This is a spectacular guitar from Tobias Berg. It has a thick, "meaty", overtone-rich quality across all registers, with very sturdy, powerful basses and smooth and creamy trebles. We've mentioned in the past that his latest instruments have taken on a "cathedral-like" quality of tone similar to the sound of the late Daniel Friederich so for this guitar Tobias decided to use Friederich's standard woods from the last decades of his career - a beautifully cut, quarter-sawn piece of Western red cedar for the soundboard and Indian rosewood for the back and sides. The guitar has a noticeably nice response, particularly in the trebles where the notes just seem to "pop" with the slightest touch of the right hand. This guitar also has a slightly more "compact" build in body dimensions making it very comfortable, fun and easy to play. As we've said many times about this makers work, the guitar has a unique and bold aesthetic - the headshape, rosette and bridge reveal a fondness for traditional Japanese architecture which Tobias admires for its understated elegance in its usage of perfect lines and sharp edges. He has seamlessly and delicately integrated elements of this into his unique and beautiful design.
It also features his double-sided construction method. Tobias has been perfecting this method in his own guitars for some time now, and we have been very pleased with several of these that have come through our doors. To see more on the technique, see our blog post for the full story. For tone, the double-sides give the guitar a deeper, almost "cathedral-like" presence to the sound, a quality we've only heard before in modern Friederich guitars. Tobias also reinforces the neck with two, square-shaped titanium rods and hard rock maple which, unlike many makers of the Madrid school, Tobias' are invisible from the outside. This both improves stability of the neck for setup purposes and enhances sustain noticeably. Overall, this is a fantastic concert guitar by all standards, with a bold and beautiful sound, and a unique and classy look.
Photos of this guitar taken just after being built.
