# My In-Progress Strandberg Design Headless Baritone Hybrid 7-String Build



## F0rte (Feb 2, 2013)

Hey all,
I've been chatting with Ola Strandberg for quite awhile about building one of his guitars (or at least attempting) and I got the A-OK from him to attempt at one of his Baritone Hybrid's!

Got pretty much everything situated with my Headless Baritone Hybrid Multiscale Strandberg build, there are only 2 things left to really sort out.

The largest problem which i'm looking to fix is that I do not have a fretting template for a 28' scale instrument. All I have available to me is the 30' and the 25.5'.

I really have an interest in doing the scale length from 25.5-28 (with the Baritone).
Right now with the 30', the low end is a bit excessive for what I will be doing, and the fan is a bit more than what I had hoped for with simply a 25.5-28.

If anyone is aware of any company that has a 28' scale baritone fretting template, i'd buy it in an instant. The other problem is also very reliant on me getting ahold of this template. This has to do with pickups- Bareknuckles to be specific. Considering that the fan from the 30' template with the Baritone Hybrid is just under 1.5 inch's overall, I don't think I can get Bareknuckle to make a custom set of pickups for the guitar.

HOWEVER, I do believe that the Blackhawks should work regardless of whether or not the instrument is fanned. I could order a normal set of 7-string Bareknuckle BlackHawks and have them installed normally due to not having specific poles to position the strings over like normal pickups do. Now don't quote me on this working, i'm not sure if it does. I plan to get into contact with Bareknuckle in order to find out.

Onto the specs:
Body: Spanish Cedar - Chambered
5-Piece Neck: Mixed Figure Makore/Roasted Curly Maple (Or Just Curly Maple)
Cap: AAAA Curly Koa
Fretboard: Roasted Curly Maple
Radius: Compound 16-20 or Completely Flat. Not Yet Decided.
Neck Profile: Dependant upon whether or not Ola releases his Endurneck kit soon.
Signature Strandberg F-Hole
Baritone Hybrid Scale Length Options: 25.5 - 30 or 25.5 - 28
Pickups: Reliant on Scale Length Finalization

I've only got one picture at the moment of the Mock-up Drawing that i've been working on for it. Mostly being used to figure out the scale lengths. I'll be sure to get some photo's of the wood and the build progress with my Canon as time goes on.

I'm ordering the Roasted Curly Maple and the Top tonight. I'll be sure to post pictures.

Cheers!

PS. Ignore the crappy paper inconsistency! I ended up not being able to use Ola's template on his site due to it not being a .pdf. The dudes at Kinko's weren't fond of attempting to resize it and I didn't have the dimensions of it. I managed to get a tracing of #21 for the proper shape though and that is the only paper we had around.


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## Polythoral (Feb 2, 2013)

Should be awesome! I hope an Endurneck works out, having played one it's a wonderful thing.

I do believe blade pups like the Blackhawks can be angled for multiscales, but I'm not sure.


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## F0rte (Feb 2, 2013)

Polythoral said:


> Should be awesome! I hope an Endurneck works out, having played one it's a wonderful thing.
> 
> I do believe blade pups like the Blackhawks can be angled for multiscales, but I'm not sure.



Thanks man, I hope so as well. Ola said that he has a kit that should be released for those interested in making their own Endurneck. If not, I plan to read up on the Toone page about how it is achieved so I can make one myself. I might buy a few blanks from home depot to test though first before I do the real thing.

I don't think i'd really need the Blackhawks to be angled though is the thing. I'm pretty sure since the Blade magnets don't have poles that I could simply use a straight 7 string pickup like I could with a Lace Alumitone.


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## engage757 (Feb 2, 2013)

I will keep posted! Can't wait to see how this progresses!


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## Polythoral (Feb 2, 2013)

I always thought Alumitones were meant to be slanted, too, for output balance or something of the sort, and their upside was simply they could be slanted to fit pretty much any sort of multiscale that they called for, whereas regular non bar/blade pickups would have to be custom made to be able to be slanted.

