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A Most Worthy Addition to the 21st-Century Guitar Rig
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Tue Jul 01, 2014 5:07 am    Post subject: A Most Worthy Addition to the 21st-Century Guitar Rig Reply with quote

Back in January 2013, I hooked up with Guthrie just before NAMM to catch up and prepare for the CA coast tour with the Aristocrats, which was to be my last one with the band with my impending employment at GC. He advised me of checking out the Strandberg guitars at the Uppsala Guitar Festival in Sweden just a month before and said that he was very intrigued by the design and the way it sounded and played.

Strandberg... That name rang a bell but I couldn't quite remember. Then it hit me. I remembered talking to Chris Letchford of Scale The Summit when I was at Suhr and he was wanting to get a 7-string and he mentioned that he was playing Strandberg guitars. I remember looking it up and thought, "Oh, one of those kinds of guitars..." Laughing It looked interesting but I quickly forgot about it afterwards. But when Guthrie says he was intrigued and impressed, that definitely made me take notice and I sought to check it out at NAMM.

I introduced myself to Ola Strandberg at his booth and checked out the guitars. I was totally smitten. Then I started corresponding with Ola on a regular basis and even hooked up with him several months later for some authentic Korean food in Seoul while he and I were both there on separate business trips. Since then, I've been sort of working with him as an advisor/consultant to help him navigate through this crazy guitar industry of ours. I'm doing it purely for the fun and the passion of it and being involved with who I believe is the most innovative electric guitar designer and the coolest electric guitars I've seen in a long, long while.

So I hooked up with Ola in CA over a weekend a few weeks ago and he hung out at my house and then we went to the Bay Area for some other potential business opportunities. I'm just really gassed to be working with Ola in this "hobby side job" capacity as I really do want to be involved with the development and marketing of cutting-edge electric guitars. I already have my hands full with the GC gig managing the sourcing and QC of tens of thousands of guitars per month and also managing the Aristocrats record label business but I had to make time for this. Hey, just sleep less and don't watch any TV or movies! That's my motto. Mr. Green

Well, Ola left me a prototype Boden 8-string made at the Washburn Custom Shop in Illinois for demo purposes in the LA area. It's not mine per se, but it's staying at my home until my 8-string with the fanned True Temperament frets is ready. Very Happy So while I anxiously await the Charvel GG Signature Model guitar, I now have this completely different beast that I can have loads of fun with and, man, this guitar is just out of this world. I've wanted a 7-string for a long time but nothing I ever saw (including the Suhr 7-string) made me want one. It was just too bulky and unwieldy and none of them looked right to me. This is an 8-string and it's so much easier to get around than any other 7-string I've picked up. Shocked Unbelievable...

I've been playing it almost non-stop since I brought it home with me after Ola and I split up in SF. I'm so used to it already that the normal 6-string is starting to feel weird to me. Laughing I never thought that I'd take to an 8-string like a fish to water. It's so easy to play and I love having the two extra strings. Granted, some things do mess me up quite a bit - like fingerpicking chords or trying to play classical stuff I mastered on "normal" 6-string guitars. My brain and my hands still get crossed up by the two extra strings when trying to play stuff like that but I think I'll get used to it in a few months.

Playing extended single-note lines to the low range is pretty natural and I got the hang of doing the metal chugga-chugga stuff fairly quickly. And, doing the ultra low-end riffage is a lot fun - especially that I'm now more into metal than I have ever been in the past. I've become such a huge fan of Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad for the extreme metal stuff), Meshuggah, Animals As Leaders, and Periphery. I'm listening to more metal these days than when I was in my teens or early-20's. Well, part of it is that I seem to be more energetic than I ever have been. I've become a health & fitness freak and go to the gym 5 days per week for intense two-hour workouts each session. And what do I have playing through my Bluetooth headset to keep me going? METAL! Twisted Evil

My wife is quite bemused by my fitness and metal addiction. Hey, she's all good with it since I'm more fit and in better shape than when I met her 20 years ago. And she tolerates me cranking up the Axe-Fx II rig at home to house-shaking levels and I can feel the bass notes thumping my chest. She's a very understanding wife. Laughing And, man, playing this Strandberg through the Axe-Fx II / Atomic CLR rig is really an incredible experience. The low notes are so defined and totally coherent - no farting out or floppy bass. It'll take some time but I feel confident I can dial in some sounds that are reminiscent of Meshuggah's classic 'ObZen' album. For me, that is the definitive modern metal sound. I've never heard it from any high-gain boutique amp before and I tried a bunch when I ran Tone Merchants. It is my thought that such sounds can only come from high-end digital modelers that are tweaked very meticulously.

But the thing is that I do mellow out after a few hours... Wink When swimming laps, I prefer the most sappy and wimpy nature-ambient sounding New Age stuff. After doing the death metal, NuMetal or Djent thing for an hour or so, I dial in the most lush and squeakiest clean sounds possible for a while before dialing in some swampy blues sounds or authentic classic rock crunch. And, of course, with this rig, it takes mere seconds to call them up. And, surprisingly, this guitar really delivers in all those other sonic territories as well. I've been very pleasantly surprised by how good the EMG pickups sound in this guitar. I haven't really played those since the 80's and now they sound way more organic and natural with a wider dynamic range and pleasant "squish" to the pick attack on the neck pickup. Really cool...

