Demo of the .strandberg* Boden Prog Bass

#4
It looks great. I have a Boden 7 Guitar that I love; it would be great to replace my 6-string bass with a 6 string Strandberg bass. Any thoughts on how it compares to Dingwall (my current most desirable bass)? Looking forward to learning more about it.
 
#5
Spiky_Bassist said:
It looks great. I have a Boden 7 Guitar that I love; it would be great to replace my 6-string bass with a 6 string Strandberg bass. Any thoughts on how it compares to Dingwall (my current most desirable bass)? Looking forward to learning more about it.
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Sadly, I haven’t had the chance to properly try out a Dingwall (at least not long enough to do a proper comparison) :/
 
#7
I can't say I'm too surprised. With Strandberg pricing, you are not paying for the location that the guitar is made as I understand is the case with many other brands **especially those rhyming with "ender"** . You are paying for the design and the cult following of the brand. The design (at least for my Boden 7) is very cool with the fanned frets, ergo Endurneck, headless neck, light weight and (subjectively) great sound and play-ability. And while I haven't seen the Boden bass in the flesh, I've yet to hear anyone knock a strandberg on quality of build. From what I've seen, strandberg fans seem to be a passionately self selecting and very "alternative" group; similar to Dingwall fans (which I think this bass will be a strong competitor for).
 
#7
I can't say I'm too surprised. With Strandberg pricing, you are not paying for the location that the guitar is made as I understand is the case with many other brands **especially those rhyming with "ender"** . You are paying for the design and the cult following of the brand. The design (at least for my Boden 7) is very cool with the fanned frets, ergo Endurneck, headless neck, light weight and (subjectively) great sound and play-ability. And while I haven't seen the Boden bass in the flesh, I've yet to hear anyone knock a strandberg on quality of build. From what I've seen, strandberg fans seem to be a passionately self selecting and very "alternative" group; similar to Dingwall fans (which I think this bass will be a strong competitor for).
 
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#8
I own a Boden OS7 and I agree on it being an awesome guitar. But I’m still wondering why the bass is supposed to cost double the amount of the OS Series, which were built in Korea.
Maybe it’s just me not having saved up enough, because I thought it would be around 2000€.
But for the money they ask I could get a handmade Dingwall from Canada.
 
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#10
Me:



They are very cool: don't think they'll unseat my Dingwall's, but the amount of thought that went into all aspects of the design is very impressive.

I can't say that I've ever played a more comfortable bass, it almost feels like it disappears in your lap and hands.
 
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#11
MDBass said:
Me:



They are very cool: don't think they'll unseat my Dingwall's, but the amount of thought that went into all aspects of the design is very impressive.

I can't say that I've ever played a more comfortable bass, it almost feels like it disappears in your lap and hands.
Click to expand...


I knew that guy looked familiar ;)
 
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#12
MDBass said:
Me:



They are very cool: don't think they'll unseat my Dingwall's, but the amount of thought that went into all aspects of the design is very impressive.

I can't say that I've ever played a more comfortable bass, it almost feels like it disappears in your lap and hands.
Click to expand...


Sounds great Matt! How’s the build quality?
 
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#13
SleazyB said:
Is no one surprised by the price of this bass ? It costs almost 4000€ and is made in Indonesia. I wonder how this price point is justified.
Not trying to bash anything, I’m just wondering myself.
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I totally agree. 4k is not what I'd like to pay for a bass which is not luthier built. It's simply too much.
 
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#14
Color me intrigued. No 6 string bass though and all their supporting artists are guitarists apparently? (and most of them are so hip and trendy, it makes me age twice as fast)

Heard of Strandberg from a guitarist friend of mine who's a big Tosin Abasi fanboy. At that price point, I'd be tempted to check out Dingwall first, I must say.
 
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#16
I owned a Strandberg Boden OS7 (7 string electric guitar) when they were fairly new on the market. At the time, the new price was at the top end of what I'd pay for an Asian instrument, excluding Japanese stuff. I paid £1395 and sold at a time where I lost only £100 or so of that - likely due to an explosion in prices. In the time I owned it, my near-mint OS7 went from being about £1400 new to about £1800 new, without any change of spec. The prices are truly exorbitant now. The basic Strandberg 7 string electric guitar has changed pickups from EMG 707Xs to Seymour Duncan Blackouts, which is like for like in terms of cost but otherwise the spec is unchanged. I'd have expected the economy of scale to allow for the RRP on them to drop, or at least stay level but they seem to have increased their price as word about the brand has gotten out.

