"Strandberg kept the guitar body weight down on the Boden Essential". - Eric Dahl

Photo provided by: Strandberg Guitars

Many international artists and some domestic artists including Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater), Ben Kenney (Incubus), Liso Lee (Gwen Stefani) and Mike Keneally (Joe Satriani, Zappa & Steve Vai) have been playing .strandberg instruments.  I have had the good fortune to play a few over the years at different NAMM shows but always felt they were slightly out of my price range.  This year the Swedish based company has launched their new Boden Essential 6 string electric guitar.  It isn’t as tricked out as some of Strandberg’s other models that feature fanned frets, 7-string, 8-string or locking tremolo, but at $999 street price this guitar is hard to beat. 

Three satin acrylic finishes are currently offered Astro Dust, Black Granite, and Elemental Blue.  First impression from the review guitar is that it is extremely light weight at only 4.7 lbs., it is ergonomically shaped for sitting & standing and the EndurNeck is comfortable to play.  Strandberg kept the body weight down on the Boden Essential by utilizing Meranti for the body wood and roasted maple for the neck.  It is a bolt-on neck but the body to neck joint is beveled so you have full access when soloing or chording up the 24 DHP stainless steel frets. 

If you haven’t played an EndurNeck for yourself, it is flat on the back with flat sides on top and bottom also. It is like no guitar I have ever played before, but it is also comfortable to the hand.  The body is sculpted to fit your body better with a beveled armrest and leg rest.  The rosewood fingerboard features glow in the dark fret markers and side markers.  I tested them out in a pitch-black room, and they do work great which is handy on a stage that is not lit well. The roasted maple neck looks great and feels great as does the satin finish body.  All the hardware is black including the EGS Arc bridge with built-in individual tuners.  The Boden Essential 6 is loaded with two OEM humbuckers, 5-way pickup selector, volume, tone and rear mounted ¼” cable input.  Plugged in I was surprised at the different tonal variations you can conjure up with this double humbucker configuration.  It sounded great with overdrive and distortion but also worked with clean tones to cover whatever genre of music you are performing. 

Thankfully, Strandberg designed their guitars to use standard strings so you can still install your favorite flavor and gauge of guitar strings without the need for double ball end strings that previous headless guitars employed.  The Boden Essential is 31.5” long and 12.4” wide so it is very portable and would work great for fly gigs also.  I honestly didn’t expect the Strandberg Boden Essential 6 to impress me the way it did.  My preconceived notion was that it was a one trick pony guitar that was aimed at metal or shred guitarists only.  That isn’t the case at all.  The guitar is so comfortable, light weight and versatile you could apply it as a musical tool to whatever music that moves you.  This is a quality crafted instrument that would work for any level of player.  Priced at $999, it still comes with a Strandberg gig bag and the Allen wrench to install new strings is also included.  If you have wanted to get into the headless guitar game but felt the price was out of your reach the Strandberg Boden Essential 6 is a great option.  High-end features, sounds and playability at a bargain price.  Play one for yourself, I believe you will be as impressed and surprised as I was!

www.strandbergguitars.com

Vera Black

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