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Otto Rauch - 2025 Doubletop Limited Edition "Duchess of Cleveland" No. 292

Otto Rauch - 2025 Doubletop Limited Edition "Duchess of Cleveland" No. 292

Overview

About the luthier

Otto Rauch is a German guitar maker from the small town of Obermoschel in Rheinland-Pfalz. With over 35 years of experience as a guitar maker, he is one of the German pioneers of double-top construction. After repairing a Matthias Dammann guitar in the early 1990s, Otto Rauch began building doubel-top guitars. At first, he used cedar struts and then a balsa core, a construction he continued to develop over the years. While helping a friend set up his violin making business, Otto Rauch came across the name of the 18th century Venetian violin maker Domenico Montagnana. His cellos are praised for their dark tone, fantastic sound volume and enigmatic construction. As these three attributes reflect Otto’s construction, he adopted the name, and the Domenico Montagnana model was born.

About the guitar

This exceptional guitar by Otto Rauch is a limited edition double-top instrument based on his acclaimed model "Domenico Montagnana – The Sleeping Beauty". What sets this guitar apart is the use of extremely rare Brazilian rosewood for the back, sides, and even the fingerboard, which led Otto to designate this unique creation as “The Duchess of Cleveland.”

The spruce soundboard originates from Val di Fiemme in the Dolomites—the same legendary source of tonewood used by Antonio Stradivari.

A particularly innovative feature of this guitar is the layered Brazilian rosewood fingerboard, which incorporates spruce on the inside and Brazilian rosewood on the exterior. This design significantly reduces the mass of the neck and enhances the overall weight balance of the instrument, making it both lighter and more comfortable to play.

Built with a balsa core double-top construction, the guitar exemplifies the hallmarks of the great German double-top tradition:

- Silky, dark, and smooth trebles

- Profound, resonant basses that form a powerful foundation for the full tonal range

- Exceptional responsiveness and tonal refinement

Adding to its exclusivity, the tuning machines were custom-made by Scheller, specifically for Otto Rauch.

Take a look at the presentation video of this special guitar below, where you’ll find plenty of additional information about its playability and sound.

Luthier: Otto Rauch
Construction year: 2025
Construction type: Double-Top
Top: Spruce
Back and sides: Brazilian rosewood (CITES certified)
Finish: French polish
Air body frequency: F / F #
Scale: 650 mm
Nut: 51.5 mm
Weight: 1530 grams
Tuners: Klaus Scheller
Strings: Knobloch - EDC 34.0
Condition: New
Case: Hardshell

Details about GPSR:

Classical Guitar

Manufacturer Information:

Otto Rauch

Responsible Person:

Siccas Guitars GmbH, Roonstr. 31, 76137 Karlsruhe, Germany, www.siccasguitars.com, info@siccasguitars.com

Note: For antique guitars, the GPSR does not apply.

View full details

Video overview

A Guitar With Tonal Qualities of a CELLO! Fleta, Ober, Rauch, Adalid, Vailati, Ramirez | WGM #154
Otto Rauch - 2025 Doubletop Limited Edition "Duchess of Cleveland" No. 292 Classical Guitar Review

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