NGD Headless

[WRGKMC]

I pulled the trigger on a new guitar today. Couldn't pass up the price for $48. Its a Strandberg Oden OD6 Knockoff made in China so I wont get it for a months but the shipping was free.

I figured even if I need to mod it up it would be kind of neat to play

 

The bridge on this one is kind of cool. Its got a roller bridge and a little crank to speed wind the strings. I've never seen geared tuners like that but we'll see how it works. Its got enough mass to sustain well enough.

 

What typically happens with these bargain deals is they have a botched fret job or neck alignment issue so they sell them off cheap. I can level a fret board and replace the frets easily enough. If not I can chop the headstock off of one of my spare necks and fit it if the scale length is the same.

 

I have a Steinberger so I'm familiar with headless guitars. They are very light and easy to play. The pickups look to be EMG select copies on this one. Its hard to tell with the protective tape over them. Some Chinese pickups can be truly horrid and the wiring can be even worse. I bought a Plexiglas V that hummed like a bastard when I got it. It was soldered without flux so it was loaded with cold solder joints. I opened the cavity to find 3 feet of unshielded wire rolled up and stuffed in there. The pickups were the biggest joke of all. The had paper bobbins and when you pressed down on top of the pickup the things bent over. One fell into pieces when I pulled it out. The neck and body were fine however and I had a great player once I modded the electronics and replaced the nut

 

All that stuff is easy to replace, I got cabinets full of pickups and parts so I cant stick others in there if needed. The body is all maple and it looks like it would be comfortable to play sitting.

 

The white maple neck and blue body clash horribly but I don't care how it looks. I could sand the top down to bare maple to make it match if needed. Most of my guitars spend most of the time in the studio anyway these days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hellion_213]

Looks killer! HNGD!!

[DeepEnd]

Interesting looking guitar. Let us know what you think when it arrives.

[badpenguin]

Where di you get it? I want one!

[WRGKMC]

I was trolling EBay and did a buy now search by lowest price first.

 

This one for $69 caught my eye first, but short scales can be real tough to set up and keep in tune. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Laguna-LE50-Short-Scale-Electric-Guitar-Satin-Black-/162311570768?hash=item25ca860550:g:JnkAAOSw-0xYR7E4

 

I went back to looked today, This Jameson was the best deal going on today. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jameson-Black-Full-Size-Electric-Guitar-With-Humbucker-Pickup-2nd-Used-Demo-/371871640258?hash=item569546eac2:g:0PEAAOSwx6pYqd9E

 

 

There was another headless yesterday I almost bought. It had a Strat type vibrato bridge and no visible way of tuning the thing. I thought the photos might be stitched together from different guitars. I visited they're site and they had others with Steinberger style vibrato bridges (copies of Steinberger bridges) I liked the rosewood neck but didn't want to risk getting it because the photos made no sense.

 

 

 

[WRGKMC]

Will do. This is a risky buy and I may get burned, but I have bought a few from China and came out ahead even if I need to mod it to be a decent player.

[mrbrown49]

Congrats! Bridge design looks pretty interesting.

[WRGKMC]

Congrats! Bridge design looks pretty interesting.

 

Reminds me of a Fishing pole rig. Its kind of obvious the reel has a hole in it where the end of the string goes through. Its got a gear on it as does the knob. The little crank lets you wind up excess string.

 

The tuning ratio on my Steinberger is very high which makes it accurate when doing small tweaks. I'm hoping the gear ratio on this one 20:1 or better. I've changed the tuners on most my guitars to 20:1 ratios. The exceptions are my Gibson's and a few others with classic Kluson and keystone style tuners, which I keep stock.

[WRGKMC]

Well I rolled the dice and came up craps. Should have figured it was too good to be true.

 

I had to get Ebay to refund my money. The seller showed the item being shipped, but didn't post a tracking number. Then EBay removed the listing and kicked the seller off they're site. They said don't worry. If you paid for the item it would most likely show up. I said screw that - No Tracking number? I put in a claim and two days later they refunded me.