My OS7 was a great guitar and at the time, offered specs which were not really available through any other means outside of custom order guitars. Funny to think that just 4 years ago fanned frets were very hard to come by on electric guitars. With Dingwall already covering the expensive Asian-made multi-scale bass market soStrandberg have a fight on their hands here. The Boden design is great and the ergonomics, if they are anything like the guitars, will be fantastic, but I'm not sure that will be enough, especially with Dingwall's "star power" of an ex-bassist of Periphery giving and an army of screaming fans already devoted to the brand.

I don't know if they're bringing their patended EndureNeck design to the bass, I'm guessing they will be for a bass I think I'd rather do without. The Endureneck on the guitar had the effect of making the neck very fat and blocky yet still perfectly easy to play. However, on bass where the neck is already larger due to it being a phyically larger instrument, I'm not sure the added size of the EndureNeck will add any benefit. The concept does work nicely on electric but I fear on bass it may not translate so well. However, Strandberg is a fantastic ergonomic engineer so I'm, sure he can make it work somehow.

A fantastic engineer he may be and if he can sell these basses at 4k then he's a better businessman than I have given him credit for too. It just won't be me lining up to drop 4k on an Asian instrument, I'd sooner put that money in a luthier's pocket and have a custom build.
 
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#18
Mastodon2 said:
I owned a Strandberg Boden OS7 (7 string electric guitar) when they were fairly new on the market. At the time, the new price was at the top end of what I'd pay for an Asian instrument, excluding Japanese stuff. I paid £1395 and sold at a time where I lost only £100 or so of that - likely due to an explosion in prices. In the time I owned it, my near-mint OS7 went from being about £1400 new to about £1800 new, without any change of spec. The prices are truly exorbitant now. The basic Strandberg 7 string electric guitar has changed pickups from EMG 707Xs to Seymour Duncan Blackouts, which is like for like in terms of cost but otherwise the spec is unchanged. I'd have expected the economy of scale to allow for the RRP on them to drop, or at least stay level but they seem to have increased their price as word about the brand has gotten out.

My OS7 was a great guitar and at the time, offered specs which were not really available through any other means outside of custom order guitars. Funny to think that just 4 years ago fanned frets were very hard to come by on electric guitars. With Dingwall already covering the expensive Asian-made multi-scale bass market soStrandberg have a fight on their hands here. The Boden design is great and the ergonomics, if they are anything like the guitars, will be fantastic, but I'm not sure that will be enough, especially with Dingwall's "star power" of an ex-bassist of Periphery giving and an army of screaming fans already devoted to the brand.

I don't know if they're bringing their patended EndureNeck design to the bass, I'm guessing they will be for a bass I think I'd rather do without. The Endureneck on the guitar had the effect of making the neck very fat and blocky yet still perfectly easy to play. However, on bass where the neck is already larger due to it being a phyically larger instrument, I'm not sure the added size of the EndureNeck will add any benefit. The concept does work nicely on electric but I fear on bass it may not translate so well. However, Strandberg is a fantastic ergonomic engineer so I'm, sure he can make it work somehow.

A fantastic engineer he may be and if he can sell these basses at 4k then he's a better businessman than I have given him credit for too. It just won't be me lining up to drop 4k on an Asian instrument, I'd sooner put that money in a luthier's pocket and have a custom build.
Click to expand...

Not sure why we’re still using inflated pricing numbers, the retail for the basses is $3k, but the price is definitely indicative of the exclusivity: there is literally no where else you can buy a bass with an EndureNeck if that’s what you want.

As you said, good on him for creating a niche market and demand for that unique design.
 
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#19
SleazyB said:
I own a Boden OS7 and I agree on it being an awesome guitar. But I’m still wondering why the bass is supposed to cost double the amount of the OS Series, which were built in Korea.
Maybe it’s just me not having saved up enough, because I thought it would be around 2000€.
But for the money they ask I could get a handmade Dingwall from Canada.
Click to expand...

To my knowledge the base price of every Canadian Dingwall is now over $3k, and they also use CNC: did you mean custom spec'd?

Despite both having fanned frets the two designs have significantly more differences than similarities, so it really is an apples to oranges kind of comparison.

The outcry about the pricing on these is pretty interesting to me: it seems like a lot of people really want one, they just don’t want to spend that much, and subconsciously by complaining about the cost are hoping to see it reduced.
 
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