Dagmar Custom Guitars is one of the newest, exclusively unique and most innovative companies since the inception of the guitar itself. The creator, Pete Swanson, is an incredibly gifted artisan who is self taught in the art of luthery. Pete’s woodworking chops were first cut in the high-end boat building industry and have seamlessly transferred into the world of boutique guitars.

The Dagmar design is a perfect fusion of form and function. The rounded over sides are extremely ergonomic while the inside surfaces are concave and create an amphitheater effect within the guitar. Swanson says when you put a Dagmar rim over your head and speak into it, your voice becomes amplified and crisp within your own ears. This phenomenon suggests that the air pressure and sound waves in the guitar’s box are more focused making for beautifully toned, well-balanced and incredibly responsive instruments.

Each archtop is built using a string of math equations and extremely precise machining. All shaping is done mechanically without steam and without the aid of a form. Each guitar is it’s own form, which means every Dagmar Custom Guitar built is a true “one off," hand sculpted piece of art. The guitars are made up of pie shaped segments that act like keystones in Roman arches. The insides are laminated with carbon fibre and completely finished smooth. The design's architecture makes for very stable, respectfully weighted and strong instruments, so strong in fact that the guitar’s rim can handle all of the strings' tension without the top and back plates attached! With no stress on the sound plates and a minimum amount of glue surface, along with a suspended neck, the instrument is allowed to vibrate more freely than a traditional guitar. The bolt on necks are also reinforced with four parallel laminations of carbon fibre that go from the heel all the way through to the end of the peg head. The necks will weather well and are made strong enough to resist breakage at the base of the peg head if they should experience any kind of moderate trauma. Each neck is also equipped with a two way adjustable truss rod to help dial in the relief for perfect playability.

The fit and finish on these incredible guitars is near flawless, finishing out with a hand applied, environmentally friendly, water-based varnish. The finish is left thin for the maximum acoustic gain and is painstakingly wet sanded and hand buffed to a gorgeous mirror-like shine. It’s arresting aesthetics make each guitar the epitome of cool. The Art Deco zig zag lightning bolt f holes are the perfect contrast to the guitar's rounded over shape and even though the design is avant-garde and state of the art, it possesses a fun vintage vibe that will take you back to a bygone era. Every time you open the case you will hear someone (or yourself) say WOW!!!

Swanson will be happy to discuss what it is you want in a hollow body guitar and is open to the notion that anything is possible. “Dream it and we’ll build it!”