Then again, I don't know much about luthiery/pickups and such, hahaha.


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## F0rte (Feb 2, 2013)

Polythoral said:


> I always thought Alumitones were meant to be slanted, too, for output balance or something of the sort, and their upside was simply they could be slanted to fit pretty much any sort of multiscale that they called for, whereas regular non bar/blade pickups would have to be custom made to be able to be slanted.
> 
> Then again, I don't know much about luthiery/pickups and such, hahaha.



I personally am no expert when it comes to pickups as well which is why I plan to contact the companies


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## F0rte (Feb 2, 2013)

engage757 said:


> I will keep posted! Can't wait to see how this progresses!



Hey, thanks a lot man! 
Hopefully it doesn't go horribly wrong


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## Gregori (Feb 2, 2013)

This is gonna be sweet!


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## celticelk (Feb 2, 2013)

Google for FretFind2D - you should be able to generate a fret template for any scale length combination you need.


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## F0rte (Feb 2, 2013)

celticelk said:


> Google for FretFind2D - you should be able to generate a fret template for any scale length combination you need.



Been using it! That's how I got the lengths that I needed.

I'm more interested in getting a premade template for a 28' scale so I don't have to take the time to make a template that i'm really only going to use one time.

I'm not really too worried about it, i'm sure someone offers a 28' scale fretting template.


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## F0rte (Feb 2, 2013)

Gregori said:


> This is gonna be sweet!



Thanks buddy 
Stoked for your build thread coming up. Gonna be pretty damn sick too!


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## Gregori (Feb 3, 2013)

LolWotGuitar said:


> Thanks buddy
> Stoked for your build thread coming up. Gonna be pretty damn sick too!



Thanks man. You order that top and fretboard?


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## F0rte (Feb 3, 2013)

Gregori said:


> Thanks man. You order that top and fretboard?



Not quite yet. 
The top i'll order relatively soon. I'm not worried about it getting here on time. As for the fretboard, i'm deciding how much I should order. I want to order enough to produce multiple fretboards and enough to also accommodate the 5 piece neck. I'll probably order the top within the next few days.

I still am in need of a 28' scale fretting template, if anyone knows where I could buy a premade one, let me know!


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## ExtendedRange (Feb 3, 2013)

How did the chatting with Ola go? I'm thinking of building my own guitar based off of his design, both body and neck.


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## F0rte (Feb 4, 2013)

ExtendedRange said:


> How did the chatting with Ola go? I'm thinking of building my own guitar based off of his design, both body and neck.



Ola is an EXTREMELY nice and cheerful guy. He's always willing to help with any questions you might have despite where he might be. I had some questions that needed to be answered but he happened to be at NAMM, not even that stopped him from taking the time to help me with whatever I needed.
Just as long as you give credit where credit is due.


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## penguin_316 (Feb 5, 2013)

While slanting the pickup does help align the pole pieces and the strings for better/uniform output. A standardly installed Blackhawk will still suffer because of the relationship of the magnetic field compared to the distance of the string from the bridge. If that makes sense....

You would need to angle it to have it sound properly across all strings and if your fan is wide enough (aka pickup needs to be angled more)this may mean the Blackhawk won't be long enough to cover all strings.


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## penguin_316 (Feb 5, 2013)

I'm doing a build right now and really was wanting to go fanned fret like my custom multiscale a few years back. The pickup situation has left me steering towards a set scale length though 

I think the Lace alumitones will work for your application though because they make 7 and 8 string versions that could be slanted and cover all strings. They also work off a uniform magnetic field like the Blackhawks.


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## Khoi (Feb 6, 2013)

quick question - how did you get in contact with Ola? which e-mail did you use? I e-mailed him a few days ago in regards to using his design for a build as well, but I don't think I sent it to the right address

also, did you have to pay any licensing fee to use his design?

Thanks!