I had to make a trip to the GC HQ over the weekend and stay at a hotel nearby. I took the guitar and hooked it up to the iPad mini Retina using the Positive Grid JamUp Pro app and the Bose SoundLink Mini and could not believe how great it sounded in the hotel room. The entire rig including the guitar is well below 10 pounds with 10+ hours of battery life. The guitar itself is a little over 5 pounds - even with the heavier EMG pickups and the battery. I'll be taking this rig everywhere with me now - including the beach this July 4 weekend. Very Happy The Traveler is cool and cute for what it is but it isn't this Strandberg, which only weighs 2 more pounds.

Still wanting the Charvel GG really bad and am getting rather antsy as I've been waiting for it for nearly two years now... Confused But I know how it goes with the production delays in this industry... I've been in it for 23+ years now and manufacturers being late on getting the new stuff out is just to be expected. Things almost never ever go as planned. So I've got a spot open next to my Axe-Fx II rig waiting for that Charvel GG. It will make a very handsome complement to the Strandberg Boden 8. I really can't even think of anything else I'd want except more of the same guitars just tuned differently.

It's definitely an amazing time to be a guitar player. I'm moving on. Personally speaking, I really have no interest whatsoever in tube amps anymore or "traditional" or "vintage" kinds of stuff. I still follow up on that stuff since it's part of my job, but that's the extent of it. Now I actually refer to the digital rigs like the Axe-Fx II and the Positive Grid apps on the iPad to inform me on that stuff and it'll be great for my product management gig. I've got a whole library of great amps and effects in the iPad that I can use as a reference to work with the factories. I still have to use my ears and work with the engineers but it's really cool to have all that at my fingertips. And this Strandberg also doubles nicely as a bass. I downloaded all the bass packages for the JamUp Pro and was amazed by how different all the bass amp sims sounded. The acoustic guitar sims are quite good as well although no one would mistake it for a Martin being mic'd. Lots and lots of fun... Very Happy

The Strandberg Boden 8


The specs:

Body wood: Chambered Swamp Ash with Flame Maple top
Neck wood: Wenge with Wenge fingerboard - carbon fiber reinforcement
Bridge: 8 individual Strandberg bridge pieces
Frets: Fanned stainless steel (24 frets)
Scale Length: 26.5" on the high-E to 28" on the low F#
Neck shape: Strandberg's patent-pending EndurNeck
Pickups: EMG-X 8-string (not sure which models, I don't even care about such things anymore. All I know is that they sound really good.)



A most appropriate guitar for my 21st-Century Rig. It looks as though the guitar was created for a rig like this. Just got the Axe-Fx II updated to FW 15.02 and it keeps sounding and feeling better with each update.



The sound is huge but still defined and punchy. I can play along to songs in my iTunes library or backing tracks with the MacBook Air connected to the Axe-Fx II and through the Atomic CLR powered wedge cabs. The cabs are 500w each and can get absurdly loud but remain crystal clear like the best studio monitors.



The Totally Mobile Yet Amazingly High Quality Guitar Rig



I really can't get over how great this tiny rig sounds. Obviously, one can use a nice set of headphones as well when necessary but that's never quite as good hearing it through the speakers. The Bose SoundLink Mini is quite amazing - probably the best Bose speaker I've heard to date in terms of what it delivers for the size and money and I've got quite a few Bose systems around the house and the office. Highly recommended.
_________________
Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.


Last edited by alexkhan on Mon Jul 07, 2014 6:57 am; edited 1 time in total
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Fri Jul 04, 2014 2:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This guitar is certainly different from your average Strat, Tele, Les Paul, superstrat and their knockoffs. Some obvious differences are:

• Headless design
• 8-strings (.010, .013, .017, .026, .036, .046, .059, .074)
• Multi-scale fanned frets - 26.5" to 28" (True Temperament option)
• Individual aircraft-grade aluminum bridge-saddle for each string
• Unique chambered ergonomic body design (can be held in 4 comfortable positions while sitting down)
• Extremely lightweight - 3.8~5.5 pounds depending on number of strings, woods, pickups, and hardware

All these features are cool but once you pick it up and start playing, the most stunning feature and characteristic of this guitar is Ola's patent-pending EndurNeck neck profile. Here are some photos that give you a better idea of what the shape is like.





Some more photos from Strandberg's site:







So, what's it like to play with this totally weird neck shape? It's definitely a little disorienting at first (along with the two extra low strings) but it's very, very easy to get used to. Coupled with the fanned frets, it's the most comfortable and natural feeling neck I have ever played.

The EndurNeck actually conforms to the natural position of your wrist and your fretting hand as you go up the neck. It's thick and thin at exactly the right places as you shift positions. It's really quite uncanny how the neck seems to "adapt" to where your hand is along the neck.

Obviously, this isn't for the old school guys used to grabbing the neck like a broomstick with their thumbs hanging over the fingerboard for playing blues and classic rock kinds of stuff. It's much more suited for classical style positioning with the thumb at the back of the neck and the other fingers spread out in a fanned position.

