Richard Jacob Weissgerber 1932 Master Guitar - a fine guitar in the Torres style - light and with an enormously powerful sound!
Richard Jacob Weissgerber was born into a family of guitar makers in Markneukirchen in 1877 and spent his childhood years surrounded by his father's richly decorated instruments and also under the supervision of master violin maker Christian Wilhelm Seidel. In his youth, he completed an apprenticeship as a zither maker and then assisted the guitar maker Wilhelm Voigt for six years. With this solid background, Richard Jacob founded his own independent guitar workshop in 1905.
Early in his career, Richard Jacob patented the name „Weissgerber“ as a brand name, which allowed him to innovate freely and introduce new designs into his guitar making. It seems that at first he mainly built in the popular Viennese style, but eventually he began to design and develop new models with unusual shapes and ornamentation, which were always exquisitely crafted - this gave his instruments a competitive edge that made them flagships in the bustling guitar-making town of Markneukirchen. He traveled extensively throughout Germany and Austria to acquire knowledge of the various guitar making methods and was actively involved in the „Guitarist Movement“ in Germany, maintaining close contact with the International Guitar Association and many eminent guitarists. In 1921 he was visited by Miguel Llobet, in 1924 Llobet returned with Andres Segovia and he was able to see their instruments - Torres and Manuel Ramirez, which strongly influenced his work. Many other players, including Emilio Pujol and Luise Walker, also came to Markneukirchen with their instruments, which steered Richard Jacob's building approaches more and more in the direction of Spanish guitars - he gained stylistic insights from Torres to Simplicio. Although he absorbed and internalized these Spanish traditions, he never gave up his experimental approach and always tried to integrate these elements into his unique construction methods to create truly unique instruments spanning a variety of models. Richard Jacob devoted himself to guitar making until the end of his life and even completed three instruments in the last year of his life, at the age of 83. He died in 1960 and left his eldest son Martin (1911-1991) in charge of the „Weissgerber guitar workshop“ until it closed in 1990.
Right at the beginning of Richard Jacob's career, Weissgerber guitars quickly gained a large following among professionals. Many of the most respected guitarists of the time played Weissgerber instruments. These included Heinz Teuchert (founder of the Frankfurt School of guitar and lute playing), Karl Scheit and Siegfried Behrend, to name but a few.
This particular instrument is a Torres model from 1932 and is a beautifully crafted guitar with light Torres bracing. The scale length is 630 mm and the nut width is 48 mm.
The top is made of spruce, back and sides of cherry wood. The condition is excellent for its age. There is a professionally repaired crack on the top.
It has a very old, almost „antique“ sound style. The sound is powerful, loud and the guitar responds beautifully to the player's touch. It has a very old, almost “antique” sound style, which makes it a perfect instrument for the player who is looking for an authentic 19th and 20th century sound that goes wonderfully with the music of Llobet, Sor, Giuliani, Coste, Mertz, etc.
The guitar has a great richness and harmonic quality. The tones blend together wonderfully and yet retain their clarity and separation. When playing the guitar, you get the feeling that it vibrates in a very deep way against the player's body.
It comes with a newer guitar case.
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