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## penguin_316 (Feb 8, 2013)

I contacted him....Facebook. Yes, I'm serious lol. He replied the same or next day, cant remember.


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## F0rte (Feb 8, 2013)

Khoi said:


> quick question - how did you get in contact with Ola? which e-mail did you use? I e-mailed him a few days ago in regards to using his design for a build as well, but I don't think I sent it to the right address
> 
> also, did you have to pay any licensing fee to use his design?
> 
> Thanks!


I as well contact him via Facebook. It's the easiest way for him and I to really keep in contact. I get a reply within an hour or so.

Update: Just glued my 5 Piece neck up yesterday and it is looked SWEET. The entire neck is figured from top down. The Makore I got has a very mixed grain sort of curl to it. They both go in different directions (into eachother) so it should keep the neck fairly stable as well as with the Curly Maple I used.

Pictures will be up tomorrow after I spend my entire life getting the glue scraped off

Expect an update from Gregori soon as well, he finished his boomstick...or his Wenge Maple 5 piece...whichever you prefer to call it


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## Khoi (Feb 8, 2013)

sweet, thanks! 

was it through the Facebook page, or his personal page?

It turns out that I did send an e-mail to an old account, but I just sent him another e-mail to [email protected] and on the Strandberg guitars Facebook page. Hopefully that's not too much


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## F0rte (Feb 10, 2013)

Hey everyone, got some news. 
Ola has given me the opportunity to proofread his Endurneck kit. If things go well, I should be able to craft my neck with the Endurneck

I'll grab some pictures later today of the 5 piece neck. The truss rod is going in tomorrow and i'm choosing to use a one-way due to a trade secret to make this guitar play great. Hopefully everything works out well.


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## F0rte (Feb 12, 2013)

Picture of the 5 Piece neck.
Coming along well. 
The body blank was fixed up yesterday, going to be sending it through the planer and getting it ready to have the body cut today. Truss Rod stuff will be happening later in the week, I needed some information for it that I didn't have at the time yesterday.

Spoke to Bareknuckle, turns out that I can use straight Bareknuckle Black Hawks with fanned frets and there is no setback to it, it just looks Aesthetically better to have them offset at a specific degree. Since there is one continuous pole, it will work perfectly fine straight with fanned frets

Hardware order is going in today, as well as the endurneck kit and fretboard.


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## F0rte (Feb 15, 2013)

Hey guys, Made some killer progress on this build today and fixed up a lot of things that needed to be finalized for the build. At this point, i've got no setbacks, and the specs are exactly what I was looking for.

Today I worked a lot with the scale lengths in figuring out a way I could get 28.66" scale, and the degree in which the frets were fanned so I could still utilize slanted Bareknuckle Pickups.
Max degree of the slant is 10 degrees, (Landed at 10 perfectly)

So, the final specs of this guitar are:
Body: Spanish Cedar - Chambered
5-Piece Neck: Mixed Figure Makore/Curly Maple
Cap: AAAA Curly Koa
Fretboard: Roasted Curly Maple (Or Ringed Gidgee, depends on who answers the call first)
Radius: Compound 16-20
Neck Profile: Ola Strandberg's Patented Endurneck
Signature Strandberg F-Hole
Baritone Hybrid Scale Length Options: 25-25.5/28.66 Hybrid Scale
Pickups: Bareknuckle Aftermath Calibrated set (Might switch to Blackhawks)

Hardware and the top are on their way.


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## Turk (Feb 16, 2013)

I very much look forward to the end result! Having said this, the journey of watching it slowly but surely come together is amazing. Monitoring this thread for sure!


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## CD1221 (Feb 16, 2013)

full size plans ftw!


love the look of that neck blank.


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## F0rte (Feb 16, 2013)

Thanks guys! Glad you like how it's going so far.
The top showed up today, I got some pics so i'll be sure to upload them later today.
Hardware is coming, and the fretboard will be ordered Tuesday.


