Jakob Lebisch, 2024

When Meng Su walks on stage with a spruce Lebisch instead of the Matthias Dammann she played for years, and when Hubert Käppel, Igor Klokov, and a growing list of the finest players and professors in the world are all quietly securing one, you pay attention. This is an exceptionally rare Jakob Lebisch guitar, labeled 2024 and completed in summer 2025, and instruments of this caliber almost never appear on the open market. His waitlist now extends well beyond ten years, and the moment you play one it is easy to understand why so many guitarists are choosing his instruments.

While some have begun referring to Jakob as the "next Dammann," that comparison only goes so far. Rather than imitating an already established aesthetic or sonic formula, Lebisch has clearly absorbed what he has learned from the greatest modern masters and transformed it into a voice that is entirely his own. What is fascinating about his work is how much his instruments differ from one another in construction while remaining remarkably consistent in sound.

The most telling endorsement comes from the players themselves. Meng Su of the Beijing Guitar Duo, long associated with her Matthias Dammann, has switched to her spruce Lebisch in concert. You can hear her on it in this performance of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez. Hubert Käppel, one of the most influential pedagogues of the last half century, plays a Lebisch, and you can hear him on it here. Igor Klokov performs on his in this recording of Asencio's Suite Valenciana. And this particular guitar is the instrument Drew Henderson chose to record on during a visit to our shop. His Bach Gigue from the Partita No. 2 is embedded above, and it is the best possible demonstration of what this guitar does in the hands of a serious player.

Play a single chord and you understand immediately. This is an extremely loud, powerful guitar that does not mind being pushed. In fact, it encourages it. It carries all of the great characteristics of spruce, clear and articulate, with a punchiness that is genuinely addicting. There is a low main air resonance close to E that gives the open bass strings real depth and physical presence, and yet none of the notes feel short.

What makes this guitar special is how it blends worlds. There are elements here that recall a great traditional guitar, a fine Santos Hernández or Torres, that low resonance and singing quality, combined with the responsiveness and punch of a modern double top. The trebles surprised us. On a guitar this light and exciting you sometimes get a dry, simple treble, but this one is complex and vibrant with a rich overtone series. The first string wants to fly off the instrument, even in character all the way up the neck. The fourth string is one of the best we have heard, full of authority. The sixth lands like a sack of bricks, powerful and unapologetic with a growl to it, and yet it sweetens beautifully under the flesh of the thumb, the whole guitar responding in unison.

These ultralight, ultra powerful double tops are rarely the very best at sustain, and honestly this one is not the longest sustaining guitar we have played. But the degree of trade-off is what matters, and here it is minimal and well worth it for how alive and exciting the instrument feels. The setup is something of a miracle: the action is very low and yet you can dig in hard and drive the sixth string without any trouble.

The neck is a fairly standard 650 mm scale with a 53 mm nut width, just a millimeter wider than typical. It has a slightly D-shaped profile, a touch thicker in places such as the first fret, and while that is not something we would normally seek out, on this guitar it is oddly and wonderfully comfortable. Bar chords in particular feel relaxed and satisfying, helped along by the slight fingerboard radius and nice tall frets. A raised fingerboard and a deeply scooped heel make the upper positions easy to reach.

This is a spruce double top, and Lebisch's approach to the construction is unusual. Rather than a conventional Nomex core, this top uses thin strips of wood between the two layers, somewhat in the spirit of the chevron patterns some German makers use, though here the strips all run in the same direction. Even in natural daylight, if you look closely, you can see the pattern running through the top. It is a wonderful example of how many different soundboard ideas he explores.

The design details are among our favorites of any modern maker. The rosette is exceptional, built from little stars, circles, and a mosaic pattern that catches the light only at certain angles, so that you keep noticing it anew, bordered by lighter pieces of wood. The bridge is completely dark with a slotted wooden saddle and a 12 hole tie block. The Brazilian rosewood back and sides are beautiful, with a striking light strip running down the center and a slight doming to the back. The headstock is simple, clean, and elegant, with a small tasteful inlay at the top, fitted with Gotoh tuners. The label itself is a small work of art.

The guitar is also extremely lightweight at just 1,380 grams, constantly vibrating and quick to respond, and never taxing to hold or play.

Specifications

Year: 2024 (completed summer 2025)
Back & Sides: Brazilian Rosewood
Air Resonance: Close to E

Mint. Completed in summer 2025 and essentially new. It is still young, and yet it already sounds like it has decades of maturity to it.