Thinking about a Strandberg, talk me out of it!

[bry4321]

 

[RobB]

No, I won’t. 

[Steve Haynie]

I have seen Strandberg and headless Kiesel guitars being used by the younger technical players.  If experimentation, both musically and equipment-wise, is your thing then go for it and get the Strandberg. 

[DaveH]

Man, the frets aren't even straight. I wouldn't mess with it. There, happy? 😂

[velorush]

I've admired them for years. If they'd make one with a baseball bat for a neck, I'd be all in. As it is, I don't think their thinner, albeit "ergonomic," neck would work for me at all.

I really liked the Tele-esque one Keith at 5-Watt World had.

[Jimbilly]

The Hils are going to start showing up used for hfc approved $$ pretty soon I bet. I'm waiting for one of those.

[veatch]

I love the look. Headless guitars are *very* comfortable to play. I wouldn't mind a 7 string, but, yeah, I like big necks, and i cannot lie...

I went through a Steinberger phase a looong time back. As much as i liked it,  I could never get it to sound better than "ok".  I think i settled on that it was the lack of a headstock that squashed the sound. 

Edited January 17 by veatch

[bry4321]

I did it. Used Strandberg incoming. 

 

Edited January 17 by bry4321

[RobB]

43 minutes ago, bry4321 said:

I did it. Used Strandberg incoming. 

 

Sweet! Congrats.

[VECTOR]

11 hours ago, bry4321 said:

 

If you can live with a modern sound  (lacking of warmth in my opinion) then go for it. These guitars play phenomenal and are lightweights. The ones that I heard had very good (Strat-ish) sounding neck pups. You could listen to a master and endorser of this guitar in the band Scar Symmetry.

[donner]

 

10 hours ago, bry4321 said:

I did it. Used Strandberg incoming. 

 

That was a headless decision, bro!

Edited January 17 by donner

[diablo175]

12 hours ago, bry4321 said:

I did it. Used Strandberg incoming. 

 

AWESOME!

I've really been mulling over acquiring one as well. Kept talking myself out of it because the neon orange doesn't have a maple board. Have no need for 3 pickups either which seems to be the only way you can get a maple board.

[bry4321]

Thanks for enabling my purchase decision. Hours after I posted here, a used one showed up that had some of the things I was looking for at a relatively not-outrageous price. It is made in Indonesia but the guy had upgraded the pots, added brass tremolo block, upgraded tremolo claw, put in a switchcraft jack etc. He was also a fan of Hamers, if not a member of the HFC, so I took that as another sign. If I hate it I will take out 2 of the pickups, spray it neon, and try to flip it at a massive profit to you @diablo175 . 

 

Edited January 17 by bry4321

[Dutchman]

Now just how are you going to hang that thing up??

 

[stonge]

I've had this one since 2019; it's the Classic model which I think is a solid alder body (the upper lines are chambered swamp ash) with a roasted maple neck and Pau ferro fingerboard iirc). The guitar is really easy to play, and the Endura neck (while a matter of taste) really works well. I did swap out the aluminum block on the trem for a brass block, and it sounds a little beefier to me now. It's really ergonomic so its great for noodling on the couch or at your desk on a long Teams call when you're not on camera lol. 

Edited to add: get the Strandberg laminated stand ($65 on Reverb - the earlier stands were MDF and not very durable) as it's tough to balance these on a regular guitar stand. There was somebody who 3-d printed an adapter for the headstock so could you could hang it from a Hercules type stand. There's also a Strandberg wall-mount bracket available.

Edited January 17 by stonge
Chambered swamp ash, not chambered swamp lol. That would be tricky to do.

[django49]

A long time ago I picked up a cheapass Steinberger licensed guitar (Cort!) that was the gig backup for a guitar pro. I suppose he was going for a sort of EVH vibe(?) He modded (butchered?)  it over and over, with the pickups alone likely way more than I paid for it......Sort of a less-than-Super Strat, but.....Each pickup has a 3 way to select single coil or either serial or parallel HB tones. And a 5 way. Full 25.5 scale but only 30" overall. Very easy to carry in and plays well.

Not a pride of ownership thing, but it is a great backup for a gig, very versatile, not a bad thing to fiddle with to try to keep some chops up while watching the tube.

No complaints here about the headless thing!

 

[bry4321]

2 hours ago, Dutchman said:

Now just how are you going to hang that thing up??

 

Now you tell me!

[diablo175]

If this was HH or HS, I’d be owning it already.

 

[stonge]

14 hours ago, diablo175 said:

If this was HH or HS, I’d be owning it already.

 

ah, c'mon man. put a sustainiac into the neck pickup position, an unwired 5-way switch into the middle pickup rout, and maybe some paint and voila!  Don't be giving up on the mod madness just because it's an IKEA guitar lol.

(Now where's that emoji for "just kidding man!" ? )

[Brooks]

I have a love/hate relationship w/ headless guitars. I've owned Strandberg/Kiesel/Steinberger/imports. They are super comfortable to play. I got great neck pickup tones out of all of them. I couldn't get a meaty hard rawk bridge pickup tone out of ANY of them, even after mutiple pickup swaps.

 

Edited January 19 by Brooks

[diablo175]

1 hour ago, Brooks said:

 I couldn't get a meaty hard rawk bridge pickup tone out of ANY of them, even after mutiple pickup swaps.

That would be a deal-killer for me. Don't portend to have great tone but I like what I got and it is non-negotiable to do away with it to any degree.

I have similar issue but with the amp in my office set up. Couple of great sounding guitars when run thru my studio or live rig(s) but bridge p'ups sound anemic and less rawk thru my Boss Katana Air. At least that an easy fix- go to my trusty Yamaha THR 10X and whammo ! Crunch for days.

Edited January 19 by diablo175

[Gabe]

"Talk me out of it"

 

OK.

Not exactly rock m'n' roll.

 

Gabe 😀

[bry4321]

8 hours ago, Brooks said:

I couldn't get a meaty hard rawk bridge pickup tone out of ANY of them

 

Uh-oh!

[RobB]

10 hours ago, Brooks said:

They are super comfortable to play. I got great neck pickup tones out of all of them. I couldn't get a meaty hard rawk bridge pickup tone out of ANY of them, even after mutiple pickup swaps.

 

 

Really? That’s concerning, to say the least. Is it because the bridge pu is so far away from the trems?

Edited January 20 by RobB

[Jimbilly]

20 hours ago, Brooks said:

I have a love/hate relationship w/ headless guitars. I've owned Strandberg/Kiesel/Steinberger/imports. They are super comfortable to play. I got great neck pickup tones out of all of them. I couldn't get a meaty hard rawk bridge pickup tone out of ANY of them, even after mutiple pickup swaps.

 

the multi scale fan fret is practically begging for reverse slanted pickups.

There's a pair of Steinberger Spirits near me for cheap, I'm tempted, but not quite enough. There's a sort of 'rule' that applies: don't buy what you don't want just because it's kind of similar to what you do want.