 

That's one big reason I use Pay pal. They hold the money till the buyer has received the item and the buyer doesn't have access to your credit card info. If you come across a deadbeat seller, EBay simply reverses the charges and the money gets reimbursed back to your pay pal account.

[onelife]

Well I rolled the dice and came up craps. Should have figured it was too good to be true...

 

We learn from our mistakes.

[DeepEnd]

Sorry to hear it didn't work out. Better luck next time.

[mrbrown49]

Thats a shame. I was looking forward to your review. Oh well,better luck next time.

[Grant Harding]

Why not get a real one? They're great guitars.

 

A $50 knock off from China? Really?

[WRGKMC]

I own a Steinberger so a headless guitar really isn't a new novelty for me. I own maybe 30 instruments, half of those are high end Fenders, Gibsons, Ricks etc. The other half are either budget guitars like Squiers and Epiphones many of which have been modded and the rest are guitars I've built from scratch.

 

Amazingly the two I play the most are both my own builds. I have a couple half restored and one I simply need to lacquer and assemble,

 

If I had the $800 it cost for the original version of that instrument, I'd definitely pass on it. For $50 I could live with the looks. For $800 Its a fugly as hell. I can do way better buying an instrument in that dollar range.

[WRGKMC]

I've scored more wins then losses like that. I've only had one other where a seller backed out. I suspect he hadn't realized he had it up as a buy now item. when you add in the free shipping and the percentage Ebay takes it didn't make sense. He could have communicated with me though. So long as I got refunded I didn't care if I lost the deal.

[WRGKMC]

It wasn't a mistake, it was a gamble. There's a difference between going into something with your eyes open suspecting it might fail and willing to face the consequences if it didn't.

 

I've dealt with sellers from China before and this seems to be a pattern. This one probably didn't understand pay pals buyer protection. Pay Pal withholds payment till the buyer has received his item.

 

Out of the hundreds of purchases I've made on EBay I was only burned once and that was long ago before they had the buyer protection. Think I lost $15 in 20 years. The wins well outweigh the losses by many thousands. That's what auctions are all about. You risk some loss to make some gains.

[knotty]

[Grant Harding]

The original is closer to $4K and they're stellar guitars.

 

https://strandbergguitars.com/product/boden-headless-custom-6-string-guitar/

[Grant Harding]

I'd be interested to know what you think is better. Listen to some clips or try to play one. They're top of the line.

[WRGKMC]

That's they're custom shop version. They sell between $1600 to $1800 new for they're factory versions and you can buy one for $499 here. https://www.ebay.com/p/?iid=162468640065&lpid=82&&&ul_noapp=true&chn=ps

[WRGKMC]

I'd be interested to know what you think is better. Listen to some clips or try to play one. They're top of the line.

 

I'm sure an actual Strandberg is a fine guitar and as you say even a top of the line build. I'm truly not interest in buying one however. They seem to be only sold on line. Unless a place like guitar center (which I haven't visited in 10 years) happened to have a trade in, or I bumped into a player on an open mic night, Its unlikely I'd come across an opportunity to try one.

 

If you're under the assumption I was buying a cheap clone because I expect it to sound like the real thing, I can assure you I didnt. I been playing guitar for 50 years and know the differences in quality when I make purchases, believe me.

 

I simply see that instrument from a purely raw material aspect. Ive been building guitars since the 70's. It cost me around $200 minus my labor time to build a budget instrument using generic parts. If I can get a decent instrument with a good neck and body for $50 and use a minimal amount work improving it to make it a decent player, its easier then doing a scratch build. I have plenty of spare parts collected over the years so most of that wouldn't cost me a dime at this point.

 

As far as listening to clips, it tells me absolutely nothing about an instruments quality. Here's one. It sounds like any other recorded guitar.

 

You have to ask yourself, What standard do you use when judging clip quality? My experience tells me there are none for doing a reliable A/B comparison.

 

Most clips you find are made by amateurs using cell phone or camcorder mics. Even if they had the audio tracks professionally mixed, the sound quality can be enhanced by mixing it or it my suffer all kinds of losses recorded from a simply cell phone or camcorder mic.

