Brand: Strandberg
Instrument Categories: Electric, Guitars, SOLD, Solidbody
Strandberg Guitars are designed in Uppsala Sweden, about an hour north of Stockholm. The headless Strandberg Boden instruments use a number of innovative features, including multi-scale or ‘Fan Fret’ necks, the patented EndurNeck shape, custom hardware and a body design intended to evoke the antlers of Swedish reindeer.
While they are designed in Sweden, Strandberg builds in various locations, including Sweden, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and the USA.
The Strandberg Boden design is quite flexible and allows Strandberg to quickly configure a guitar for pretty much any number of strings. In this case, there are eight, in a ‘Hard Tail’ format.
Here we are looking at an early Strandberg Boden USA built 8 string guitar with a thin translucent blue stain finish. This instrument is apparently one of the earliest Strandberg Bodens built in the USA, and as such it has no serial number.
Like other Strandberg Boden guitars, the body is chambered Swamp Ash with a flame Maple top, and the bolt-on neck is laminated of Maple Rosewood using the EndurNeck shape. This anglular shape comes as a bit of a surprise at first, but quickly becomes comfortable and promotes better hand position, leading to less muscular and joint fatigue and stress. As a ‘Fan Fret’ instrument, the scale length varies depending on where you are; the treble strings start at around 26.5 inches and the bass around 28. The fingerboard is Rosewood, with 24 stainless steel frets.
Because of the width of the neck and the extra tension from eight strings, there are six neck bolts rather than four.
A touch you may not notice immediately is that the position markers are luminescent, and glow quite brightly in the dark.
As a headless guitar, the combination bridge and tailpiece are the key item of hardware. Strandberg’s design makes it easy to scale it up from 6 strings to their 7 and 8 string models. Intonation is set by loosening the string, then a bolt that holds the saddle in place, sliding it and retightening. Tuning is a simple matter of turning the splined string receiver.
This 8-string guitar uses the ‘Hard Tail’ version of the Strandberg bridge. The modular design of the saddles allows easy scaling to any number of strings.
On the 8 String USA model, the electronics include EMG 8-string pickups with 3-way switch, master volume and master tone.
It takes a few moments to adjust to the fan fret layout and EndurNeck shape, but past that this is a very comfortable guitar.
The original grey Strandberg gig bag is included.
Note: We also have in stock Strandberg Boden 6 and 7 String examples, which have been posted.
- Model: USA 8 String
- Year: 2012
- Finish Trans Blue Stain
- Class: Used
- Serial Number: N/A
- Country of Origin: USA
- Condition: Very Good
- Date Posted: 07/06/2018
- This instrument has been sold
- Not Consignment
- Required CITES documentation
- Including original Gig Bag case
- Instrument Weight: 5.58lbs 2.54kg
- Scale Length: 28in 711mm
- Nut Width: 2.28in 58mm