Stromberg Master
400®
Originally banjo makers,
Charles Stromberg and his son Elmer entered the
new archtop guitar market in the mid 1930's.
In addition
to banjos, the two also made drums and repaired
stringed instruments of all kinds. But it was
son Elmer who made the transition into archtop
hollowbodies, creating such masterworks as the
Ultra-Deluxe, G1, G2, G3, Master 300, and Master
400.
The big-hipped Master 400 was
among the largest archtops of its day, with a
19" lower bout that was much wider than rival
archtops of the day from Epiphone and Gibson.
The all-acoustic guitar featured a maple neck,
spruce top, split-block inlays, and a snazzy,
Art Deco-inspired pickguard. This guitar featured
huge blocks of pearl inlay on the
fingerboard and a large, decorated headstock.
In terms of practical usage, the
very collectible Master 400 was best employed
by a rhythm guitarist competing with horns in
a jazz orchestra of the day. As dealer George
Gruhn noted in Tom Wheeler's superb reference
book, American Guitars, "Whereas the D'Angelicos
were sort of like super Gibsons-beautiful sounding
and very versatile-the better Strombergs were
like super Epiphones, with an awful lot of cutting
power. The Master 400 was one of the biggest and
loudest guitars ever made.
Almost all the guitars Stromberg
is famous for today was made by Elmer. He made
around 700 guitars during a period of twenty years.
The guitar shown here is among the last that he
built, as well as an example of his finest work.
The Stromberg took after the design
of the Gibson Super 400. The details on this guitar
can only be matched by archtops made from the
best luthiers, such as D'Angelico, Gibson and
Epiphone. Some of Stromberg's guitars were made
out of wood salvaged from Boston's old structures.
