It is with a heavy heart that I announce that I have chosen to suspend the sales of hardware and EndurNeck™ licenses as of today 27 September 2015. This is NOT for protectionistic reasons, or even because of abuse, but simply because I am in a phase of building the company that I need to prioritize everything that I do. Strandberg Guitars was founded on a platform of openness and sharing, which hasn’t changed one bit. But, I will any day rather do a few things well than many things poorly, and I simply don’t have the time to support those of you that have questions about the hardware or licenses at the moment, or even to pack things up for shipping. Once a few more milestones have been cleared, and I have the staff and process to manage these things in a good way, sales will open up again. I would ask for your kind understanding, and also ask that you don’t e-mail and ask when they will be available again, as responding to those kinds of questions is the exact reason we have suspended the sales. If you have already purchased an EndurNeck™ license and/or information kit, I would kindly ask that you refrain from using it...
Learn MoreThis post is a re-print of our newsletter sent out on 29th of May, 2015. It is with a great deal of excitement but a tinge of sadness that we announce that the .strandberg* Custom Shop is moving back to its roots in Sweden. Co-locating the Custom Shop with the Made to Measure manufacturing will allow us to leverage the economy of scale in both lines of production, and deliver better guitars faster than otherwise. We will also be adding some new options to the Custom Shop guitars in the coming weeks, such as choice of humbucker or soapbar route, control layout and choice of switch type, thereby decreasing the gap between Custom Shop and Made to Measure. The Washburn Custom Shop (operated by US Music) has been an amazing partner the past few years. Beyond just building our guitars, they have provided technical support to customers, product photography, as well as shipping services. The competence that resides within those four walls in Buffalo Grove, IL, will not be easily replaced and will be sorely missed. We would have loved to continue our relationship with them, but sadly they have decided to cease production due to economic factors. The intent is for the move to be completely transparent to...
Learn MoreI handed in my resignation at the day job a couple of days ago, so here starts the next phase of Strandberg Guitars! As I’m writing this, I just arrived in Anaheim, where I’m exhibiting at the NAMM Show for the fifth consecutive year. A lot has happened the past seven years, since the original idea for what is now .strandberg* was hatched. What allowed me to confidently make the decision to leave the security of my well paid (and even fun!) day job was that there is now a sustainable and well functioning organization and delivery capacity, which has been built the past several years. In particular, I’m very happy to finally present the Swedish contingent. From left to right: Erik is with us temporarily as an apprentice, taking a break from touring life with his band Casablanca, previously having toured with Bullit and supporting the likes of major Swedish artist Dregen on the road. Besides having a degree in music from Ingesund/Arvika and being an amazing bass player, Pelle has made his living repairing guitars and building guitars by hand for more than 10 years. Yours truly, Ola. I started building guitars in 1982 after reading an article in Guitar Player Magazine about the process of Allan...
Learn MoreAs noted earlier, I have been part of a collaboration project with Parsons The New School for Design, and specifically, the Center for Transformative Media, and Mannes College of Music. In the fall of 2013, our first guests in this project included some of the most internationally recognized and innovative guitar designers of recent decades (in addition to myself): Ken Parker, Ned Steinberger, and Gary Lee. Each lecture was accompanied by panel discussions, performances and demonstrations by internationally acclaimed artists including Allan Marcus, Charlie Hunter, Fred Hand, Charles Yang, Barry Salmon, Dom Minasi, & Ratzo Harris. The full lecture that I did, titled “An insight into innovation in Guitar Design” is available on UStream. The Radical Future of Guitar collaboration is continuing during the spring of 2014, with several additional lectures by Ezio Blazetti, Joe Ravo, Michihiro Matsuda, and Florian Vorreiter. Additionally, I have donated scrap (but usable) parts from the Boden 7/8 production, for a group of students to instrument with sensors and assemble into complete guitars. As work progresses, we will make more announcements regarding what will become of them, but suffice it to say that there are lots of exciting plans for them! I have participated via Skype during a few of the classes and I...
Learn MoreA few days ago, we offered our confirmed wait list members an exclusive opportunity to come up with a new slogan for .strandberg* guitars and win a free pass to the NAMM show, which takes place in Anaheim, CA on Jan 23-26. The instructions were simple: come up with a short and descriptive slogan for .strandberg* Guitars. We have had a few over the years, for example “Innovation & Collaboration” which is what was on the original business cards, “headless, multi-scale and extended range guitars crafted to your unique requirements” which is in current e-mail signatures and “ergononic guitars” which appears on current marketing materials. We are happy to announce the winners, who are: Todd Kreger for “Ambitiously Crafted. Progressively Played.” Gary Singleton for “Style. Sound. Sophistication. Sonically Engineered with Your Dreams.” Congratulations! We look forward to seeing you in Anaheim in a few...
Learn MoreImportant information to those that are on the Made to Measure waitlist: If you have confirmed your spot on the wait list, you should have received a confirmation e-mail today. If you have not responded, you should have received a final reminder to confirm your spot. If you have not received any of these communications, check your junk e-mail, or think back if you might have signed up using a different e-mail address. Contact us if you do not receive the email since you will lose your spot...
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