2024 Tobias Berg SP/IN

This 2024 Tobias Berg is a classical guitar with a spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides, built in Germany with a slightly compact body.

A Thick, Overtone-Rich Spruce Guitar

This is a spectacular guitar from Tobias Berg, with a thick, "meaty", overtone-rich quality in every register: very sturdy, powerful basses and smooth, creamy trebles. The notes seem to "pop" with the slightest touch of the right hand, especially in the trebles, and its slightly more compact body dimensions make it very comfortable, fun and easy to play.

Design

Its unique, bold appearance owes much to Tobias' love of traditional Japanese architecture: perfect lines and sharp edges, used with understated elegance, shape the headstock, rosette and bridge, and blend seamlessly into his design.

Double Sides and Neck Reinforcement

Tobias builds with double sides, a technique he has long been perfecting and which has impressed us in guitar after guitar (the full story is in our blog post). It gives the sound a deeper, almost "cathedral-like" presence, a quality we know otherwise only from modern Friederich guitars. He also reinforces the neck with two square titanium rods and hard rock maple - which, unlike in many guitars of the Madrid school, are invisible from the outside. This improves the stability of the neck for setup purposes and noticeably enhances sustain. By all standards a fantastic concert instrument: a bold, beautiful voice and a unique, classy appearance.

Photos of this guitar being built

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.