Headless Guitar??????
What's up with that?
Hello, guitar nerds!
Long time no see! I have learned the hard way that these posts need to be scheduled when I am on tour. It turns out that despite thinking I would have time to write while on the road, I did not even have time to think. Funny how that works. To make up for it, I will post a couple times this month and next month. This deficit will be rectified!
You may have noticed a post from Swedish guitar company .strandberg* today announcing that I have joined their roster of artists. I thought I would take this opportunity to talk a bit about my new love affair with their headless (!!) guitars, because I did get quite a few questions from people at shows this past month after seeing me play the guitar on stage.
Here’s a picture of my trusty steed-
Size
To state the obvious, this guitar is small. As someone who is touring with the lowest budget in the world right now, it’s a no-brainer addition to my rig for this reason. I can fit both the guitar and my pedals/cables in a pelican case and check it on the plane! Amazing.
As a small person myself (5’2, in case you were wondering), I’ve never sought out large and heavy electric guitars. It’s easier to stand up and move around for a long time holding a light guitar. It’s also possible to sit it on my lap for an extended period without cutting off the circulation in my leg, which is a big deal for me because I love nothing more than to sit and play for hours.
The first time I played the strandberg at band practice, I was ecstatic to experience the feeling of having some newly freed-up real estate north of my first fret. Normally, I had to swing my headstock gingerly around mic stands and cables, making sure I didn’t hit bandmates or other instruments in the process, but no longer. The nut of the headless guitar seems to extend exactly to the end of my own personal space bubble, and the body just slightly past my torso. I am free to move.
Friends of mine, upon playing my guitar, have remarked that the difference in weight distribution between the headless and the head-full guitars is enough to throw them off. I can understand this. It’s possible that with my classical guitar background, I am used to not letting the guitar’s weight rest on my hands. People who play with different styles than mine sometimes hold the guitar’s neck up with their left hand as they fret. I prefer to have a high and tight strap holding the neck up for me to eliminate unneeded tension in my hands, only touching the neck with the small amount of pressure needed to make the right sound. I’ve talked at length here and elsewhere about “ergonomic guitar playing”… this fits into that category.
Design (How It’s Tuned)
The number one question I get is usually, “So how do you tune that thing?”. The tuners are past the bridge of the guitar, down by where your right hand rests. For any non-guitarists still reading this for some reason, that’s on the complete opposite end than you may be used to seeing the tuning mechanism.
