Books › Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937 › scan 258
Scan 258
Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937
16 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 232. See the scan on archive.org.
1and accessories. During the winter months they average one hundred students a month. Recently the instructors have been giving outside class instruction in rudimental drumming in schools and legion military drum corps.
3CHARLES A. STROMBERG & SON
5Charles A. Stromberg, a cabinet maker, came to Boston from Sweden in 1887. He worked for Thompson & Odell eighteen years, and as foreman in their banjo, mandolin and guitar factory, supervised the manufacture of some 3500 of these instruments. He started in business for himself about 1905, producing custom-made guitars, banjos, and snare, bass band and orchestra drums for professional and amateur players. In 1910 he took his son Elmer into the business with him. The manufacturing is done at [address hidden]
7To date they have produced about 1000 banjos, 200 mandolins, 100 guitars all custom made and 400 drums which have been shipped all over the United States, and into Canada until a high tariff on musical instruments was put into effect there.
9This firm also repairs all kinds of stringed instruments including harps. Since Mr. Stromberg owns pattern molds for casting the ornaments of harps, these instruments are sent to him from Canada and from as far west as California for rebuilding and restoring the ornaments and for repairing.
11Mr. Stromberg and his son, being skilled mechanics, make their own tools for manufacturing. They have also developed several innovations and patents.
13Their guitars are made of three layers of curly maple wood, a shaded exterior and an inlay bound with ivory. "F" instead of round holes are used in the swell front for better vibration. There is also an adjustable bridge for raising and lowering the strings and an adjustable tailpiece sleeve for tightening the tension. Tenor guitars which have four strings are popular.
15Their banjos have a patented feature, the "Stromberg Cupperphone Tone Chamber," consisting of a metal ring placed on a circular series of upright metal tubes or cups on a built-in wooden shelf, next to the rim and directly under the head. This receives and throws out the tone in great volume and makes it sustaining. Over five hundred of these have been sold in eleven years' time.
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