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Strandberg Basses


Rick05
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Hi, 

Sorry if this has been covered before, but I have been looking at the Strandberg basses, particularly the Boden Prog bass, with a lot of curiosity and envy recently.

Does anyone have any experiences with these basses that they can share?  

Thanks,

Rick 

 

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1 hour ago, Machines said:

 

I get you, they used to be made in USA but I reckon the amount they were selling wasn't covering the expenses and rates for a shop in illinois

yhe the moved to Indonesia few years back

However........ I ve played few and to be honest they better then most European USA handmade instruments

I guess location on where the bass is made hasn't much to do with costs nowdays   components woods gonna cost the same if not more in the far east as they will be imported

All I wanna say its don't let put yourself off cause of the location

strandberg are unbelievable instruments

price seem in the right range at least for me

Edited by fiatcoupe432
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I've tried a Boden Prog. Lovely, if somewhat esoteric. I tried it out as I'm on a bit of a quest for something super-light.

Weighs practically nothing, which I love - my back and neck very much appreciate that at my age! It weighs maybe 7lbs. It's small and would fit in a guitar gig bag. Neck is a strange, bevelled shape and the whole headless thing always throws me (you'll feel like the neck ends too soon). Plays like butter though, very well-dressed frets, low action and a surprisingly big sound for such a small, light instrument, with super-punchy mids and a great B string. It's also extremely crisp and will magnify any faults in your technique! 

Downsides? Pricey. No variations in finishes or colours. No fretless option (although fretless on a multiscale bass would be a bit weird). If they did some of the funky colour schemes they offer on their guitars I'd definitely be more interested, especially if they did one like the new Per Nilsson Singularity guitar, with the red-and-black stained ash body and the red anodised hardware. 

Verdict: Awesome, but definitely try before you buy. 

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Thanks guys that’s a massive help. I really like the current finishes, but it will be interesting to see what they come up with in future.

I’m going to have to check one out as I’m really interested to hear the range of tones you can get from the Nordstrand pickups and Darkglass preamp on the prog bass.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I was super interested and excited on them until I saw the price tag.... personally, 2.7k+ is overkill for me - I can get a custom spec'd for that...

I was genuinely expecting it'd be around 2k 'just'...! Similar to China Dingwalls etc....

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Surely the quality of the instrument is the important bit rather than some ill-conceived negative bias against far-Eastern manufacture? Remember when Japanese instruments were looked down upon? I’m sure even Indonesians can build high quality instruments given the appropriate platform to do so.

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Check the other thread on these.  There have been a few quality control issues on the ones i've tried and other people have commented on this as well. Sharp hardware, roughly routed wood and a few other things.  They play really nice and the neck is superb, but the rest of the bass feels like a mid range far eastern instrument, only it costs nearly £3k. 

I'd buy one if they were Ibanez priced as they feel at that kind of level, but never for the amount they want.  Check out the new Ibanez headless range instead with the nordstrand pickups and fancy finishes at half the cost.

Edited by Kev
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Surely if you spec a custom multi-scale to the same level it's going to end up costing about the same?

So, you don't get to specify everything about it, but you don't have to wait six months plus to get it and you can choose not to buy it if you don't like it.

6 minutes ago, Kev said:

Check the other thread on these.  There have been a few quality control issues on the ones i've tried and other people have commented on this as well. Sharp hardware, roughly routed wood and a few other things.  They play really nice and the neck is superb, but the rest of the bass feels like a mid range far eastern instrument, only it costs nearly £3k.

Ah, fair enough.  Direct experience trumps my ill-informed speculations.

 

 

Edited by linear
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Like I ve said in my previous post...

I ve played 4 strandberg,

my friend lend me a prog 5

which I had at least for 3 month while I was having my other bass built

I was so excited to go and pick my custom built which came close to 3k

Went home started to play and I actually cried! Wasn't Half as comfortable as the strandberg

the endurneck on the strandberg is amazing the build quality amazing and

the bass disappeared in your hands

after few minutes you forget you have a bass in your hands

IMO no one beats the strandberg comfort and playability

The rivals for me are Dingwall which in comfort and playability its second on my list

Regarding the country of manufacture.....

