A new era for Stromberg?

[Steve DeRosa]

From the Stromberg website:

Dear Stromberg® fans,
We will introduce the new, even better, Stromberg® guitars in 2013/2014. The instruments will be manufactured in Europe where the Stromberg® family came from.
You can expect the world class jazz guitars soon!

~ The Stromberg® team

There are a number of violin makers in Romania and the former Eastern Bloc countries; I'm thinking (hoping...) that since they know a little something about carving/tuning top and back plates, we may actually get to see something resembling the iconic Master 300/400 models at a competitive price point - if not exactly Eastman dollars, certainly in the ~$3K-4K (street) bracket - and, in any event, far better than the IMO grossly overpriced Korean models that they're wisely discontinuing...

Anyone have any more info...?

[Spook]

Don't have any more information but like you, I'm very interested in seeing where they go with this.

[zabdart]

I don't think the current line of archtops made by the Stromberg Company has a lot to do with the handmade archtops made by Elmer Stromberg in Boston, Mass. (who, by the way, was born in the USA). The classic Master 400s and Master 300s that Elmer made in the late 30's, 40's and early 50's (like the ones Freddie Green played with Count Basie) all featured a single tone bar running diagonally across the top... one of the feature which accounted for their powerful volume. The headstocks were overlaid with alternating layers of black and yellow plastic and hand engraved, rather than inlaid, and this process takes a lot of skill and labor.
If the new Stromberg Company were making archtops according to Elmer's old specs, they'd be incredibly expensive.

[Steve DeRosa]

Elmer was born here - father Charles (with whom he worked) was born in Sweden, so the info isn't entirely wrong. From a luthier's standpoint, I doubt it's any more difficult or costly to install a single tone bar (which all members of the violin family have, BTW, albeit not diagonal) than either an X-brace or dual parallel tone bars - in fact, I would think just the opposite. As far as price goes, check the orchestral string houses and find out what they're charging for Eastern European-made cellos (I doubt the new Strombergs are going to be made in Sweden - even Hagstrom's instruments are Pac-Rim); given comparable size, woods, and construction techniques (and the fact that the distinctive Stromberg headstock veneer, should they choose to duplicate it, could be done far more cheaply with modern CNC machinery than by a single craftsman) the price should fall in right between top-end Eastmans and entry-level handmade archtops. In any event, far more worthy of their namesake than the current crop of laminated D'Aquisto/D'Angelico instruments (and yeah, I know about the five-figure USA Series) - and I can't wait to play one...

[zabdart]

Not to argue with you, Steve, but replacing the interior bracing on an archtop guitar is somewhat more difficult than repositioning the tone bar on a violin because the plastic binding surrounding the top has to be removed first before you can pop the top off, and then has to be replaced once you're done. Then you have to apply more lacquer to cover up the repair that you've made.
Anyway, my visits to the Stromberg website suggest that the current models are made to function primarily as electric guitars rather than the acoustics which Elmer produced.
Also, Charles Stromberg primarily built banjos. He left the archtop guitar operation to Elmer.

[Steve DeRosa]

Correct on all points, but we're talking about initial construction here, not replacement/rebracing - and I think we both know that no matter who produces the instrument, the finish is applied after the carving/bracing/ purfling/binding work has taken place; from that standpoint, it shouldn't be hard for any competent luthier to design/produce a diagonal-brace archtop from scratch, using the old Stromberg patterns. Second, if you recall the first-run Stromberg reissues (for lack of a better word) they were, for all practical intents and purposes, laminated Epiphones priced like hand-carved Eastmans - and I suspect that as Eastman became first an underground phenomenon and then a major player in the archtop mass market, Stromberg was feeling some serious heat. As far as the transition to European (most likely Eastern) production, having worked with classical musicians in the '70s and early-80's (and still maintaining a minimal toehold in those circles) it implies a move to traditional violin-style (read carved) construction rather than an upscale line of laminated hollowbodies. First off, they just hit the wall with that very concept - and the classic definition of insanity (as well as the classic recipe for business failure) is repeating the same action, the same way, when you know it doesn't work. Second, they wouldn't need to seek out an East European firm to build their instruments; established Japanese makers like Matsumoku, Fuji Gen Gakki, Moradaira, and Arai (just to name a few) have the means and experience to produce a high-quality product at nearly any desired price point - and I'm certain any one of a number of Korean, Taiwanese, Chinese, and Indonesian companies would jump at the opportunity to try. Finally - and IMO most logically from a business standpoint - I believe they're looking to go toe-to-toe with Eastman, much as Epiphone did with Gibson in the heyday of archtop guitars. Without getting into the massive political baggage attached there are many players who, on moral grounds, will not purchase a Chinese-made instrument - and who will, in turn, support an economy emerging from under the thumb of Communism; frankly, I don't believe the "Europe" reference was in any way casual, but rather a well-thought-out marketing strategy - the "company heritage" angle being incidental. As to the instruments themselves, only time will tell...