.Strandberg Boden Original NX 6

REVIEW
.STRANDBERG BODEN ORIGINAL NX 6
92
GUITARIST DECEMBER 2021
that lower bass-side bout next to the bridge
and a ribcage cutaway on the back. The
finish is a smooth satin to the top, while the
sassafras has a very light finish that feels
rather textured over the quite ash-like grain
(apparently the next production run will
actually use swamp ash).
The neck is laminated from three pieces
of quarter-sawn maple with two very thin
graphite stripes, and is topped with a lightly
bird’s eyed maple fingerboard. As you
can see, it’s a multi-scale guitar: the scale
length of the low E string is Fender-like at
648mm (25.5 inches), the top E is 635mm
(25 inches), like a PRS, which accounts for
the angled or ‘fanned’ Jescar stainless-steel
frets. Both side and face dots are the same-
size, black-outlined, glow-in-the-dark
Luminlay dots by the look of them.
Obviously, a headless design needs its
tuners on the body and the design here is
very elegant with a precise-feeling tuner
THE RIVALS
Steinberger, now owned by Gibson,
offers wooden versions of Ned’s original
headless/body-less design such as the
Spirit by Steinberger GT-Pro Deluxe
(street price of around £350). But it’s the
influence of Ola Strandberg’s designs, not
Ned Steinberger’s, that clearly inform the
new headless Ibanez Q (from £849), which
comes with standard or fanned frets and
in various pickup/wood combinations.
As Ibanez admits, due to “the prominence
of more technical playing styles, and
players’ desire for lighter, more portable
instruments, today’s headless guitars are
pushing far beyond designs of the past”.
Classy copyist Harley Benton is on the
headless bandwagon with its Dullahan
series that features a more regular Strat-
type body. The FT 24 has a standard Fender
scale, stainless-steel frets, roasted maple
neck and Roswell pickups for a lowly £338.
knob at the end of each individual-string
aircraft-grade aluminium tube. The actual
saddle is a threaded hex nut with a V’d
saddle slot that can be screwed up or down
to set precise string height, while the whole
tube moves and can be locked in place to
set accurate intonation. At the nut, well,
we have a zero fret that sits in front of a
black string guide then a simple thread-
through-and-lock assembly. Oh, and in case
you don’t have the correct Allen keys or
spanners, .strandberg supplies a very neat
NX adjustment tool.
Feel & Sounds
In the many years this writer has
commented on electric guitars, it’s fair to
say we’ve never encountered a neck quite
like this patented EndurNeck. In terms
of width – 41.7mm at the nut, a shade
under 52mm at the 12th fret – it’s pretty
normal. The depth, however, doesn’t taper,
measuring pretty much the same 22.6mm
at both the 1st and 12th frets. But it’s the
shaping, the profile, that is totally unique
in our experience. Imagine a heavily V’d
neck whose point is shaved off at the back to
create a flat area around 15mm in width. To
make it more complex, that central flat back
area moves from being slightly to the treble
side under the low frets to the bass side by
2. Your eyes aren’t playing
tricks: like all .strandberg
guitars, the Boden is
multi-scale (635mm to
648mm) and as a result
the frets are fanned
3. These new Rev7 bridge
pieces are machined
from aircraft-grade
aluminium. This is one of
the most stable guitars
we’ve ever experienced
2
Everything is telling
you this is progressive,
different, but it begins
to feel incredibly
natural very quickly
GIT479.rev_strandberg.indd 92GIT479.rev_strandberg.indd 92 27/10/2021 13:0227/10/2021 13:02