I have been making guitars for almost 30 years. It all started with the best Martin D-45 I had ever encountered. I simply had to find out how a guitar like that was made.
Sweden does not have a long-established tradition of guitar making, so much of what I learned in the beginning came through self-study, experimentation, and hands-on experience. The first steel-string guitars I built found their way into the hands of friends who were involved in music, and from there I gradually began building for professional guitarists as well.
I have always had a strong interest in folk music, so along the way I also built instruments such as Irish bouzoukis and dulcimers.
Over the years, I have received several scholarships and grants. These gave me the opportunity to travel extensively and spend time with experienced luthiers and restorers, including Jonathan Hinves in Granada, Spain, and Bernhard Kresse in Cologne, Germany. I have met fellow makers throughout Asia, America, and Europe, and visited numerous sawmills and timber suppliers where I have been able to personally select much of the wood I use in my instruments.
I travelled to the United States on several occasions, meeting passionate guitar enthusiasts and highly skilled luthiers and having the opportunity to study many exceptional instruments. It was during one of these trips that I became fascinated by classical guitar making.
I developed a particular interest in clarity, balance, and long sustain. Those qualities have remained some of the main things that inspire and challenge me as a guitar maker.
With my musical background rooted largely in American music, it was natural for me to begin my career building steel-string guitars. The purchase of a Martin dreadnought helped set me on a path inspired by the Martin tradition.
In the early 1990s, however, I shifted my focus towards classical guitar making. I spent around 20 years working primarily within the classical guitar world, developing my craft and building an international network of musicians and fellow makers. During this period, my customers included players such as David Russell and John Dearman of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet.
Around 2010, I decided it was time to return to steel-string guitar making. Since then, much of my work has focused on building guitars inspired by the tonal qualities of the finest pre-war Martins, while continuing to develop my own approach to construction, voicing, clarity, responsiveness, and sustain.
Over the years, my steel-string guitars have found their way into the hands of musicians including Andy Summers, Dan Tyminski, Bryan Sutton, Zac Brown, Steve Earle, John Leventhal, Jim Salestrom, Eric Bibb, Will Kimbrough, and Sofia Karlsson.