 

Camcorder and cell phone mics usually have built in AGC compressing the hell out of the signal. How many clips are made with say a high end Newman mic run through a high quality channel strip then mixed to perfection. You can stick any clip in a DAW and enhance it to sound, but even then it takes a big hit down sampling it to an on line format.

 

Your playback system is another monkey wrench. I have a good studio setup with high end monitors the playback probably wouldn't be bottlenecked, but how much audio quality is lost listening to various brands of computer monitors which hype the sound to make them sound bigger then they actually are?

 

You see there's no standard to gauge what you're actually hearing on line. I know If I were doing an advertisement I'd enhance the audio track to sound spectacular. I in fact do this all the time when making live band videos. I record a multitrack version in a DAW, mix it to sound great, then replace the low quality camcorder track with the studio quality track.

 

Maybe if there was a direct signal recorded were you could download it then re-amp it through your own amp you could get a better idea of what the instrument could do. It Still wouldn't be the same as playing the instrument dialing up your own tones. Much of that is done by feel as much as its done with your ears. You put a guitar against your chest you feel the string vibrations and the snap of the strings.

 

How can you A/B compare it to another instrument you may own or judge its quality? Do you can compare a clip to another amateur recording or something recorded professionally? What amp, speaker, pedals were used to produce the sound the mic picks up and were they the settings you'd normally dial up? Do you use the same player to play the instrument in each clip and use the same mics?

 

All of these makes a huge difference in audio quality and because there are so many you cant trust what you hear. You cant even trust what you hear on hit records because of all these factors, other then to say you personally prefer this over that.

 

If I ever do come across the real thing, I'll give it a try. I'm always open to trying new instruments, but I'm old enough not to let passion cloud my perception. If I had several grand to spend that one wouldn't show up on my radar. There are too many other great guitars out there I'd prefer to own.

[Grant Harding]

Just saying they're amazing guitars. I assumed you were a fan because you tried to buy a copy of one.

[Bucksstudent]

I had a Steinberger bass, though all of the Steinberger guitars I heard sound crappy.

[WRGKMC]

Nope, Never even heard of them before I came across the clone, but I'll take your word that the originals are quality builds. The guitar does look to be comfortable playing when sitting down and lightweight when standing.

I do more studio recording then gigs any more. When you track for hours and have a heavyweight resting on your knee it tends to cut the circulation off.

 

My main player is a cross between a Tele and a semi hollow Gibson with mini Humbuckers. Its light weight and wide variety of tones is ideal for the music I write, but I do like variety. I don't care much how a guitar looks so long as it plays and sounds great, and is reasonably comfortable and light weight. I have plenty of show guitars if I want to impress people with looks or cost. I just don't play those every day like I do my custom builds.

[WRGKMC]

I played with a guy in a band for a short time with a bass player that had one. he had me fix a pickup issue he was having. The model had had came with Active EMG pickups that can be swapped out and use a small connector to plug them in. EMG pickups are potted in epoxy and the connector must have lost connection inside the epoxy. I was able to get the connection back by heating the contacts with a soldering iron. The heat likely made its way down in the epoxy and re-soldered whatever connection it had.

 

The bass itself had heavy strings, super high action, and way to much relief for my tastes. I suspect he put heavier gauged strings on and neglected to readjust his relief to compensate. I had a hard time holding the strings down but I have guitarists hands. Bass is my second instrument.

 

He was able to play it well enough and it sounded fine to me. He did have big hands so the height didn't seem to bother him. I'd need to adjust the relief and height down and use lighter gauged strings.

 

The bass was lightweight, something I need at my age. Steinbergers use double ball strings so they have incredible tuning stability.

 

Its the only instrument I've owned with a whammy that I can play an entire live set and never have to tune. The only tuning needed is from the temp of the fingers heating the strings which expands the metal and makes them go slightly flat. Once you compensate for that they remain in tune until you set the instrument down and the strings cool. They shrink and go slightly sharp. In hot summers you don't even have that. The whammy is even cooler. you can lock it to tune the strings, then unlock it. If the strings are slightly sharp or flat, there's a knob to adjust the spring tension. you set it so the locked and unlocked position have matched tuning and then you can switch when playing. Its the most stable whammy system I've ever used.