This is Ask & Embla Instruments

There are two sides of this story, or more! But for now we give you the short version! If you are interested in knowing more, don’t hesitate to contact us!

We are Ask & Embla Instruments, father and son, making instruments from local wood in Stockholm, Sweden. We both have a long experience in woodcraft and we strongly believe that it is possible to make great sounding, high quality instruments without the use of exotic woods! A small step to help mother earth along the way!

It all started with one guitar in 2020. Stefan (the son) wanted a new guitar and Kjell (the father) said:
–I can build it!
Being a furniture master carpenter and a luthier building over 200 nyckelharpas (a swedish traditional instrument) this wasn´t such a great challenge. But in order to get the best information Kjell contacted master luthier Mats Nordwall to help him on the way. Mats kindly offered his insights and the first guitar was made from traditional guitar materials on Mats advice; mahogany neck, jacaranda body, and sitka spruce top. The guitar turned out great and Kjell continued to build a couple more guitars in traditional materials.

Stefan, who is a teacher in wood and metal craft in the Swedish elementary school, started to think about the materials being used in guitar making and asked himself why there weren't more instruments being built from local woods?

Father and son began to discuss the matter and started to compare the qualities of different wood types. Being two practical individuals the theoretical discussion wasn’t  quite enough so the answer was simple; – Let’s try it!

Kjell contacted Joel at Backstrom Woodworks in 2021 and bought both ash and elm planks from him. Swedish of course! We still use materials from Joel. Up until today we have built guitars in elm, ash, maple and oak. They all turned out great and have their own characteristic sounds and aesthetics! The ash and maple guitars have a brilliant and distinct character, the elm has a round, warm and full sound and the oak has a midrange tone that really cuts through! 

We strive to keep a minimum of ornamentation and try to let the materials speak for them selfs. 
Since our goal is to make instruments with sustainability in mind we use linseed oil varnish as the finish on our instruments. The benefits are more than just environmental friendly; it is healthier to work with and more practical since we don’t need a special room for the finish! Our instruments are polished up to 4000 grit and the result is a satin finish which brings out the depth in the woods natural tone.

Ask & Embla Instruments wasn't really something we planned for to happen. But after testing out and building separately we decided to build a workshop together. The workshop was ready in September 2023. It's small but has everything we need! 

We find this to be an exiting journey and hopefully you will join us!

All the best!

/ Stefan (the son) and Kjell (the father)