Headless guitars: yay or nay?

[IEatCats]

I switched to playing a strandberg boden 8 about a year ago and I swear by the thing now (I barely touch my other guitars now tbh) but I know that a lot of people truly hate the headless look.

Is there a consensus here?

[backwardsvoyager]

I had the Salen Classic for a while but sold it last year to finance a move. Seem to remember seeing a couple other headless guits floating around here also.

I miss the endurneck and multiscale, but the Salen desperately needed a forearm carve and was really picky with dirt pedals. Would happily pick up a Boden or something if they weren't so spenno nowadays.

Anyway, they look silly, and that is a GOOD THING. MORE SILLY GUITARS, PLEASE.

[Gone Fission]

Cort-made in S. Korea Music Yo Steinberger Spirit, GU Dlx I think? Double cut cherry burst ash body, HSH routs. The stock “Select by EMG” passive pickups were characterless. The R Trem is made to die and there is absolutely no support from the brand on parts or replacement parts. (Added a shim in the trem rout so I could install a J-Custom FX fixed bridge.) Other than the deficits, I’ve always really liked it. The neck is surprisingly deep and rounded, not a soft V but pushing its deep C that way.

I haven’t done the fanned fret or Standberg neck stuff, but I wouldn’t shy from trying them. I’m super cautious on proprietary hardware now, though.

[IEatCats]

Honestly the strandberg neck plays like a dream. I thought it would be weird at first but it's much more comfortable. My only complaint with mine is that I have an earlier model and there's no arm rest heel so it can irritate my forearm sometimes, but I know that was fixed in later revisions. Also the guitar is chambered so even my 8 string barely weighs anything. Switching from an Agile 8 to the boden helped my back a ton. I'm pretty sure my cat weighs more than that guitar.

I really don't get the hate for the look though, I think they're cool. Even the Steinberg design I was always into, but the strandberg lines look much more modern.

I've wanted to try a Salen for a minute now, I love the design.

Also I just noticed this new strandberg model
https://strandbergguitars.com/en-US/pro ... tural-2132

The fretboard curving at the bottom to meet the body design is so interesting.

[Blackened Soul]

I think they are cool.. I like the weirder custom and homemade stuff.. I am currently working on building a headless 7 string bass…

[Gone Fission]

If I had the shop and skills, I’d totally do a fancy wood version of the old boat paddle GL for a travel guitar. Would I want to spend for a modern TransTrem copy, though? Very cool but very pricey.

[dubkitty]

i’ve had one of the budget headless Steinbergers/Höfners on my maybe list for ages with the intent to put Bartolinis in it. don’t know if that’s something i need or if i just like it because Daevid Allen used to play a white Höfner.

[K2000]

I'm not a fan of the look at all, and I seem to prefer guitars with vintage style pickups, which headless guitars apparently lack.

I tried jamming with a friend who plays a Strandberg, who explained to me that he couldn't get a good distortion sound with the majority of dirt stomp boxes because of the Strandberg pickups. So we didn't have much in common, musically. Maybe there was a workaround but I didn't know it, and it's above my pay grade to explain things like that during a jam, even if I did know a workaround.

[The Eristic]

A headless Klein is a long-term dream guitar for me. Don't get along with the Strandberg neck but I like the body design.

[Blackened Soul]

I'm not a fan of the look at all, and I seem to prefer guitars with vintage style pickups, which headless guitars apparently lack.

I tried jamming with a friend who plays a Strandberg, who explained to me that he couldn't get a good distortion sound with the majority of dirt stomp boxes because of the Strandberg pickups. So we didn't have much in common, musically. Maybe there was a workaround but I didn't know it, and it's above my pay grade to explain things like that during a jam, even if I did know a workaround.

There are options other Strandberg and steinberger.. there are some peeps building some wild stuff…do a search in instagram for headless guitar.... guys like this are pretty cool
https://www.island-instruments.com/models-index/espeto
Plus.. pickups and electronics are pretty easy to swap out

[John]

For some reason I can vibe with headless basses but not guitars.

[IEatCats]

I'm not a fan of the look at all, and I seem to prefer guitars with vintage style pickups, which headless guitars apparently lack.

I tried jamming with a friend who plays a Strandberg, who explained to me that he couldn't get a good distortion sound with the majority of dirt stomp boxes because of the Strandberg pickups. So we didn't have much in common, musically. Maybe there was a workaround but I didn't know it, and it's above my pay grade to explain things like that during a jam, even if I did know a workaround.

I really didn't like the stock pups in my strandberg. I swapped them out for the Javier Reyes Fishman's and it was 10000% worth the change. Much better clean tone and better bass response. The EMGs it had were very thin imo.

[le lambin]

I’ll take a strandberger with cheese any day. I have the Boden essential and the Salen plini version. Plini has fancier everything and fanned frets but I like the essential way better. Fanned frets on a 6 string never made any sense to me and owning the plini only deepens this conviction.

I put in a set of Lollar telecaster pickups in the boden with a 3 way switch and it’s my fave guitar. Honestly I’m going to sell the salen and pick up another essential and put some other single coils in there.

I haven’t played my other guitars much since getting the boden- it’s just so much more light and comfortable, and it sounds and plays like magic.

[dubkitty]

one limiting factor is that i’m pretty sure i’ve never seen any modern headless guitar in a shop or in person (or at a concert for that matter!) which makes me reluctant to take an expensive chance. i think my least-liked aspect is tuning…it just looks less comfortable using tuners with those little barrel knobs you have to twist around their central axis as opposed to turning a tuner button. i also wonder about their ratio, and what ass-pain is involved in changing the strings and getting them to pitch. not as concerned about other ergonomic issues; i’ve played such a wide variety—from a 22.5” Duo Sonic through solid, chambered, semi-hollow to full archtops, long- and short-scale basses, acoustics from parlor to jumbo, one of those weird Gianinni acoustics with the leg cutout, pedal steel, and sundry folk instruments—that i doubt it’d be any more peculiar than a Flying V, Ovation, or the Luna electric bouzouki. i assume it’d require some adaptation. i guess i’d be more into the idea if i saw them used anywhere other than that field where prog, fusion, and metal are all talking at once.

[Gone Fission]

The old Steinberger GLs seemed to be David Rhodes’ guitar or primary one when he was backing Peter Gabriel (So) and Talk Talk (Colour of Spring era) and Reeves Gabrels was using the same at least for the first Tin Machine album. Dunno if that’s still too shreddy.