I'm gonna treat this thread like a general Strandberg thread if that's ok...
So I just got a Boden Standard 6 Trem. Here are my early impressions:
I am not at all attached to oldshcool guitar design tropes. Just because some of the music I like was made by strat and LP players, doesn't mean I want one. Modern evolution is good.
Weight and size: My main reasons for buying this guitar. I play for long periods and I keep my guitar strapped on while I am doing DAW work on a standing computer setup. My 6.75 lb super strat was still heavy enough to put strain on my back and shoulder. A ~5 lb guitar feels so much lighter. It almost seems like lighter would be too light. The fact that I could easily travel with this guitar is well worth the hassle of tuning at the bridge.
10/10
The back of the neck: overall, I like the ridges. I do wish they had a bit more edge radius. It was only a little weird at first, but I have adapted just fine.
8/10
Fanned frets: I am no prog shredder and tend to slide chords around a lot, so this was a bit of a negative for me. I find the fan a little annoying when playing chords up the neck. Overall, it's not a big deal though...
7/10
20" Radius frets: Yuck. All my other necks are Warmoth compound 10"-16." Seems to me like this is a far superior approach. A couple barre chords are noticeably hard now. It seems like the design choice was made to suit a particular style of playing and I am by no means that proficient. I am hoping I can adjust, but wishing they didn't make such an extreme choice.
3/10
Neck joint: Physically, it is nice and low profile, but it is positioned so that it starts 2 frets lower down the neck than my superstrats. I am thinking of selling this one and moving to a neck through.
6/10
Other comfort factors: The shape is mostly good (albeit hard to hang or rack). The forearm curve is too little and the edge radius of the body is way to sharp. I hit my right hand on the lower arm due to the shitty control layout and it is uncomfortable.
5/10
The controls: suck suck suck. I hate blade switches anyway and this one is way too close to the strings. I feel like I have to play like a virtuoso to avoid hitting it. If I strum more towards the back, I hit the volume knob, which is not in the normal stupid spot parallel to the bridge pickup. It is also impossible to roll the volume knob with the pinky side of the hand. Strandberg pushed the envelope with most other things, but kept the stupid problems of strat controls. Given the small body size, I can see why it is a hard problem though. If I keep this one, I will have to drill a hole through the slot and switch it to a rotary pickup selector. I'll get a super low profile knob for the volume position and swap it so that the volume pot is where the tone is stock.
4/10
Pickups: I was totally impressed with them. The SCs sound appropriately stratish and the bridge humbucker stands up nicely to my favorites from Bare Knuckle and PRS. I thought I'd be swapping, but no need at all.
9/10
Bridge: I was worried that the slant of the bridge would make it hard to palm mute, but it actually works out great. I thought that bridge picking would be weird, but so far it is working out ok. Floating the trem seems pointless though because the tuners are so hard to turn that I push the bridge out of tune when I am spinning them. The trem overall doesn't feel as good as a strat - it is not surfy at all so I am wondering if I'd be better off with a fixed bridge. I'll probably block it so it is down only. Of course the tuners are a necessary compromise and they'll never be as nice as the sperzels on my super strat.
6/10
Overall, the weight and size are so important to me that I feel like I am stuck with the rest of the compromises. I could have gone with a Kiesel, but the resale isn't as good and they use hipshot trems which weigh so much that they would be hard pressed to get below 6lbs, much less 5.
7/10
