Friederike Linscheid

Berlin Schöneberg, Germany

Friederike Linscheid has loved music and craft since childhood. She began the guitar at nine, and after her family moved to Berlin she took lessons in the rooms of an instrument maker, her first glimpse of the life to come. At fifteen she built her first guitar from a kit during a school internship, and after finishing school she trained at the famous instrument making school in Mittenwald, a time she remembers as full of talented, inspiring luthiers. In 2009 she returned to Berlin and set up as an independent maker, and today she builds in Berlin Schöneberg, in the workshop she shares with her life and work partner Adrian Heinzelmann.

For Linscheid, guitar making is where craft, art, music, and acoustics meet. Her goal is to combine the refined, colorful subtlety of the traditional guitar with a vibrant, powerful tone, built on very lightweight, low density tops that remain stiff. She works in the Spanish method with a lighter variation of Robert Bouchet's bracing, a one sided elevated fingerboard for playability and treble projection, thinly doubled sides that add sustain without weight, and a deliberately small plantilla that keeps the soundboard light, all finished in French polish. The aim is the sound she listens for in concert herself: dark, full bodied basses, brilliant singing trebles, and a separation of voices that lets the music speak clearly.

Trying her guitars ourselves was quite exceptional: powerful, comfortable, and immaculately crafted instruments. Together with Adrian Heinzelmann she is building some of the finest double tops in the world, and only a very few guitars leave the workshop each year. Our first Linscheid, a spruce double top in 640mm scale, is planned for early 2027, and we have already chosen the Madagascar rosewood for its back and sides, pictured below. Our expert team is glad to talk with players interested in reserving it.