Three Months with the Strandberg
Living with a Strandberg, 3 months on. It is delivering the goods
In early September, I took a leap of faith, opening my wallet to buy an unconvential guitar. The Strandberg Boden Essential.
I wrote a post about my initial thoughts here:
Geoff Anderson
Now, with a couple of more months on it, I figured I should do an update.
First, I love the shape. I mostly play sitting down, so the fact that it has like three curved cut outs to allow you to hold it for however it is comfortable. Sometimes I play it with the body resting on my right thigh, sort of like a Strat-styled body. Sometimes I put the bottom cutout on my right thigh like the classical guitar style (I did play a lot of guitar like that back in the day). It has a belly cut out, and a fade for the right arm.
I added a strap so I can play standing up, and I do at times play like that.
Second, I don't mind the loss of the headstock. I know that some people really are bothered about not having the headstock (Brett Shull is one, in fact, he points out that as a reason why he will likely sell his), but frankly, I like it. It does save a LOT of weight.
It really took only moments to get used to not having the headstock there. Also, with the no headstock, you tune at the bottom of the guitar, and the proprietary Strandberg designed tuners are smooth to operate and getting it spot on is really easy.
Let's talk about the tuners though. They are knurled knobs that seem to have nylon shims. This makes them super smooth to turn. The tailpiece is solid, but about a month in, I started getting an annoying buzz. Turns out that the set screws that hold the saddles in place (you loosen them to adjust the action and intonation) had loosened. A 2.5mm allen key and about a half turn (the manual advises to not over tighten. I might add a dab of locktite when I change the strings) eliminated that buzzing.
Strings: It came strung with D'Addario 10 gauge strings, and frankly I have become super comfortable with 10's on all my guitars (except the Charvel, that uses a hybrid set). They are three months old, and are still crisp and bright. I usually change strings when they stop staying in tune, and with 1 - 3 hours of playing a day for the last 12ish weeks, the tuning stability is still amazing.
The Neck: One of the main reasons I wanted to try a Strandberg was to give their patented Endur neck shape a try. Several of the people I follow on Youtube recommended it if you have arthitis in your hand (left). The back is a trapezoid shape, with flat surfaces for your hand.
For me, the top flat surface is perfect for my left thumb. While the neck is thicker than on my favorite Charvel, it doesn't feel bulky, and the consistent position for my thumb take a lot of stress off my left hand where the arthritis affects me most.
When I pull the Charvel off the wall, I feel like I am "faster" playing it, but quickly it becomes painful, and back on the wall it goes. Then I pick up the Strandberg, and I can put another hour or more in before I tire.
It really makes that much of a difference for me. Of course, YMMV.
One other thing about the neck. It has 24 frets that are perfectly dressed. They are stainless steel, so they should last probably longer than I will be alive even if I put many hours in on it every day. It also has a 20" radius, that makes it very flat. This makes long bends effortless. But it does make it a little more difficult to play barre chords. A tradeoff I am happy with. (the Charvel and all the Harley Bentons I have are compound radius, 12" at the nut, and 16" at the 22nd fret, and that is about optimal).
The Electronics: The Boden Essentials comes with two humbuckers that are wound specially for this guitar. These guitars are made at the Cort factory in Indonesia, and they make these pickups for it to Strandberg's specs.
The pickups are bright, and medium-high output. They are passive, meaning that there is no onboard signal amplification. The 5 position blade switch has a great range of voicings of the pickups, and I am able to play crunchy metal, fat strat-like tones, and the middle position has a pretty solid "honk" for funky blues. I haven't pulled the back off to check out what they have it wired like, but whatever they designed, it covers more than my proficient styles. Every player is going to find something they like with the configurations and the tone/volume controls.
One thing that I hadn't done until this weekend is to change the strings. I figured 3 months was the right time to change (they weren't dead yet, but they were beginning to not stay in tune) so I pulled out the towel, grabbed a fresh set of 10 gauge Slinky's and the allen wrench set (I also grabbed the tuner).
Twist the tuners counterclockwise to take the tension off the strings, loosen the grub screws at the head, and off the strings came.
Out with a microfiber cloth and lemon oil to clean and condition the fretboard, and then to lace up a fresh set, and then tune to pitch.
The only fiddly bit is that there are these tiny stainless steel discs that you have to get under the strings in the headblock. The low E and A strings were a bit tricky, but otherwise, it was painless. You do need to remove the grub screws so you can see the string/disc positioning.
But, it was probably the quickest string change from laying the guitar on the towel, to playing again. And the strings didn't need to be "stretched" to bed in. Tune, play for 5 minutes with lots of bends, and then minor re-tune (really just a touch up) and it was good to go.
Final thoughts
As I mentioned in my first post, I bought this on a lark. It wasn't cheap at $1,100, but it had features I wanted to try out, and I didn't want to drop two large to play. I wasn't worried about the country of origin, because the quality of the Indonesian made H-B's was outstanding, and this exceeds all three of those that I have.
Three months in, it is the guitar that I pick up 80% of the time, it is what I plug in and play, and it is what I strum when I am on the couch watching TV. I love the purple color, and while I would like it to be a little lighter, and possibly have more output from the pickups (I am a big fan of EMG active pickups), I am not at all in a hurry to upgrade them.
I do look at the other Strandbergs, wondering what a multiscale or a 7 string would be like. Maybe one day I will pull the trigger for the next tier.
For now, I am totally grooving on this killer axe.
