2025 Tobias Berg CD/IN

This 2025 Tobias Berg is a classical guitar with a cedar top and Indian rosewood back and sides, built in Germany in the woods Daniel Friederich favored late in his career.

A Spectacular, Meaty Sound

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, quartersawn 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. It also has a slightly more "compact" build in body dimensions, making it very comfortable, fun and easy to play.

Japanese-Inspired Design

As we've said many times about this maker's 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 and its use of perfect lines and sharp edges. He has seamlessly and delicately integrated elements of this into his unique and beautiful design.

Double Sides and a Titanium-Reinforced Neck

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 the many that have come through our doors (see our blog post for the full story). For tone, the double sides give the guitar a deeper, almost "cathedral-like" presence, a quality we've otherwise only heard in modern Friederich guitars. Tobias 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. Overall, this is a fantastic concert guitar by all standards, with a bold and beautiful sound and a unique and classy look.

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.