r/strandbergguitars

Beautiful 7-string I picked up used that needed some refurbishing. Took it apart, gave it a thorough cleaning/detailing, and a fresh setup with Elixir Optiwebs. The frets had been previously Plek’ed so I could get the action crazy low.

Shoutout to Mike & Coleen Austin at Guitarmory. A previous owner had had a set of Hades pickups with custom pale moon ebony tops made years ago (before the Austins were involved with the company), but there was something wrong with them: output way too low, and DC resistance measuring too low on both pickups. I contacted Guitarmory and Mike immediately offered to set it right, even though they predated both him and me. He wound new bobbins and I got them back within a couple of weeks – no charge, he just wanted to make sure that a product bearing their company’s name was working at its best.

Installed with Schaller Megaswitch, Emerson custom taper and BKP/CTS pots, series treble bleed, Gotoh dome knobs, and 9 unique switching positions with a bunch of coil split options – and it sounds absolutely fantastic through the Axe-Fx III. Punchy, articulate, focused, and brutal when I need it to be.

Really happy with this instrument, a welcome addition to the stable!

Seriously one of the easiest, most comfortable guitars i have ever played.

This is my response to "your guitar looks stupid without a headstock." Would you rather your premium guitar be adorned with a boring piece of wood or a literal Jedi master? Come on now. I also got a good laugh out of this 3d-printed Ola Strandberg head someone posted a while back. What else do people put on the head of their guitar?

Hi everyone,

This is a review for the Strandberg Essentials series that I normally wouldn't write out, but I’ve seen a lot of hate for Bergs recently, so I just wanted to throw in my two cents since i bought the essentials model few weeks ago.

I own multiple Strandberg models and really love the design, especially the EndurNeck (which I won't spend time praising here). The Essentials covers almost all of my 6-string needs. The only thing I've replaced are the pickups, which I won't review - I'll just say the OEM pickups sound great, but they are not my cup of tea.

The guitar feels fantastic, and the non-branded stainless frets make no difference to me compared to Jescar. I do miss the multiscale feature, though that's just personal preference. Bending feels easier, and you don't have to worry about excessive wear.

The N2 bridge allows for more string-height customization, which is pretty dope. It doesn't stay in tune quite as long as the old NX hardware, and while I'm not bothered by the zinc material, I do believe it's a downgrade from previous versions. That said, it doesn't feel cheap (aside from the plastic caps between the tuners), and setting it up is effortless.

The guitar feels lightweight even without body contouring, and I don't notice much difference. The roasted maple is beautiful, and the paint job is great. It has these little sparks at certain angles and lightings that you just can't see in online pictures.

For the price, I believe you're receiving the whole Strandberg experience at half the cost. I'll end up selling my other Strandbergs, although I'll keep my extended range model. In my opinion, the price tag is unmatched for what it offers.

Regarding the fact that it's made in Indonesia, I believe the workers at the Cort and PRS facilities are doing a better overall job when it comes to guitar production. It eats the Ibanez Alpha alive when it comes to quality. Of course, lemon guitars happen since it's a mass-produced product, and you'll occasionally run into one. I've ordered directly from their website multiple times, and I've never received one I could complain about and I'm really, really picky when it comes to inspecting guitars.

The best thing about them as a brand is that they will genuinely help you out and get you a replacement if a lemon pops up. You won't get a dismissive answer or get ignored for their mistakes, they truly accommodate based on my experience when i needed help.

If you've ever thought about getting a Strandberg but were skeptical because it's made in Indonesia, I encourage you to go to your local store, try one out, and if you like it, order directly from Strandberg. Their staff members are brilliant, too.

I hope that a written, non-sponsored review might be out of help.

Thank you for reading, as a bonus I've uploaded a short YouTube clip that I've recorded below:

demo playing

A damp, warm microfiber cloth didn't do anything.

https://strandbergguitars.com/en-US/product/boden-plini-edition-n26t-black-satin-metallic

I am a Gibson guy and not familiar with Strandberg fakes whatsoever. Guy on marketplace offered to trade me this for an American Professional II Strat. Only pictures he sent (I didn’t not ask for anything specifically).

