For sale on VandR.com here: https://www.vintageandrare.com/product/Stromberg-G5-Archtop-Sunburst-1952-65331
Owner of The Fellowship Of Acoustics, Mr. Rudi Bults, presenting an original 1952 Stromberg G-5 Sunburst archtop guitar for VintageandRare.com - "Legendary Vintage Guitars Series"
Elmer Stromberg of Boston rivaled his New York colleague D’Angelico as maker of the finest archtops guitar of this time – and arguably all times. Stromberg archtops are much rarer - D’Angelico produced over 1000 instruments, Stromberg only between 300 and 400 in this lifetime -, and less consistent in quality. While Stromberg guitars of the 1930 are excellent instruments in their own right, it was only when, in the mid 1940s Elmer invented a revolutionary system of bracing the top with only one diagonal bar that his guitars became „the thing“ amongst the world’s best players such as Freddie Green (Duke Ellington), Irving Ashby (King Cole Trio), Barry Galbraith, Hank Garland and many others. These late Strombergs – few as they are, due to Elmer’s early death in 1955) are considered the very best in the archtop world: incredibly powerful with enormous attack. This particular Stromberg, a G-5 is unique among archtops of the jazz area as they feature a really short scale, which alongside the cutaway makes them ideally suited for soloing, and not just rhythm playing. Due to it's late conception (in 1952) there are only two handful of this model in existence, but they were highly sought after from the beginning. The most famous player was Hank Garland, who took the short scale principle he admired on his Stromberg G-5 to Gibsons, when they offered to produce a guitar that would bear his name, which resulted in the „Byrdland“. This particular guitar here has sensational power, attack and the short scale makes for a fantastic guitar to solo on. It came to Europe through Georg Gruhn’s shop in Nashville, and he reported that a certain Brian Setzer, when visiting the shop, played this guitar non-stop for 4 hours and just could not bring himself to put it down. Anyone who played it since (including „Ranger Doug Green“ who owned the largest collection of Strombergs in the world) immediately understood why. It is simply a sensational instrument in every way: looks, feel, playability and sound.