Carsten Kobs, 2024

This guitar is sold but another may be coming in 2025 and 2026. Please reach out if you are interested in more details.

One of the best doubletops in the world graced my shop for a mere 48 hours, and here I am to tell you the story!

Just a week before I received this guitar, I visited Carsten Kobs in his workshop in Hamburg, Germany. The visit began with a pizza party, with Carsten and some of his friends and family. I’m just washing my hands and Carsten hands me his latest guitar. It was simply one of the best doubletops I’ve ever played. Carsten of course, was very pleased with it as well. He also told me that David Russell was going to be visiting his workshop in a week. I quickly said “oh man, David’s going to fall in love with this guitar!”.

A couple days later, I returned to Carsten’s workshop to film an interview and make some recordings (see on the Guitar Collection Youtube channel!!). I had a lovely visit and conversation with Carsten.

Lo and behold, a few days later, David Russell visited and took home that very guitar after he too, quickly fell in love.

Why am I telling you this? Because Carsten had just as high of praise for this guitar that I’m sharing with you today as the one that David took home with him, and I couldn’t agree more. They were nearly identical. Not only with the sounds, the woods used, the weight, the main air resonance, but also the incredible playability. This is a testament to Carsten’s consistency and attention to detail.

I have to say that Carsten’s guitars have improved leaps and bounds in the recent years, making them go from “really nice” instruments to now, world class instruments on the precipice of guitar sound.

The surface level details of this guitar are: it’s extremely loud, extremely light weight, has really great sustain, and a giant open quality to the sound, as if the guitar had been played for years already. It’s really quite something.

But sometimes, instruments that have the qualities I listed above can still not be “special” to me. Sometimes they don’t have that “something” that makes you refuse to put the guitar down. This guitar, like David’s, has that magic that is almost inexplicable. The first string is to absolutely die for. It is round, punchy, clear, and it develops so beautifully. This is the heart of the instrument, it has to have a great first string!

The other strings are bulbous and each has a quality that makes you want to explore. On top of that, the 6th string is like what it must feel like to launch a cannon. It pumps into your chest and makes you feel sorry for whoever is on the other side. You feel great playing this guitar. I guess all of this is to say: you don’t need imagination to figure out why so many of the world’s greatest guitarists either own a Carsten Kobs or are on his waitlist.

Speaking of: I will have another Kobs coming in sometime in 2025, and if you can strip it from my hands, there’s a chance it will be available.

I’ll shut up now and list the specs:

-Cedar doubletop

-Indian Rosewood back and sides

-650mm scale

-52mm nut width

-Scheller Tuners