Meistergitarren · Reisbach, Bavaria

Hauser

Four generations of the master's classical guitar.

From a workshop in Lower Bavaria, the Hauser family has built concert guitars in the Spanish tradition of Torres — refined with German precision — for more than a century. Each instrument is made entirely by hand, in numbers counted, not produced.

A Hauser concert classical guitar
Est. early 1900s · Germany

The Maker

A guitar is not assembled. It is listened into being.

The pursuit of a single, perfect voice — repeated, never duplicated.

Hauser guitars trace their lineage to Antonio de Torres, the Spanish maker who defined the modern instrument. Hermann Hauser I studied that tradition obsessively, then rebuilt it with the discipline of the Bavarian workshop — fan-braced spruce and cedar tops, voiced by hand until the whole top breathes as one.

The result became the standard against which concert guitars are still measured. The workshop has never scaled. Only a handful of instruments leave Reisbach each year, each carrying the family name and a number.

The greatest guitar of our epoch.

Andrés Segovia, on his 1937 Hauser
Hermann Hauser · Reisbach, Bavaria
Hermann Hauser · Reisbach, Bavaria
03The Craft

From a tree, decades aside, to a voice.

Aged tonewood
01

Tonewood, set aside for decades

Alpine spruce, cedar and Brazilian rosewood are selected for grain and resonance, then stored for years until the wood is quiet and stable.

Soundboard tap-tuning
02

The soundboard, thicknessed by hand

The top is planed and tap-tuned by ear to a fraction of a millimetre, until it rings with the pitch the maker is listening for.

Fan bracing detail
03

Fan bracing in the Torres tradition

A fan of fine struts is fitted beneath the top in the Spanish manner, shaped and shaved to balance power, projection and colour.

French polished finish
04

French polish, coat upon coat

Many thin layers of shellac are applied by hand over weeks, building a finish that protects the wood without dampening its voice.

04The Lineage

One workshop, four hands across a century.

Hermann Hauser I
I

Hermann Hauser I

1882 — 1952

Defined the Hauser guitar and built the 1937 instrument Segovia called the greatest of his epoch.

Hermann Hauser II
II

Hermann Hauser II

1911 — 1988

Carried the workshop forward, refining the family model with unwavering consistency.

Hermann Hauser III
III

Hermann Hauser III

b. 1958

The present master, building in Reisbach in the tradition handed down to him.

Kathrin Hauser
IV

Kathrin Hauser

Fourth generation

Continuing the lineage, the fourth generation to take up the family bench.