Stromberg
Stromberg
Also known as: Stromberg Guitars, Charles A. Stromberg & Son
UnclaimedStromberg is an American archtop guitar maker founded in Boston in 1906 by Swedish immigrant luthier Charles A. Stromberg, who had trained at the city's Thompson & Odell shop. The workshop initially built banjos, mandolins, and drums; after his son Elmer joined the business, the focus shifted toward carved-top guitars beginning in 1927. Through the 1930s and 1940s the company became closely ass...
Stromberg is an American archtop guitar maker founded in Boston in 1906 by Swedish immigrant luthier Charles A. Stromberg, who had trained at the city's Thompson & Odell shop. The workshop initially built banjos, mandolins, and drums; after his son Elmer joined the business, the focus shifted toward carved-top guitars beginning in 1927. Through the 1930s and 1940s the company became closely associated with big-band jazz rhythm guitarists, who valued the volume and cutting projection of its instruments before the widespread adoption of amplification.
The brand's reputation rests largely on the Master 300 and Master 400, large-bodied archtops introduced in 1937 — the Master 400, with its 19-inch lower bout, was among the largest production archtops ever built. Smaller G-series models such as the G-1, G-3, and G-5 rounded out the range. Total output from the original Boston workshop was roughly 640 instruments before operations ceased in the mid-1950s, making surviving examples highly collectible alongside the work of contemporaries like John D'Angelico and Elmer Stromberg's peer Epiphone.
The Stromberg name has since been revived for a new line of archtops produced through Aurora Music Works in the United Kingdom. The catalog is split between the higher-end Masterbuilt Series, which reissues the Master 300 and Master 400 in full-body and cutaway forms, and the more accessible Hanover Street Series, which includes the Newport, Monterey, Montreux, and Fremont models.
Stromberg has 3 products cataloged on Equipboard, including Semi-Hollowbody Electric Guitars and Steel-string Acoustic Guitars. Their gear is featured by 2 artists, with the strongest followings in Jazz, Electronic, and Rock. Notable users include Fareed Haque and Laurindo Almeida.
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