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## F0rte (Feb 16, 2013)




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## Splinterhead (Feb 18, 2013)

Awesome build! I love me some Strandberg* goodness!


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## earthlylove90 (Feb 20, 2013)

I would love to see how this turns out!


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## F0rte (Mar 21, 2013)

Hey dudes.

Sorry for not updating for awhile. It's been a very slow process for quite awhile now.
Major math project, and I didnt get much time to work for the past 2 weeks or so due to doing some tune ups on my Siggery (totally was worth it, plays even better now)

In this time, i've gotten my pickups, fretboards, hardware, glued my top to the body, and am going to be shaping them tomorrow.
Here are some pics of the fretboards. (Still trying to figure out what exactly to do to finish them though)
Im not exactly sure what Darren from Decibel did on Misha's dB1 in order to achieve the color he did for the fretboard which was astonishing and really would match well with the Koa.

Here is what I have right now.

















More pictures to come soon.


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## Minoin (Mar 21, 2013)

How could I have missed this..? Very cool project and sick specs!


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## joebalaguer (Mar 21, 2013)

Looks great so far man!


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## F0rte (Mar 21, 2013)

Hey dudes, thanks a bunch! Really appreciate the support
I'm pretty sure that the color of the Roasted Curly is dependent on how long it was in a kiln for, and at what temperature. So I dont think there is any going back with those that I have. Will hold onto those for my next build which will be an 8.
Im currently tossing emails back and forth with another supplier that hopefully be able to get me the color im looking for.
More pictures tonight.


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## F0rte (Mar 22, 2013)

Cut out the rough body shape.
Cutting the body to template on Saturday.


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## Gregori (Mar 22, 2013)

LolWotGuitar said:


> Flesh-cutting the body to the template on Saturday.


Sounds painful.


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## JEngelking (Mar 22, 2013)

This is gonna be beastly.


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## F0rte (Mar 22, 2013)

Say hello to the new blanks that will be used to make my fretboard


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## F0rte (Apr 7, 2013)

Round over and Cavity coming next week.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Apr 8, 2013)

If I'm not mistaken if you disassemble the pickups they're just screwed to a metal plate on the bottom. Can't you just fabricate a simple metal plate that has the correct angle to hold the pickups in a fanned position instead of perpendicular to the strings?

I've never done this but it seems possible...


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## Winspear (Apr 8, 2013)

That top is too awesome..Easily one of the sexiest home builds I've seen.


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## ECGuitars (Apr 8, 2013)

DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> If I'm not mistaken if you disassemble the pickups they're just screwed to a metal plate on the bottom. Can't you just fabricate a simple metal plate that has the correct angle to hold the pickups in a fanned position instead of perpendicular to the strings?
> 
> I've never done this but it seems possible...



I'm fairly certain that won't work as the copper wiring is wrapped fairly tightly and won't stretch to make the angle required.


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## F0rte (Apr 10, 2013)

DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> If I'm not mistaken if you disassemble the pickups they're just screwed to a metal plate on the bottom. Can't you just fabricate a simple metal plate that has the correct angle to hold the pickups in a fanned position instead of perpendicular to the strings?
> 
> I've never done this but it seems possible...



That's no longer a problem anymore, mate. I managed to figure out the perfect scale lengths as well as figure out what degree the bridge angle should be. 
Got the pickups too.


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## F0rte (Apr 10, 2013)

EtherealEntity said:


> That top is too awesome..Easily one of the sexiest home builds I've seen.



Thanks buddy 
Can't wait to get it done!


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## CptMcKay (Apr 11, 2013)

This has become my favorite build since I started following builds in the luthiery section. Looks awesome!


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## lawizeg (Apr 11, 2013)

Amazing! I totally want to take up building guitars someday. Nice to see such an awesome home build! 

Really want to see how tis turns out, keep up the amazing work!


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## F0rte (Apr 20, 2013)

Hey guys,
Sorry for the lack of updates. Somewhat of a slow process right now as i'm waiting to have my fretboard CNC'd on Monday.

