It was a 2005 Spruce IRW #23 guitar.
The top was a 4 piece spruce (most likely Euro spruce) with tight grains and plenty of Medullary grain / silking.
The joint are seemless and it's so well done that it not obvious that it's 4 piece top.
Correction: after careful examination and pointed out by Alex (Marian), this is a 2-pieced spruce top.
In the upper bout there are some wavy grain line along that "joint". (In a joint, the line would be straight, so this could not have been a line.)
This is also confirmed by Tobias Berg himself as the owner, Reza asked him.
Berg said (refer to the comments section) that if it's a 4 piece joint, he would have cleated the joint at that part.
My apologies for that mistake.
This is not to discount a 4-piece joint against 2 piece joint top, so long as it's well made both are equally good sounding.
Even Torres himself made non-symmetrically joint 3 pieced or 4 pieced top.
The back joint are equally good that it looks like a one piece back.
The guitar belonged to a local talented guitarist Reza, who just had his solo recital at Esplanade Library.
Here is some picture of the guitar.
I'll do some recording once I settle the saddle.
I did some recording with the Berg and compared it against my guitar.
Here is the recording
Aconquija (Sengoh)
Aconquija (Berg)
El Testament d' Amelia (Sengoh)
El Testament d' Amelia (Berg)
Lagrima (Sengoh)
Lagrima (Berg)
Preambulo (Sengoh)
Preambulo (Berg)
The 2 guitars have very similar sound.
What I feel is that Berg guitar is overall more balance than mine.
Mine the bass is growling and big, and in recording Berg's guitar sound better.
But when playing live, I prefer my guitar's sound slightly more.
Here is a pic of the bracing pattern
And it's definite Torres fan bracing.
Here's a pic of mine.
4 comments:
Hi, just received a confirmation from Tobias Berg himself that the top is a two-pieces spruce.
There would be small-square cleats underneath the top if it is a four-pieces one.
Very good article Sen. Reza sounds great on his newly acquired Berg. But then again, he can make any guitar sing.
Yes Reza, upon careful re-examination I also noticed that it's 2 piece. The grain is darker in that area making it looked a 4-piece.
This was pointed out to me by Alexandru Marian.
I check the upper bout area there some wavy grain lines making it not possible to be a joint.
My mistake (sorry about that). Anyway not to to discount anything 4 piece or 2 piece so long as it well jointed and well built there is really no difference.
Yes Reza can make any guitar sing. Especially with this Berg, it really suits him very well as it offers a big range of tone colors which he is able to utilise to express his music.
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