Still, it works quite well for getting the thumb over the fingerboard edge and doing bluesy bends and things like that. My hands aren't big at all and I have no problem doing bends and the "normal" stuff. Normally, I tend to use a position where my left-hand thumb is slightly above the edge of the fingerboard and I can still use all four fingers to fret on the fingerboard and that hasn't been an issue at all.

Obviously, being that the scale length is noticeably longer on the low strings, the left hand does have to adapt to a "classical" position to cover three frets or more. But that's where the EudurNeck really shines. It feels so comfortable going from "blues" to "classical" as far as your left hand positioning is concerned. Whether you're playing open chords in the lower register or tapping and shredding away in the upper register, the left hand feels very relaxed and strong at the same time.

I can honestly say that I have never played a guitar as unique and ergonomically comfortable as this one. There is no other guitar even remotely similar. I've owned some well regarded "forward-looking" guitars in the past - Steinberger GM, Parker Fly Artist, and the Brian Moore MC/1 but I was never able to bond with any of 'em, probably due to their heavy reliance on composite materials which impart a cold and sterile tone.

The Strandberg guitars are all glorious tone woods - except for a pair of thin graphite strips in the neck for stability purposes. Acoustically, it's amazingly resonant with superb balance between the lows, mids, and highs. Due to the individual bridge saddles, each string resonates like a bell without any "crosstalk" on the bridge. The natural sustain, as expected, is exceptional - ringing clearly and evenly with a very smooth decay across the entire fingerboard. Playing it unplugged in a quiet room, it sounds and feels more like a fine jazz archtop guitar. But when you plug it in with the most extreme distortion settings, it is as tight and punchy as any solid-body I've tried.

Well, yeah, I'm in a dreamy honeymoon phase but I've been through a lot of those with new guitars in the past and I've never experienced anything like this. No, it's not for everyone but it's worth checking out at least once for those who are adventurous and are seeking truly innovative concepts in an electric guitar. After two weeks or so, I'm infatuated and flabbergasted and I'm quite certain that this one's a keeper (or one just like it). Very Happy
_________________
Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.


Last edited by alexkhan on Sat Jul 05, 2014 5:08 pm; edited 1 time in total
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alexkhan



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Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Sat Jul 05, 2014 5:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A nice touch is the glow-in-the-dark dots. Here are a few photos from Strandberg's FB page of a Boden 8 with True Temperament frets in the light and in the dark.





Here are a couple of video reviews of the Strandberg Boden 7 I saw on YT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9vmH4HAvJo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78kdDG5PpHk

And a photo of yours truly enjoying the Boden 8 through the iPad mini / JamUp Pro app and headphones at the beach on Independence Day... I can now actually look forward to beach and camp outings with this little rig! Very Happy


_________________
Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 4:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So I've been spending a lot of time over the past several weeks programming new patches on the Axe-Fx II with the Strandberg and I'm quite amazed by all the great different sounds I can get out of this rig. I can honestly say that I've never been happier with a rig although there's still a space to be filled with the upcoming Charvel GG Sig guitar.

I'm getting fairly proficient at getting around on the Axe-Fx II now - both using its front panel and using the Axe-Edit 3 app for the Mac to tweak laboriously and save for future recall. One can literally spend hours on one patch going through all the different amp models, cabs, microphones, and effects and the mind-boggling number of parameters of each.

I'm still flabbergasted that such a device even exists for us "lowly" guitar players. Laughing It's definitely a "mainframe" computer for the electric guitar. The multiple 20-space refrigerator racks rig with the most high-end digital rack-mount processors, the most sought-after vintage pedals and amps, a warehouse full of speaker cabinets, all the mic's, the routers and mixers, etc. that we all dreamt of owning at one time or another are in this two-space rack unit.

One does need to make a determined commitment to learn to operate the unit and go in and tweak the existing presets (or outright replace them because some of them are pretty useless) but that time invested will be rewarded greatly with some truly great sounds and unbeatable flexibility in a relatively compact and very clean package.

Believe me, I never liked programming high-end rack units like the Eventide and TC stuff at Tone Merchants. I put together some monster rack-based demo rigs but only used existing presets as I just didn't have the time or the patience to read the intimidatingly thick manuals and actually program the damn things. And those rigs weren't flexible at all. It'd be a major hassle to plug in a different amp or effects devices and/or change the routing in any way.

Sometimes you only want a Fender Tweed Bassman kind of amp with a little bit of spring reverb and nothing else. This rig can do that surprisingly well and then go to the most overly-processed 80's arena-rock lead sound that engulfs the room with a stomp of the footswitch and it's beautiful and dead quiet as well once you get the hang of tweaking the parameters of the noise gate. I couldn't even imagine doing something like that with the big rack rigs of the past. I look back on that and think, "Geez, what a friggin' waste all that was..." All I can say is that I experienced it and learned from it (mainly not to ever pursue something like that again!).

That being said, the bewildering number of tweakable parameters can get annoying after a while and it's best to just avoid some pages with the "advanced" options like tweaking the components like capacitors, cathode thresholds, supply sag, bias excursion, and dozens of other such geek terms to manipulate the guts of the virtual devices within. It can get rather ridiculous but I suppose some people want all that "power" to tweak their sounds.

