I have two Strombergs in stock: Hank Garland’s Master 400 and this Master 400C, which is the first cutaway I’ve seen because Stromberg only ever made seven cutaways. At one time they were as valuable as ’Bursts and cost around $100,000. This one is in really nice shape and was made in 1953, which means it’s a fairly late guitar.
Charles Stromberg and his son Elmer were the only archtop guitar builders to rival John D’Angelico, and some people will say Strombergs are better guitars. Strombergs were extremely well made, and if you look inside the body with an inspection mirror, the cleanness of the work and the bracing is very impressive.
The choice of materials was always paramount for both builders, and they did whatever they had to do to acquire the best timber. Even so, this guitar is constructed from standard woods. There’s a carved spruce top, figured maple back and sides, a very full laminated maple neck and an ebony ’board with a matching overlay on the back of the headstock that extends along the neck.
Both of my Strombergs have 17-inch wide bodies, but the non-cutaway is a little bigger sounding. The cutaway is rarer, but rarity doesn’t always equate to desirability and, although the standard body gives a bit more flavour, we’re talking about subtle nuances. We did have to do some work on the old headstock overlay because it’s a 3/16-inch layer of celluloid and pearl, and when that stuff off-gases it starts to come apart.
This one was lifting up at the top, so we applied some hide glue and clamped it for a few days. Thankfully, it didn’t shatter and came out looking good. Whenever you try and fix these overlays you’re taking a chance, but we couldn’t offer it for sale as it was.
The case still contains some original correspondence between the Strombergs and the client. One letter from the Strombergs reads: ‘Your letter of March 23rd arrived and I’m very pleased to hear from you again. We’d be pleased to have you come in and see us on Saturday, if that is convenient for you. We’re open all day on Saturdays. Two of the models which we have at display are the Master 400 and a cutaway model.’
The letter also says that a natural-finish guitar cost $420 and the case was $60. In another letter, Stromberg says: ‘I’m pleased to inform you that your Master 400 will be ready for you one week from next Saturday, June 6th. I want to thank you for your patience. We realize that this is a couple of weeks late on the schedule.’
It hasn’t been played that much, but there could be various reasons for that. Reading between the lines in the correspondence, it seems like the buyer was a professional jazz guitar player who knew the right people and mentioned them in his letters. He also said that he was gigging on the coast and he was obviously somebody of some notoriety, at least locally, because at $420 it was a pretty expensive guitar.
People sometimes ask me how Strombergs compare with D’Angelicos, but I couldn’t take the blind taste-test. If I just heard them both on recordings I don’t think I could tell the difference, and it would take a more attuned player to do so. If I’m playing amplified electrics or flat-tops I can tell, but archtops have always confused me a little and it remains my weakest area.
What I can say is that D’Angelicos and Strombergs are on a par with one another. There are some incredible modern archtop builders, but they all come from the same lineage and I have never heard one that sounds nearly as good as a golden-era Stromberg or D’Angelico.
Some people will spend up to $50,000 to have one built, but for the same money, they could buy the real thing.
They’re not growing wood that’s any better than the wood being used back then. Nowadays, everything is force dried and it’s not the same. A guitar made in the ’50s probably had wood cut in the 1910s or 1920s that finally made its way onto a guitar.
Back then, those guys were just trying to make a living for their family and I don’t think John D’Angelico or the Strombergs were wealthy men. They were craftsmen who went to work and, like guys who built furniture, they were just doing their job.
- Vintage guitar veteran David Davidson owns Well Strung Guitars in Farmingdale, New York / 001 (516) 221-0563
- This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.
