Behind the Scenes | Learning

.strandberg* Quality Management

Our guitars have won accolades for their innovative and lightweight industrial design, ergonomic features, ease of playability, lively resonance and a rich organic sound. But, at the same time, our guitars aren’t easy to manufacture and require an extremely high level of precision. This means that our quality control standards must also be very high to assure that the guitars meet the expectations of our demanding customers who seek the very best. As outlined in the article regarding our overseas manufacturing, we make regular visits to the factories to work closely with the staff there from engineers and managers to factory floor level supervisors and craftsmen. From wood drying processes to final assembly and setup, we pore over every detail to ensure that the proper manufacturing processes are used and that the staff adhere to our stringent quality assurance standards.

Ed Yoon, who oversees our operations and quality, brings a wealth of experience and knowledge culled from over 27 years spent in the guitar industry working for over 10 years at Fender Musical Instruments Corp. specializing in quality control, managing the high-end boutique guitar gear store called Tone Merchants, 6+ years at Suhr Guitars as their Director of Marketing and Sales, and at Guitar Center Inc. establishing a QC and setup operation for the giant retailer’s proprietary brands stringed instruments.

This experience and knowledge has been applied to implement thorough quality assurance processes and standards at both our manufacturing partners overseas to our warehouses in the US and Sweden. The highly skilled guitar technicians in our distribution facilities also bring decades of combined experience and knowledge from various well-known guitar companies – performing QC inspection, setup work and repairs as well as warranty-related services.

We take quality with the utmost seriousness as our techs are also experienced and seasoned players who have a great deal of passion for guitars and music in general. It’s not just a matter of reducing the number of small finish blemishes and other minor defects or that the action is set right and that the guitars play without buzzing. We want to assure that the guitars look, feel, play and sound great right out of the box and we go to extreme lengths to achieve such a result.

Guitars, being built of finicky woods and produced by human labor through a long winding manufacturing process, are difficult products to produce perfectly. It is a never-ending challenge to achieve consistency at the exacting quality standards that we set for our guitars. This being said, we press on with our iron-clad commitment to offer the best quality guitars possible and providing the highest quality customer service.

Achieving the high level of consistent quality that we strive for can be quite difficult but the satisfaction of our customers and artists always makes the effort worthwhile and rewarding. Ultimately, the sights and sounds of guitar players playing our guitars and making great music is what drives us to achieve the very best.


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