I guess a part of me is from the "old school" and I just want to turn a few knobs and turn pedals on and off by stomping on them. That's why I prefer having the different effects for each patch available to turn on and off like a pedalboard of real pedals on the MFC-101 foot controller rather than having "scenes" of different effects combinations. When I updated the firmware on the MFC-101 recently, it didn't act like a "normal" pedalboard anymore and I contacted Fractal about it. They said that the default now is the "scenes" and I had to reprogram the MFC-101 if I wanted to go back to where things were. Rolling Eyes Oh well, so that's what I had to do and now it's back to way I like it. Ah, the foibles of technology!

Still, I do like having all these options than not. As I said, one can just ignore a lot of these parameters because most of them have a barely perceptible effect no matter how you tweak them. I've even used high-end headphones to see what these parameters do and it's still hard to tell the difference in many cases. But I suppose that they can be useful when recording and you're being ultra critical about how the guitar sound sits in the mix.

One thing is for sure: the different cab/speaker models and IR's (impulse responses) do make a huge difference. You can make an amp sound completely different by switching out cabs and even experiment with unlikely combos - like a Deluxe Reverb head through a 4x12 or an over-the-top high-powered metal distortion head through a 1x10 without worrying about blowing out the speakers. You get some really interesting results and some actually end up sounding quite good. Now try to do that in your garage! Wink The possibilities are literally endless and that can be a good thing and a bad thing. The bad is that you spend countless hours tweaking sounds while you play the same power chords or licks over and over again instead of playing real music. After a few hours of that, you go: "WTF, I just spent all that time trying to find the 'perfect' cab for this amp..." Laughing It can definitely end up being a trap. One needs to strike the right balance.

Getting back to the Strandberg, I suppose I'm still in the honeymoon phase since I've had the guitar for little over a month now. I still struggle with strumming normal chords at times and with fingerpicking arpeggios but I'm getting better at it. Single-note playing isn't an issue at all anymore. Doing the "Djent" stuff with power chords on the low strings along with the "normal" E and A strings is fun and easy. You just have more low-sounding power chords at your disposal that you can bang away on. But extending "jazz" chords or even simple major and minor chords can get rather tricky. For me, that's the biggest learning curve.

Another thing that I'm still trying to get used to is the higher tension due to the longer scale length on all of the strings. The high-E is 26.5", which is a full one inch longer than the Strat scale length. It's definitely more work to bend the plain strings up a whole step or 1 1/2 steps. It's not as tough as going from .010 to .011 in gauge but perhaps somewhere in between. It definitely feels a little stiffer but it's kind of like going from a Les Paul to a Strat. Not a big deal.

I thought about tuning all the strings down half-step a la "Eb" but then the low strings would get floppier and I really like the tension of the low strings as they are now. I did tune the low strings down a whole-step and half-step just to feel what the tension would be like and I decided I prefer the higher tension and the "snap" I get when hitting those low strings hard. I know that Meshuggah tunes down half-step on their Ibanez 8-string guitars but those guitars are 29.4" scale, nearly 1.5" longer than this Strandberg.

One thing I hated about the 7-strings I've played in the past is the floppy and muddy low-B on the 25.5" scale. I've really come to see that for 7 and 8-string guitars the low strings need to have the longer scale lengths to feel good when picking and also sound defined through the amplifier. I think this Strandberg Boden 8 would still be fine if I tuned down half-step but I prefer the standard tuning and the extra tension. The entire guitar resonates in such a lively manner and the strings vibrate with a great deal of energy compared to "normal" scale-length guitars.

For me, what makes this guitar so cool is its amazing acoustic resonance. And it's really hard to believe that it's only 5 pounds (would be even lighter with the passive Lace pickups). When I hand people the guitar I always get this shocked and disbelieving look on their faces because of how light it is. And they start playing it and are even more amazed by how loud, resonant, and punchy it is. Yes, it's a super punchy guitar when you want to get aggressive and hence its overwhelming popularity in the prog metal/rock circles.

I've always felt that "normal" Strat-style solid-body guitars start sounding wimpy when going below 7 pounds. I've played some of those that are 6 pounds and 10 ounces or even a little below and I always thought they sounded "airy" and lacking punch. And I didn't like the chambered guitars either for the same reason. But the Strandberg goes completely against this experience and perception I've had about the weight of solid-body guitars and how it affects the feel and sound. It's a guitar that really defies the "rules" or preconceptions.

The way I see it, the Strandberg guitar is a triumph of design - in sound, in ergonomics, in feel and in looks as well. It certainly isn't a mere minor tweak of the many decades-old Strat, Tele, Les Paul, and superstrat designs that everyone else does. And there's a synergy here and every little aspect has been completely and thoroughly thought out to create a greater whole - from the ergonomic body to the headless neck and from the hardware to the unique and radical neck shape. The guitar balances superbly and its light weight makes it very comfortable to play for hours on end strapped to your shoulder while standing up. And it still feels really solid, which is almost weird.

