Kraushaar Gina Relic Surf Green

Sometimes it doesn't have to be the big name from overseas. Sometimes the right thing is on your doorstep, and this guitar is the perfect example.

Walter Kraushaar has been building guitars in his master workshop in Aldenhoven-Dürboslar, North Rhine-Westphalia, since 1986, and anyone who has looked into the name knows this isn't about numbers. Instruments here go from rough board to finished guitar entirely by hand. A small team of master craftsmen, no production line, no compromises. Exactly the sort of workshop Meister Ede appreciates.

The Gina is one of Kraushaar's own designs and deliberately breaks with expectations. Instead of copying one of the familiar shapes, Walter Kraushaar drew a compact, ergonomically thought-through doublecut that makes sense the moment you play it. The body sits against you, the weight stays comfortable, and access to the top frets is entirely straightforward. You can tell this was made by someone who knows what a guitar has to feel like over a whole evening.

Visually this one turns heads. The Surf Green catches exactly the shade you associate with the golden years of guitar building, fresh and restrained at once, and the discreet relic work gives it the right amount of lived history without ever overdoing it. The nitro carries on ageing from day one, as it should.

The Gina sounds the way a carefully built boutique instrument should: a fast, direct response, a dry but full voice, and dynamics that react to every nuance in your picking hand. This isn't a guitar that only does one thing. It's one that follows the player.

A beautiful piece of German master craft, from Ede's Private Stock.