Wondering which left handed Strandberg guitars are available? Brace yourselves for an article that overuses the words ‘innovative’ and ‘ergonomic’!
Strandberg Guitars is based in Sweden, and builds cutting-edge headless guitars for the modern guitarist. Their instantly recognisable space-age model designs have been attracting some of the most talented players from around the world since their launch. Production model guitars are manufactured in Indonesia while Made to Measure and Custom Shop lines are produced in Sweden.
Strandbergs tend to be somewhat of a Marmite guitar – you either love them or you don’t. I feel that many people dismiss them instantly because they are too far removed from the ‘normal’ traditional guitar designs most companies stick to. If you happen across one in your local guitar store, try it and find out for yourself why these guitars make so much sense.
Here I am with a particularly lovely Boden OS6 in red (unfortunately no longer available).
The fact is that the design process behind these space-age guitars is nothing short of phenomenal. Ola Strandberg has taken the traditional guitar blueprint and torn it apart to produce something that improves upon age-old designs in almost every way possible. Let’s take a look at just a few of the features which make a Strandberg guitar so special.
Ever experienced your guitar headstock attempting to butt heads with the floor when wearing it with a strap? The headless design of a Strandberg ensures that this problem becomes a thing of the past. Through eliminating extra weight from the headstock, a Strandberg guitar is able to achieve very low weight while still retaining perfect balance. This results in a guitar which can be worn on stage with greater comfort for longer periods of time.
Not bothered about standing around on stage all night long? Even when sitting down, the ergonomically designed Strandberg body shape allows for multiple playing positions. The various carves in the lower half of the body allows the guitar to be held comfortably in almost any seated position.
But wait, there’s more! The innovations don’t stop here! Just take a look at Strandberg’s incredible EndurNeck design…
This outlandish looking neck profile has been developed to help keep your hand in a more ergonomic playing position so that you can stay injury free and also enjoy increased playing comfort.
Strandberg guitars also feature a multi-scale (or fanned fret) design. Slanty frets?! Not sure what that means? Take for example the Boden 7 which features a 25.5″-26.25″ scale length. This guitar features a 25.5″ scale length on the treble side and a longer 26.25″ scale length on the bass. This allows for tighter strings with improved tone on the bass side, and slinkier feeling strings on the treble side – the best of both worlds!
These are just a handful of the innovative features, but be sure to check out the Strandberg website (linked below) to find out more about what makes these guitars stand out.
Left Handed Strandberg Guitars
As these guitars are fairly niche, and southpaws comprise such a small percentage of the market, you won’t find too many left handed Strandberg guitars out in the wild. They operate a system similar to that of the Ibanez Spot Production series where they will occasionally make small runs of their more popular models as lefties. This means that you’ll need to be quick when left handed Strandberg guitars are released. I can confirm that in the store I work at here in the UK, these things sell like hotcakes.
Below I have listed some of the production models that are currently available on the USA website. Obviously these are subject to change! Other colours and configurations from previous runs will also be available on used guitar sites.
Strandberg Left Handed Boden Original
As you can probably deduce from the name, the Boden Original is the guitar that started it all for Strandberg. Main features include a chambered swamp ash body with bookmatched AAAA flamed maple top, a roasted maple neck with roasted birdseye maple fingerboard and Suhr pickups.
- Chambered swamp ash body w/ 4A flame maple top
- Carbon fiber reinforced bolt-on roasted maple neck w/ roasted birdseye maple fretboard
- 25″-25.5″ scale length (6-string) or 25.5″-26.25″ (7-string)
- 24 stainless steel Jescar frets
- 20″ fretboard radius
- Strandberg EGS series 5 fixed bridge
- Suhr SSH+ and SSV humbuckers
- Luminlay side dots and inlays
- Master volume, master tone and 5-way selector switch
- Strandberg gigbag
These are currently available left handed in both 6 and 7-string variations in either natural or black.
Strandberg Left Handed Boden Prog
The Prog series is very similar to the Original guitars detailed above, with the main differences being an ebony fingerboard, tremolo system and the use of Fishman active pickups on the 7-string models.
- Chambered swamp ash body w/ 4A flame maple top
- Carbon fiber reinforced bolt-on roasted maple neck w/ ebony fretboard
- 25″-25.5″ scale length (6-string) or 25.5″-26.25″ (7-string)
- 24 stainless steel Jescar frets
- 20″ fretboard radius
- Strandberg EGS series 5 tremolo bridge
- Suhr SSH+ and SSV humbuckers (6-string) or Fishman Fluence (7-string)
- Luminlay side dots and inlays
- Master volume, master tone and 5-way selector switch
- Strandberg gigbag
As with the Original series models above, these are available left handed in both 6 and 7-string versions in either black or natural.
Made To Measure and Custom Shop
At the time of writing the Strandberg Custom Shop is temporarily on hold while the company works on a new guitar configurator section for their website. I’m told that at the moment custom shop left handed Strandberg guitars will not be available, but this may be something that they will look into at a later date. Fingers crossed!
Videos
For good measure, here’s a quick video demo featuring the Boden Original.
Strandberg Website
The Strandberg site doesn’t currently have a left handed section, but does list all of the production left handed Strandbergs separately. To save having to scroll through each section you can simply type ‘lefty’ into the search box to throw up all current southpaw models. That’s as long as you live in the USA – the global website unfortunately doesn’t list southpaw models.
For more information:
Strandberg Website