When I take the guitar out of the gig-bag and show the guitar to people, they look at it and go, "Hmmm... that's cool." And as I'm about to hand it to them, I can tell that they expect the guitar to weigh around 8 pounds or more being that it's an 8-string. It looks like an intriguing but strange beast. Then when they hold it in their hands I always laugh at the incredulous look on their faces. They're all like, "Huh?!?" Laughing And then they feel the neck shape and say things like, "Hmmm... this is really weird..." Then they actually start playing it unplugged and go, "Wow, this thing really resonates." After about 15 minutes or so they're totally hooked: "Man, I can totally dig this. I get it now. That neck actually feels really good. It's amazing." I've heard long-time industry veterans - even whom I'd consider "conservative" or old school - say this over and over again.

And the thing is that the guitar sounds great for any kind of musical genre or style. And as mentioned before, I can't get over how great the EMG 808-X pickups sound. They're obviously awesome for over-the-top metal and modern super clean sounds (including acoustic simulations) but the surprise for me has been how great they sound for classic rock, blues and jazz styles. And this guitar has the best tone knob I've ever encountered on an electric guitar. Most of the time the tone knob is totally useless and rarely ever used. But on this guitar, you can turn it all the way down and you still have very nice definition but with a different EQ curve. I can set a clean Twin Reverb kind of patch with a bit of subtle chorus, light delay, and hall reverb reminiscent of Chris Isaak's haunting 'Wicked Game' sound and then turn down the tone knob and instantly get a Pat Metheny sound from the 80's 'Still Life' era. The tone knob turned all the way down is not merely "usable", it actually sounds great. I find it much better than having more pickup combinations available.

Well, I can go and on and on but I think I pretty much covered what my experience has been like over the past 5 weeks or so that I've had the guitar in my hands. I can honestly say that it's the most amazing "guitar" I've ever had the pleasure of playing. It's certainly not your run-of-the-mill copycat guitar of old existing designs. This guitar isn't evolutionary, it really is "revolutionary" from a design perspective while staying true to time-tested concepts like using great sounding tone woods (instead of composite materials) to get the familiar sounds and resonance. But the sonic range has been greatly expanded without compromise and the playing comfort has been raised to a new level through ingenious ergonomic designs.

I still want "normal" guitars - like the upcoming Charvel GG - but I've always wondered about how much further the solid-body electric guitar can progress in a meaningful manner (not just for the sake of change). It's what I've always wanted to be involved with. I'm just not the type who cares much about the past and re-doing the same stuff over and over again. I don't like listening to old music of bygone eras either. I'm not the nostalgic type at all. I'm interested in now and the future. I love history but, for me, it's always been about learning from it and to apply what I've learned to the present and shape a new future with new ideas and innovations. In my mind, the Strandberg fits that mold perfectly and I'm absolutely thrilled with the guitar and to be working closely with Ola in some capacity to build the business and introduce more people to his innovations, concepts, ideas, and designs. The future is looking mighty bright and exciting. Cool
_________________
Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 6:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

One thing I've been wanting to nail down on the Axe-Fx was a good acoustic guitar simulator. Most simulators sound pretty fake but I watched/heard Devin Townsend's 'Retinal Circus' video/CD and he and his 2nd guitarist were getting some really convincing acoustic sounds with their electrics through the Axe-Fx. But I noticed there were no acoustic sims amongst the presets and wondered how to get it. So I did a little search and found that an Axe-Fx expert who goes by Fremen had some presets to download which included an acoustic simulator.

I downloaded the presets and imported the acoustic sim preset into my Axe-Fx through the Axe-Edit app on my MacBook Air. I overwrote a preset I didn't care for with the sim and started strumming some chords and, immediately, I was like, "Wow!" Shocked It sounds so much better than most acoustic-electric guitars with piezo pickups going through acoustic guitar amps that I've heard and I get to hear that daily at GC doing QC work. Granted, it's not like a high-end Martin being mic'd by high-end Neumann mic's but such expectations would be unrealistic anyway.

Here is what the preset looks like on the Axe-Edit app.



I looked at this thoroughly (including all the parameters for each of the effects blocks) and thought, "Geez, I'm just an elementary school kid learning multiplication and division compared to this guy who's mastered advanced calculus in college." Rolling Eyes Well, I'm sure glad someone like him is doing all this work and sharing it for free with a Neanderthal like me. Laughing And that's the cool thing about all this and the burgeoning Axe-Fx online community. All the resources are out there with so many people willing to share their experience and knowledge.

So, how does it sound? After all, that's the bottom line. I've only tested this preset with the Sennheiser HD598 headphones and I can honestly say that it far exceeded my expectations of what an acoustic sim should sound like. It sounds and even feels like "air" is being pushed although it's all in the pristine digital vacuum. I've had some nice acoustics with the fancy Fishman preamps that combined piezo with a built-in mic through a high-end acoustic amp and the Strandberg through the Axe-Fx II with this acoustic sim preset sounds a lot better (i.e, more realistic) to my ears. Amazing...