What should I be looking for as far as giveaways for a counterfeit?

Comes with a bag, might go check it out. Looks like he removed the strap pin from the bottom of the guitar. It a 5 year old model and i can’t find much info on the current price

Picked this up recently, and I’m excited to share it!

I’ve been keen to get a Salen ever since seeing Guthrie Govan play one at a Bassment gig a few years ago. However I could never quite bring myself to spend $1.5k+ on an Indonesian-made guitar, so when this one popped up for sale I jumped on it.

This one is a bit special. It’s the prototype for the Salen series, built in Sweden for Yvette Young of Covet in 2016 (or thereabouts — the serial starts “G16”?). I understand that it’s the first Salen ever built, and you’ll notice that it has straight frets - apparently this was Yvette’s preference over fanned.

It’s my first Strandberg, and I’m absolutely loving it so far. As a thumb-over player, I was a little apprehensive about the Endurneck, but it’s surprisingly easy to adapt to and I’m finding it really comfortable. The ergonomic body is also a delight - it’s a real pleasure to play in both the right-knee and left-knee positions.

The bridge pickup was a little thin and weedy for my tastes, so I swapped it for a Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Lil ’59, which has made a huge difference.

I gigged it for the first time last week and it was a joy to play live. It’s ridiculously light and comfortable. It does hang a little strangely because of the position of the bottom strap button, and tends to “lean back” against me, but I’m sure I’ll get used to that. Got plenty of comments on the appearance - apparently it looks like a Guitar Hero controller, or a puzzle piece!

The one real downside is the upper-fret access, which is pretty bad by modern standards. I assume that’s one of the trade-offs with the Salen design compared with something like the Boden.

Anyway, I’m thrilled with it. It’s incredibly comfortable, sounds great and has a really interesting bit of Strandberg history behind it. Feels pretty special to have this one hanging on my wall, and even better to actually get it out and play it!

I’ve also just bought a USA Washburn-made Boden 8, which is very different but super fun. Pics to come…

I bought a new n2.6 about a month ago and the electronics worked as expected. Then, about a week I started having problems with the bridge humbucker. The pull pot to engage the second Fishman voice no longer does anything (but only in the bridge position). When in the bridge humbucker position the humbucker sounds more like a single coil now and picks up noise like a single coil would. I opened the control cavity to take a look and the solder work is not what I would expect from a guitar in this price range. I imagine there is something wrong with the wiring. Possibly an issue with the pickup, but that seems less likely.

So I emailed Strandberg support about a week ago. After some correspondence they said they would send me a shipping label so they could repair the guitar.

Then nothing. No response.

I’m kinda at loss here.

Honestly, if this guitar wasn’t brand new I’d probably try to fix it myself. But I don’t feel like I should have this kind of problem with the guitar being so new. Also, the dreaded Schaller Mega M switch looks like a real pain to work with.

I’d love it if Strandberg would replace the Mega switch a the push/ pull tone while doing a better job of soldering, so I don’t have more problems down the road.

I bought the guitar from an out of state dealer, so my thinking is, if I’m going to go to the trouble of shipping it, I might as well have the OEM repair it.

Do you guys have any advice?

EDIT: I got the return shipping label from Strandberg, so thats good. I’ll give an update when I get the guitar back.

UPDATE: Thanks to u/chdrummerdude! If I put the headstock against my wooden studio table, the notes ring out significantly longer and there is no wolf-note on the g-string.

So my apologies, it was NOT a fretting issue. Adjusting the trussrod very slightly improved it a tiny bit already (but now the trem will absolutely not stay in tune, might need to give it a new setup), but it apparently is also not a setup issue.

Appreciate all your comments!

