The Suhr SSH+ bridge humbucker is one of those all-purpose pickups that is medium-hot enough for rock, full-bloodied across the frequency spectrum, and this is complemented by the more old-school voicing of the neck. There are others in the NX range that are explicitly for the specialist among us – the metal head, the prog wizard, the tech-forward fusion cat. What to play? That’s left up in the air here. Once you’ve got the feel down, this is a guitar you can cut loose on.

And it works.Ĭombined with the balance and weight, the EndurNeck makes good on Strandberg’s pursuit of ergonomic advancement. It’s an ingenious approach, moving beyond the C, D, U and V profiles into, again, something different. As you climb the neck, the centre of the trapezoid-esque profile shifts a little, just as your fretting hand tends to do as you climb the ‘board, with its flat back moving towards the bass side of the instrument. Strandberg recognises that thin doesn’t necessarily mean comfortable, and thick doesn’t have to be slow in this instance, it’s the shape more than the thickness of the neck that matters most. If you're serious about eight-string instruments this is one of the most innovative and intuitive designs out there. The Sabre shows a different side to Music Man, with a classic double-cutaway body the launching pad for an all singing, all dancing modern electric that's got heaps of tricks up its figured-maple sleeve.Ī sophisticated S-style that balances a hot-rodded hi-jinks and a shred-ready feel with a tonal range that invokes rock of all decades from the '60s onwards. Its so unique and out there that Strandberg has it patented, and it’s almost trapezoid in its profile. The body shape might look bonkers but there’s a similarly innovative approach to the EndurNeck profile. What is this? And so well-balanced? That, in itself, takes a moment to get used to, or rather, to appreciate. First, you have to contend with the weight, or the lack of it. To pick it up is to surrender wholesale to the idea that this is – as intended – something different. There’s nothing quite like the Boden Original NX 6 on the market today.

Strandberg Boden Original NX 6: Performance and verdict Both are direct-mounted and are controlled by a five-way position switch, and master volume and tone pots. Pickups arrive courtesy of Suhr, with a Suhr SSH+ open-coil humbucker in the bridge position partnered with an SSV neck ‘bucker. This being a headless guitar, you’ll find the tuners integrated with the EGS Rev7 bridge system, an adjustable system that holds the string in a heavy-duty aluminium tube, and there’s a zero fret at the nut. The Luminlay is reprised on the side of the fingerboard, too. The fingerboard is Bird’s eye maple, topped with 24 stainless steel Jescar frets and inlaid with Luminlay dot markers. The three-piece maple neck is quarter-sawn and graphite-reinforced for strength and resistance to temperature fluctuations.

Electric quilt 6 software