And when adding the Strandberg's two low strings to common chords for fingerpicking or strumming, the sound becomes deep and expansive. It's literally jaw-dropping and made me think that I've been missing out but that I won't do so anymore! There is something to be said about the sound of an acoustic guitar amplified. It has its own sound that our ears have become used to. It's not like listening to a pure acoustic guitar sound in a room but it's quite pleasing nonetheless in a different way. And this certainly sounds better than having piezo saddles on a solid-body electric. Very cool indeed. Cool
_________________
Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 1:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Strandberg came out with a new balanced tension string set for the 8-string so I felt obliged to try although I had gotten used to the higher tension with the longer scale length using 10's with a .059 for the low-B and .074 for the low-F#.

Even though I had adjusted somewhat to the extra tension, it always felt a bit too stiff when doing bends on the three high strings. People who had played it for a while also commented that the higher tension made the bends more difficult. Well, since I'm holding onto the guitar as a demo unit to show to as many people in the industry as I can, it made sense to try out this new calibrated set. Here's the packaging for the 8-string set.





Now that I have this balanced tension set on the guitar, it really does feel more like a "normal" guitar. The E-to-E gauge is essentially a .009 set with a few minor tweaks to get it to feel as close to a .010 set on a 25.5" scale guitar. It feels great.

What really made a noticeable difference in the other way was the heavier .084 for the low-F#. It now feels nice and tight with plenty of definition. No flop whatsoever.

Ola does it again. He's the most brilliant guitar mind I've had the pleasure to work with and I look forward to working even closer with him in the future on a variety of fronts. The guitar is amazing and the design concepts and technical innovations are really unmatched in the industry. I marvel at it every time I pick it up and play. Cool
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
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Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 10:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just returned from another adventure in Asia and took the Boden 8 with me on this trip and it was really nice to have a great full-sized guitar to play in the hotel room, at the factory and even in the airport lounge. Sure, it's a good deal heftier than the Traveler but the Boden 8 still weighs only 5 pounds so carrying it strapped to my shoulders didn't feel heavy at all. I almost never felt the need to take the gig-bag off of my back during the transits and the typical waits at the airport. That's how light it is.

I did get a new backpack with wheels for all the high-tech gadgets (MBA, two iPads, backup drive, iPod Classic with JDS Labs headphone amp, and the Bose SoundLink Mini speaker) and that definitely helped for the long strolls through the airport. It would not have been fun to carry that around in one hand. So with the Strandberg on my back and the rolling backpack, I had the complete mobile guitar rig of the 21st century.

The Positive Grid JamUp Pro and BIAS are awesome apps for the road - so good that I don't miss the Axe-Fx II during my travels. In the hotel room I plugged the iPad into the Bose and I used a nice pair of Klipsch earbuds in the office during the long lunch breaks or in the airport lounge. I could tell that people were quite fascinated with the Strandberg plugged into the iPad. Yes, we are not in the 1970's anymore. Wink

Here are some pics of this nice no-compromise little rig in the hotel room.

















My travel rig is a little heftier than before but the rolling backpack makes the long walks through the airports a breeze. The weight of the Strandberg in the gig-bag is negligible. I could walk miles and not be bothered with it but I make sure I don't carry anything else in the gig-bag except for the Apogee Jam interface, a 3ft Evidence Audio cable, ear buds, some extra strings and a few picks.



Pics of the Boden 8 hooked up to the rig in the Guangzhou airport lounge during a long layover. Sured helped time go by fast! Smile




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Carlo



Joined: 13 Sep 2004
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 2:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Awesome pictures Ed. Your report is making me GAS for one. My tastes in guitars is rather conservative these days, my main electric axe still being a Les Paul 58 Historic, with my Suhr Modern being my more "adventurous" axe. But that Boden 8 is looking mighty sexy. Looks very compact and ergonomic without looking too "toyish" like other headless designs; it truly looks like a serious Ferrari-like instrument.

Very nice photos. And your setup looks so damn clean.
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alexkhan



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PostPosted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 4:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Carlo wrote:
Awesome pictures Ed. Your report is making me GAS for one. My tastes in guitars is rather conservative these days, my main electric axe still being a Les Paul 58 Historic, with my Suhr Modern being my more "adventurous" axe. But that Boden 8 is looking mighty sexy. Looks very compact and ergonomic without looking too "toyish" like other headless designs; it truly looks like a serious Ferrari-like instrument.

Very nice photos. And your setup looks so damn clean.


Thanks, Carlo. I got "conservative" as well after going through the likes of Steinberger, Parker, Brian Moore in the past. They were cool in certain ways but I just couldn't bond with them because of all the synthetic materials that made the guitars sound cold or sterile. They didn't feel all that inviting either. But I've always been open-minded to new concepts as long as they made sense and Strandberg really thought everything out very thoroughly.

For one, there is simply no substitute for wood and the Strandberg is all glorious tone woods. It is compact but it actually has a much longer scale length than most solid-body electric guitars. The ergonomics are amazing. It's by far the most comfortable guitar I have ever played. Yes, it really is like the Ferrari (or whatever other brand super sports car) of electric guitars.

BTW, really cool that you have the '58 Les Paul Historic. I'd love to get a '57 Gold Top reissue someday. I've always had a soft spot for that particular Les Paul for some reason but a '58 or '59 Cherry Burst really is the quintessential Les Paul. I bought my son an Epiphone Les Paul as he preferred the look of it over Strats and similar clones and I can see why. It has a timeless look and feel about it - more so than a Strat or a Tele. It just looks sexier to me.

