1950 Stromberg G-3 Cutaway

The Stromberg family started making high line Banjo’s & Mandolin’s during the beginning of the 20th Century. Its family members, Charles and Elmer Stromberg of Boston made some of the largest and most powerful Archtop guitars ever imagined, but only a handful were cutaways. This Cutaway version of the Stromberg G-3 model was 1 of their final guitars made circa 1950-1. Its serial # 632 & has yet to surface until today. Its unusual 3-tone Sunburst is quite brilliant & still very vibrant in color over some fabulous wood selections. Notice its carved spruce top w/some groovy “bear claw” markings thru-out its 17 1/2″ body. Its ebony fingerboard has been freshly refretted & has some lovely split block inlays of white pearl w/white binding. Its clear headstock lamination is so rare & so fragile, but our luthier has stabilized it & she shows off their Stromberg logo w/its model G-3 & Boston Mass. all inside this ornate overlay. Its original bound tortoise’gard fits quite well. Its 1 year only original single line Gold Kluson Deluxe tuners (w/dark gray buttons) have the same early traits as a Fender Broadcaster Tuner w/no shaft cutout thru its inside wall as on prior & later Klusons tuners. Its fabulous hand made gold Tailpiece actually floats over the top curve of the spruce top to match the top carve…simply unheard of today. Its red & white label inside says it all typed by hand from its 40 Hanover Street address. Its super flamey back has all of its paint intact as its experienced some water damage to it laying in its original case (now gone) for decades & apparently, dried out completely w/out disturbing all its sunburst finish in place w/lots of weather checking & some waviness to the ply’s of wood on its back. BUT its not structural or cannot get worse since its been this way for at least 70 years. Its 1 of maybe 6 known today to exist & will make quite a statement to any Archtop collection. An excerpt from an old ad from Gruhn guitars states some factual data on the G-3 Cutaway model in general:

“George Gruhn had 1 of these G-3 Cutaways that belonged to country singer, Ranger Doug, whom did a tremendous search for any of these Cutaway models. In a handwritten letter accompanying his personal G-3 guitar, Ranger Doug writes “It is with considerable regret that I part with Stromberg G-3 #602, a guitar that has travelled all over the country and been on the Grand Ole Opry many times.” As an authority on Strombergs, Ranger Doug comments on the rarity of this Stromberg: “We may never track down all the numbers but as far as the Stromberg community knows for now, only five G-3 cutaways are known: 599, 601, 602, 616 & 625.”

It doesn’t get any better to have a true uncirculated & all original Stromberg that may be their last build. It’s quite solid overall & quite crack free. We welcome any other info on this insane Stromberg that anyone can share w/us. Its completely user friendly now, plays great & comes in an original 18″ Super 400 Brown Tolex hard case.