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theTool&#0153; guitars are designed and handcrafted by the GuitarPeople&#0174; AB in Stockholm, Sweden.

Early life
The original founder Mats Silfving was born in 1957 in Stockholm, Sweden. His father worked as a fisherman and as the town’s mason. Mats played the guitar, the mandolin, and the violin. He experimented and designed and handbuilt his own instruments, and when the reputation of the quality of his craftsmanship grew, he decided to pursue his dream and earn his living making guitars.

First workshop
He established his business in 1938 and built a factory in the backyard of his home. Mats Silfving's instruments from the factory were labelled with theTool. theTool guitar was born.

The end of the Second World War led to a boost in household spending on leisure articles, e.g. guitars. In 1947 the factory received a break-through order for half a million guitar strings from Levin, a major Swedish guitar manufacturer based in Gothenburg.

In 1951 the factory started manufacturing zithers, and as of today remains one of few global suppliers of zithers and zither strings. Mats Silfving ’s son Lennart Persson joined the family business in 1959. Spurred by the emergence of guitar-based pop in the early 60’s, production of guitars exploded. The factory had 13 employees and an annual production of more than 3 000 guitars.

theTool Classical guitars
In 1964 Mats Silfving designed a range of classical guitars for Swedish guitar virtuoso Evert Ahlander. The 6 models ranged from school instruments (Student and Rondino) to standard and concert guitars (Menuett, Classic, Soloist and Concert). In total 7 000 guitars were manufactured under the Ahlander brand. A few years later, in 1967, Mats Silfving launched a new range of guitars under the Swedtone brand. These included the Carina, Palermo, Cremona, Tarragona and the 7/8 sized school guitar Serenad. The Palermo and the Serenad were also available with steel strings. The Lugnås brand was refined with a new logotype in 1969, and the models Granada, Toledo, Sevilla, Valencia, Tarragona and Studio sold well until production ceased in 1976. During the 60’s, the factory also supplied 70 000 necks to Levin and Goya guitars manufactured in Gothenburg.

In the 70’s, the Lugnås factory produced for jazz guitarist and music shop owner Birger Steiner under the Steiner and BS brands. The guitars were discontinued after Birger Steiner sold his business to EMI.

When Levin changed ownership in 1982 and production was restarted the year after, Mats Silfving guitar factory was contracted to manufacture bodies to the new models. In 1988, the production of Levin’s top-of-the-line classical guitars, the Classic 8, 10 and 12 models, was moved to the factory. Since, 5 000 Levin guitars have left the Lugnås factory.

theTool JL guitars
In 1964 Mats Silfving designed a ra

theTool Acoustic guitars
In 1964 Mats Silfving designed a ra

theTool Travel guitars
In 1964 Mats Silfving designed a ra

Family business
Lennart Persson took over after his father died in 1999.

In 2012, Lugnås Gitarr AB was formed to secure Swedish guitar production in the Lugnås guitar factory, including Mats Silfving ’s legacy brands Swedtone and Lugnås.

To date, more than 45,000 guitars have been built in the Lugnås factory.

Further Information

 * GuitarPeople Homepage for GuitarPeople.
 * theTool guitars Homepage for theTool guitars.
 * GuitarPeoplesPrize - Annual Music Event arranged by GuitarPeople

Guitar People's Prize är ett vandringspris och grundades 2002 som en möjlighet att samla ihop gitarrister och människor som följt verksamheten under nästan 40 år. Tanken är att presentera pristagarna under en kväll i gitarrens tecken, nya stjärnskott lyfts fram och stilbildande musikanter hedras. Genom åren har gitarrister som David Lindley, Eric Bibb, Ane Brun, Jojje Wadenius, Anna Ternheim, Göran Söllscher, Mikael Åkerfeldt mfl mfl tilldelas utmärkelsen,. Guitar People’s Prize har i femton år varit det enda betydande priset för gitarren och dess utövare i Sverige. Priset som premierat nya talanger och stilbildande musiker arrangeras 2018 för 12:e gången. Årets gala, som innehåller fyra liveakter, sker på Södra Teatern/Kägelbanan i Stockholm den 28/3.