Custom Search
Showing posts with label Tobias Berg Guitar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tobias Berg Guitar. Show all posts

2011-08-03

Tobias Berg Guitar

A guitar came into my workshop for some setup work.
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.
The Tobias Berg guitar in the case

See the plantilla.

See the 4-piece top joint. It's so seamlessly perfect.

12 hole bridge

Distinct headstock design

Tuning Machine

The rosette

The details in the rosette

The bracing (looks like a Torres bracing)

Top purfling

I'll do some recording once I settle the saddle.

Clamping the saddle blank for filing.

Filing the saddle

Almost there.

Testing 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.

Tobias Berg's Torres Bracing pattern (closed harmonic brace)

Here's a pic of mine.
My Torres bracing (with open harmonic brace)