2021 Tobias Berg CD/IN

Another exceptional guitar from Tobias Berg. 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. Tobias also included a back center strip on this guitar and mitered joints in a small nod to pay homage to Friederich's aesthetics while still using his own shape and overall design which is uniquely his own - as we've stated many times, his headshape, rosette and bridge reveal his fondness for traditional Japanese architecture which Tobias admires for its understated elegance in its usage of perfect lines and sharp edges.

It also features his double-sided construction method. Tobias has been perfecting this method in his own guitars for many years in the quest to constantly refine his work. For this instrument he used Alaskan yellow cedar for the interior. To see more on the technique, see our blog post for the full story. Tobias also reinforced the neck with a square carbon rod internally laminated with hard rock maple and titanium (unlike many makers of the Madrid school, Tobias' is invisible from the outside). This makes for an extremely solid neck without any additional weight, which enhances sustain noticeably. This is also the first guitar he's built us using a solid lining to join the top and sides. This subtle change seems to give the guitar more punch and a faster, snappier attack with great ease in producing a great variety of tone colors - quite remarkable especially for a cedar top.

Included with the guitar is a photo album that documents the various stages of building this very guitar, and even reveals a few of Tobias' techniques and tools. A very classy and lovely touch!