Hi Folks,

me again (lol). I'm the guy who posted this few days ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/strandbergguitars/comments/1vjqbcm/third_times_the_charm_ngd/

I was finally able to play the Prog last night and after a bit of noodling I felt like something was off. I then noticed that the E (12th fret) on the high e-string dies off way sooner than other notes on the same string.

Also, the D# (8th fret) on the g-string is merging into an overtone pretty much instantly, which can be heard especially when I'm playing distorted.

I've recorded a short demo (distorted; the high e dies off unamplified as well, even faster). I don't have this on any other guitars that I own and I don't want to fool around with the setup just yet.

I've contacted support this morning but haven't heard back yet.

Any opinions if this is fixable?

Thanks!

I finally got my hands on a Strandberg 2 months ago, it’s the N2.6 standard model.

My experience with guitars: I’ve owned Jackson dinky, soloist, schecter hellraiser, Keith merrow artist mkiii, and I still own an Ibanez RG5121.

Ergonomics: the body is light and balanced, very comfortable to play standing or seated even on a couch or in bed. It really helped me with my back problems, which is primarily the reason I gave it a shot, playing seated was worsening some problems I had for years (the main cause isn’t the guitar tho), even with a relatively healthy lifestyle and regular exercise office job+ practicing guitar was too much for me for a long time.

Playability: I find the guitar very enjoyable to play on, the neck feels thicker on the first frets as I’m a fan of super slim necks, however I didn’t really need any time to adapt, I don’t feel like the neck is fighting me, it’s comfortable enough.
The radius… I remembered its 20 after playing it for a while, felt natural to me and the 25-25.5 scale is not significant, in fact I like it and find it often convenient.

Sound and pickups: bought as a B stock and received it in flawless condition except the pickups were custom OEM strandberg, the support was very nice and they sent me a pair of new Seymour Duncan Pegasus sentinel which should’ve been there originally.
I actually liked the custom OEM pickups a lot, they are quite versatile, great cleans, nice dynamics and even heavier metalcore stuff sounded decent to me.
However my mind was already made on the upgrade to BKP black hawk alnico version, which definitely boosted the output and gain sounds, clearly superior with lovely note separation. The cleans are crystal clear, very nice, but there was something about the custom OEM pickups I liked in the low gain crunch and cleans, just felt a bit more traditional and inspiring for me.

Final thoughts: so far I couldn’t be happier with the strandberg, ultimately it allows me to play guitar more and this is what matters most, no discomfort and stiffness. I think I might give up on my Ibanez prestige and get another strandberg with lower output and more traditional feel

Just got this bad boy in, promptly set it up in drop C and went to town for three hours.

The primary reason I bought this guitar is because it's half the weight of even my lightest guitar and I am physically disabled with back problems. Two weeks ago I was standing and playing at practice with my Music Man Cutlass for about three hours and couldn't move the next day. Knew I needed a change and pulled the trigger. But holy crap, didn't know it'd be THIS light.

Quick review time:

Pros:

1. Frets feel smooth to bend on and the fretboard was well-hydrated.
2. Strings are snappy and the guitar resonates nicely. As well as any of my other guitars do. The sustain is surprisingly good for a guitar so light.
3. The Endurneck is insanely comfortable for long sessions and my hands instantly felt less fatigued when playing chords on lower frets than with a regular neck.
4. Hardware and finish feel pretty solid. I was skeptical of this but it seems like it'll hold up. Remains to be seen long term!

Guitar was in perfect tune after being shipped cross-country and refuses to go out of tune.

Cons:

1. Fret ends are a little sharp, I'll probably take this in for a setup and get it dealt with, but overall there's no raised frets and they came nicely polished.
2. It's gonna take some time to get used to the knob positions, they aren't the most intuitive.
3. The input jack came a little loose. Probably will replace this with a higher quality one during the setup so no big deal

Overall 9 out of 10 and will be a 9.5 once I get a professional setup. The only thing holding it back are the "meh" pickups, but I'm not a huge snob about that sort of thing.