2025 Tobias Berg CD/WN

This 2025 Tobias Berg is a classical guitar with a cedar top and European walnut back and sides, built in Germany with a dramatic, marbled walnut back.

Dramatic European Walnut

Another exceptional guitar from Tobias Berg. Materials are gorgeous, including a stunning set of very dramatic European walnut for the back and sides (and head veneer, front and back), with a colorful, marbled quality. The top is a beautifully cut, quartersawn piece of Western red cedar with plenty of cross-grain silk.

Sound and Design

The sound of the guitar is as elegant as its appearance. It has a rich and velvety quality across all registers, with very sturdy, powerful basses and smooth and creamy trebles. Response is excellent - in the trebles in particular, the notes "pop" with the lightest touch of the right hand. Tobias' bold aesthetic is here too: the headshape, rosette and bridge echo traditional Japanese architecture, admired by Tobias for its understated elegance - perfect lines, sharp edges - and integrated seamlessly into his own beautiful design.

Lighter Double Sides

The sides are doubled, following the method Tobias has been perfecting over many guitars (more in our blog post). The result is a deeper, almost "cathedral-like" presence in the sound - something we'd previously heard only in modern Friederich guitars. In particular, his more recent guitars (including this one) have lost the added weight typical of double-sided guitars - it has a nice, lightweight feel, like an old Spanish guitar. Inside the neck, invisible from the outside unlike many Madrid-school guitars, are two square titanium rods and hard rock maple - for setup stability and noticeably enhanced sustain. All in all a superb concert guitar, with a bold, beautiful sound and a unique, 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.