has experimented with including a tornavoz in this model and feels it fits better in these smaller-bodied guitars, so he included one here.

Tuned to 415 Hz: the Old Spanish Sound

Although a full 650 scale length, the body is slightly more compact, making this a very lightweight guitar. This also helps give it the tonal characteristics normally found in older, vintage guitars - a dry, woody, textured quality to every note, with the haunting old-world "pulsation" effect, felt by the player mainly through the movement of the back as the guitar vibrates in every register. Dominik noted before shipping that if it is tuned down to 415 Hz it shows, in his words, "the whole 'old world' charm which really takes you back to another time. Basses are full and deep, trebles are warm and singing. This is the soul of the old tone. Each color is possible, especially above the fingerboard it sounds incredibly round and warm. This guitar defines for me the old Spanish sound." So we followed his advice and recorded Alex Tsiboulski playing it at 415 - you can hear him in the videos on this page.

Overall, this is an incredibly charming guitar with plenty of volume for any concert setting, yet with the indescribably intimate quality of sound found in an old guitar - an incredibly successful tribute to Antonio de Torres.

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.