2020 Dominik Wurth SP/IN

This 2020 Dominik Wurth is a classical guitar with a spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides, built in Germany, a pre-owned guitar in excellent condition with no damage or repairs.

Torres Roots and a More Personal Style

Of his work, Dominik cites Antonio de Torres as his greatest influence, and the first guitars he built for us were built on the basic Torres plan - seven fan struts in a domed top and a tunneled lower cross bar (below the soundhole) through which the two outer struts run. Other early influences include Daniel Friederich and Antonio Marín Montero. His style then started to become more personal as a result of studying the instruments of other great makers from the past: Dominik came to GSI shortly after we acquired the Cleveland collection in 2015, so that he could assess and evaluate a large number of fine instruments all at once.

Three-Layer Sides and a Compensated Nut

This led Dominik to employ a few new ideas in search of a more modern sound for his classical guitars, to distinguish them from his traditional Torres models with their lush, loose, warm and "Old World" sound. One of these techniques involved constructing the sides from three thin layers of wood. This adds more power to the whole guitar, similar to the widely accepted double-sided construction used by many luthiers, but with the advantage of less overall weight - he was so impressed with the results of the very first guitar he tried it on that all his subsequent guitars have used the same method. This guitar also features a compensated nut, another development from this period, providing improved intonation, especially in the lower registers.

Sound and Condition

To us, this guitar has excellent responsiveness in all registers and a bigger, more robust sound all around, with balance and excellent intonation. As with all his instruments, it plays easy, has immediate attack with a lively, full sound behind it and is just overall a joy to play. Although used, it is in excellent condition with no damage or repairs, only some wear in the finish. A fantastic instrument in every regard.

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.