Getting back to the Strandberg and as I stated earlier, it has a sound wholly its own. Doesn't sound like a Strat, Tele, Les Paul or a typical superstrat. I'm going to get a Boden 6 next as that'd be a better "demo" guitar for me to have around. Too many people pick up the Boden 8 and are blown away by it but are disoriented by the two extra strings and don't want to play it. Laughing

Yes, I like things very neat, clean and organized. I also value simplicity and prefer modern minimalism in design. The guitar world is typically the complete opposite of that. Messy looking rigs, messy stores, messy factories and repair shops, messy workbenches... Messy is normally the word for anything guitar-oriented. No thanks! Wink
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Last edited by alexkhan on Wed Sep 24, 2014 8:55 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Carlo



Joined: 13 Sep 2004
Posts: 408

PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 5:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

As much as I try to be more green, i agree that nothing will be replacing wood for guitars any time soon. I tried that Aristedes guitar one time, and I think it sounded underwhelming.

I've been also GASing for a 57 Gold Top myself Very Happy
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alexkhan



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PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 9:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Carlo wrote:
As much as I try to be more green, i agree that nothing will be replacing wood for guitars any time soon. I tried that Aristedes guitar one time, and I think it sounded underwhelming.

I've been also GASing for a 57 Gold Top myself Very Happy


Believe me, I've tried lots of different guitars with "alternative" materials over the years and they just weren't even close. I just looked up Aristedes and the story about the Arium material and construction. I'd be interested in trying it out but I'd imagine it's going to sound more similar to other composite material guitars than all-wood guitars. Another thing to consider is how it feels as the strings vibrate and the guitar resonates.

The thing is that all these composite materials were never developed with a guitar's tonal considerations in mind - just for strength, lightness, and various industrial applications. Someday, they may develop the technologies to "clone" wood down to microscopic cellular or even molecular level and use 3D printing and/or nanotech to manufacture "wooden" products but at what cost?

That being said, wood is becoming more and more scarce all the time. I'm constantly dealing with the scarcity issue with guitar factories in Asia. Wood prices will continue to go up and the quality of what's available will continue to go down. Whether it's a sub-$100 beginner's acoustic or a $4K high-end pro electric (and I deal with both and every price point in between), this issue will have an effect long into the future.
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alexkhan



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PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 12:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Strandberg is in the process of assembling one of the most talented artist rosters in the world - some artists who are well-known and some not-so-well-known. What they all have in common is great musical talent. One is a young lady named Yvette Young based in the Bay Area whom I got to meet her there several months ago to record a Strandberg-produced video.

Yvette comes from a classically trained background (piano, violin, and composition) and took up the acoustic guitar on her own in her teens. She writes her own music and is very active in the Bay Area music scene, is traveling to Japan very soon to perform there, and has formed a band with modern math-rock and post-rock leanings.

Yvette and I correspond on a regular basis and she has introduced me to a lot of new music being made by her peers - today's young artists and bands (the late-teens and early twenty-somethings). The music is really refreshing, intelligent, and creative. There's a vast world of indie music by the young up and comers that aren't all trashy pop we get bombarded with in mainstream media.

It's really great corresponding and getting to know young talent like Yvette and Plini who have virtually unlimited potential. I'm looking forward to many years following their progress and doing what I can within this industry to help them gain wider exposure.

Here's a new video of her performing with her Strandberg Boden 7, a part of a new song with her band, Covet. She's getting quite comfortable on the 7-string. Smile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s22dceatYTw
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alexkhan



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PostPosted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 2:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

One aspect of this rig that I really, really like that you can't get from "conventional" tube amp rigs is that I can play along to music (iTunes library, backing tracks, loops, etc.) through it. Playing along with something else going on in the background is what makes it much more fun than playing the same licks, riffs and scales you know alone over and over again.

This rig makes it so easy to play along to your favorite music or take video lessons with the sound coming through the same speakers that your guitar sound is coming out of. I do have to readjust the guitar tone settings a bit (basically make it sound smaller with less effects) to have it sit properly in the mix but that's what it's really like when playing in a band. The guitar sound is just one part of the equation.

When we're playing alone, we like to make it sound big and make up for the lack of other frequencies we'd hear when we listen to a full band. So we add a lot of low-end (bass and/or low-mids), a bit of chorus, delays and reverb to make the guitar tone sound bigger and fuller. The problem is that when you dial in that kind of sound for playing alone, it just gets washed out in a mix with bass, drums and keyboards - especially the drums.

So, essentially, judging an amp at a music store alone or in one's bedroom gives you very little idea of how it will sound in a dense mix. When I was at Tone Merchants, I've had guys love certain amps trying 'em out at the store and then return them several days later after the first band rehearsals. They all said that the amps sounded completely different in a live band setting.

The same goes in a studio setting. What you hear of an amp in the room by itself and how it sounds through the studio monitors within a mix is completely different. And I really don't care to hear a loud tube amp on its own anymore. I'd rather hear the sound coming through a full-range system with the music and other instruments.