What's tge difference of strandberg built in the far east on cnc or a Dingwall built in Canada by cnc? I honestly see no difference

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15 minutes ago, fiatcoupe432 said:

What's tge difference of strandberg built in the far east on cnc or a Dingwall built in Canada by cnc? I honestly see no difference

The price.  Labour is an awful lot cheaper in the Far East and labour accounts for much of the cost of a bass.  Add to that running costs, warehouse space costs e.t.c. compared to UK/US/Canada.  You would expect a bass in the Far East to be cheaper as it cost the company less to build them.  You mention Dingwall, look at them as a comparison.  The Combustion range has all Canadian woods and electrics, the entire vibe of Dingwall and all the tone, the NG series is their most popular bass and is fantastic.  Yet, Dingwall chose to build them in the Far East to save cost and sell for half the price of their Canadian models.  They've nailed the business model, Standberg have sadly swung and missed.

Edited by Kev
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27 minutes ago, Kev said:

The price.  Labour is an awful lot cheaper in the Far East and labour accounts for much of the cost of a bass.  Add to that running costs, warehouse space costs e.t.c. compared to UK/US/Canada.  You would expect a bass in the Far East to be cheaper as it cost the company less to build them.  You mention Dingwall, look at them as a comparison.  The Combustion range has all Canadian woods and electrics, the entire vibe of Dingwall and all the tone, the NG series is their most popular bass and is fantastic.  Yet, Dingwall chose to build them in the Far East to save cost and sell for half the price of their Canadian models.  They've nailed the business model, Standberg have sadly swung and missed.

Yeah I get it it but.... They have decided to do a cheaper model and that's the reason why

quality obviosly differ one Dingwall to the other, otherwise wherever they were built they would be slightly cheaper

That's the reason you pay 5k for a mtd dingwall 6k for a fodera and all the other instrument so they price in my opinion is reflected in the price

Again this is only my opinion

I think £2500 is a fair price for a great instrument  no matter were it was built if quality is there I see no problem

Then people can argue that they prefer usa European built instruments over any other country,.

 

 

 

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2 minutes ago, fiatcoupe432 said:

Yeah I get it it but.... They have decided to do a cheaper model and that's the reason why

quality obviosly differ one Dingwall to the other, otherwise wherever they were built they would be slightly cheaper

That's the reason you pay 5k for a mtd dingwall 6k for a fodera and all the other instrument so they price in my opinion is reflected in the price

Again this is only my opinion

I think £2500 is a fair price for a great instrument  no matter were it was built if quality is there I see no problem

Then people can argue that they prefer usa European built instruments over any other country,.

The Strandberg seems to be the equivalent of the Dingwall Combustion/NG range, but the Dingwall is around half the price?  The Strandberg models are cost comparable to the Canadian Afterburner series, and these are bases built in Canada, without cheap labour, cheap factory space e.t.c. 

I am not questioning the quality of the instrument as a direct result of where they are made (although like I say, the 3 models I have tried have all had some kind of quality issue), its the cost and profit margins.  We aren't privy to that of course, but I just don't see how the Boden could cost double a Combustion/NG to build.  The Dingwall name has earned a lot of respect in the bass community as well and that in itself commands a price, whereas Strandberg are entirely new to it.

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Have you spoken to @Andyjr1515 about building one to your spec? Seems there's nothing on this bass that he hasn't put on a build. 

Fairly sure he can be competitive and as a returning customer I can tell you the build quality (check the various build threads) is up there with your high dollar builds.

You can only ask...

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I’d be really interested to compare the strandberg and the new Ibanez headless basses, though just in an aesthetic comparison I’m not too keen on the top horn on the Ibanez. Will be interesting to see how they compare.

I’ll also be interested to compare the strandberg and Dingwall to see what you get for the extra money. 

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