If and when I want to play alone and dial in that "boutique" sound there's no problem doing that with this rig either. So, for me, this rig is about as perfect as it can be for a hobbyist mainly playing at home. Playing along to something through the same speaker system has made playing much more enjoyable and hassle-free.

It's fairly easy to dial in the sound that sits good in a mix with a rig like this. For one, I reduce the effects mix on the guitar sound or get rid of 'em altogether and just go for a totally dry sound. Balancing the volume levels between the guitar and music playback is just a matter of turning a few knobs and/or using a volume pedal. This is so much better than trying to play along with music from small stereo speakers in one corner of the room and a super loud tube amp in another corner of the room.

I know that the ideal thing would be to have everything go through a mixer but I don't do home recording and just like to play along to things so this works out just fine. And another great bonus that you can't get with tube amps is late night noodling and jamming along to tracks with headphones on. I do that with the iPad running JamUp Pro playing stuff from the iTunes library.

I just don't see the necessity of tube amps anymore and more and more artists are feeling the same. I was having a chat with Plini about the live rig he'll be putting together and he advised me that he's planning to go direct from his Axe-Fx to the PA and have a FRFR system like I have for stage volume. Many artists and bands these days now go direct and use IEM's and that's a prevailing trend these days. This makes it much easier to replicate the studio sounds in a live setting.

Guthrie used his Axe-Fx direct with IEM's for monitoring during his recent Hans Zimmer gigs. He uses IEM's for Steven Wilson shows as well. Ultimately, it's all about how the guitar sounds in the overall musical picture, not how good it sounds alone in a room.
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alexkhan



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PostPosted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 4:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So Marco Minnemann and I had a nice sushi lunch hang on Sunday as we hadn't seen each other in a long while with his Satriani and Aristocrats tours (with a Steven Wilson album session in between) over the past 8 months or so. He said he was very curious about the Strandberg Boden 8 based on what he heard from Guthrie about it so I brought it along and he brought over a brand new Les Paul Goldtop that he had acquired recently.

It's always a lot of fun to hang out with Marco. He's such an intelligent and witty guy with a great sense of humor. We had a lot of catching up to do and talked about the tours and all that had been going on in our lives. And, of course, we talked a lot about guitars. Smile We were out in the patio with nobody else around so we each whipped out our respective guitars and started checking them out. Marco checked out my Strandberg and I checked out his Les Paul with great interest.

Marco was quite impressed by the Boden 8, much more so that he thought he would. I really dug his Goldtop as well since that's the one Les Paul I have always wanted. So we kept talking and he said that he'd love to try out the Boden 8 in his home studio. I was thinking, "Yeah, sure, that'd be fine." Then he told me that he's leaving for New Zealand on Wed for another tour that'll last around three weeks. At first, "3 weeks?..." I didn't want to part with the Strandberg for that long but the guitar is for demo purposes anyway and it's about getting the "influential" people checking it out. Well, Marco is as good as any and he'll be with Satch and Mike Keneally so I said, "Sure, Marco. Take it with you and enjoy the featherweight guitar during the long jaunts through the airports." Very Happy

The Les Paul is great, by the way. This one's special and a really LP is not easy to find. I'm still looking forward to getting one myself. The only thing is that the LP is about twice as heavy as the Strandberg but I'd only play it sitting down anyway. The tone is thick, rich yet still cutting with plenty of bite - exactly what a great Les Paul should sound like. The feel is excellent and it plays superbly. Marco really found a gem here. The only thing I'd change purely from an aesthetic sense would be to have the nickel covers on the pickups. I know the covers roll off the high-end a bit but that's what I'd want anyway and it'd look "right" to my eyes.

Here's a pic that Marco posted on his FB page with his own 21st-century rig - my Boden 8 with a Kemper hooked up to his recording rig. I need to try out that Kemper someday. Haven't tried it yet and would love to compare it my Axe-Fx II.



And here's a pic of Marco's new Les Paul Goldtop after I brought it home. Really nice. There's a timeless beauty to it. Personally, it's the only "single-cut" set-neck guitar that looks right in my eyes. I know there are many high-quality boutique set-neck guitars out there but they just don't look right to me. I guess it's the image of Jimmy Page and Slash with their low-slung Les Pauls that have been ingrained in my brain but I can't imagine wanting any other single-cut set-neck guitar.


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alexkhan



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PostPosted: Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Marco is on tour of New Zealand, Australia and Singapore right now with Joe Satriani and he took time to post some comments about the Strandberg Boden 8 I loaned him to use on the tour.

"Little selfie with the new Strandberg guitar:
I received some comments and questions about the guitar shown in my last studio update.
Well, this quite miraculous piece of gear I have to say, is a Strandberg 8-string.
It's an innovative, very well made guitar, which has exceptional playability and versatility.
And it already inspired me to write some new songs with it for my next upcoming releases.
On that note I'd like to thank very much Ola Strandberg and Ed Yoon for introducing me to that fantastic 'secret weapon'.
For more info, check out www.strandbergguitars.com"




Really cool. Ola and I are obviously very happy to know that he loves the guitar so much. Cool
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