A friend of mine who happens to be building with me (Gregori on this forum who also has an incredible build he's working on right now) has drawn up the dimensions of my fretboard to have it slotted and cut out on the CNC since I have no expertise in that field.

Here are some pictures.










I'm also trying to figure out the situation with what fretboard to use. I was somewhat out of luck since I couldn't find what I wanted in terms of Roasted Curly Maple, so I might have to stick with using my older boards that I already have (dont really want to, but might be inclined to based on how much time Gregori has to use the CNC)
However, I recently got in contact with someone who has a great Australian tone wood that is really rare and has a very distinct figuring to it that I think would look incredible.

Let me know what you think I should do!




The fretboard in that image is "Raindrop Gidgee" and is what i'm looking into using with my Koa top.
Credit to this guitar pictured goes to Jeremy of J&F guitar's in Australia.

Here are my current boards:


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## CD1221 (Apr 20, 2013)

Hope that gidgee works out for you. I have some local desert hardwood (either gidgee or mulga, can't remember) in my guitar. Hard as steel, beautiful stuff.


This is going to be a great build, that top is awesome.


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## scherzo1928 (Apr 20, 2013)

I really like where this build is going!



CD1221 said:


> Hope that gidgee works out for you. I have some local desert hardwood (either gidgee or mulga, can't remember) in my guitar. Hard as steel, beautiful stuff.
> 
> 
> This is going to be a great build, that top is awesome.



Holy shit man, long time since that build... remember it like it was yesterday. Mulga board, sasafras top and a friggin beautiful (to quote you, "rings likea bell") tassy blackwood body.

And yeah, gidgee is even harder and denser than mulga. on par with granadillo and snakewood.


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## F0rte (Apr 20, 2013)

scherzo1928 said:


> I really like where this build is going!
> 
> 
> 
> ...





CD1221 said:


> Hope that gidgee works out for you. I have some local desert hardwood (either gidgee or mulga, can't remember) in my guitar. Hard as steel, beautiful stuff.
> 
> 
> This is going to be a great build, that top is awesome.




Thanks guys, appreciate the support!
I'm just a bit skeptical as to how the fretboard will feel in relation to others.
My siggery has an ebony board which I like a lot, but in comparison to the maple board on my Loomis, I prefer the loomis more. I hope the Gidgee leans more toward the feel of maple rather than ebony. That's what I was going for originally, however since the roasted maple blanks came too dark and weren't what I was looking for, I ended up switching.

My supplier got back to me today, only thing I need to figure out is if a blank of 25.5" is long enough to give enough room on all sides to have the 22" fretboard cut. I know that you have to make a jig in order to have the fretboard placed perfectly to be cut correctly, hopefully it's not a problem.

UPDATE:


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## Gregori (Apr 21, 2013)

Pic no work


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## F0rte (Apr 21, 2013)

Gregori said:


> Pic no work



Fixed.


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## F0rte (May 12, 2013)

Hey dudes, long time no update 

Sorry, been really slacking on taking pictures.

The fretboard was finished around 3 weeks ago and I managed to get it glued up to the neck and then got the neck cut to size to be ready for the neck pocket to be routed.

Here is a picture of the fretboard.





I'll grab a picture of the neck with the fretboard on a bit later tonight.
You can expect this build to be finished before the end of July.


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## jeremyb (Nov 3, 2013)

Any updates????


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## F0rte (Nov 3, 2013)

jeremyb said:


> Any updates????



Currently working on learning CNC programming in order to accurately place all of the hardware and cut out the pockets for everything.

The bridge pieces are so small that they recessed holders they are placed in need to be made to be extremely accurate, more so than really possible by hand.











Should have further progress soon.


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## dudeskin (Nov 5, 2013)

subbing to this thread!!! looking so good dude!!


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## jemfloral (Nov 7, 2013)

dudeskin said:


> subbing to this thread!!! looking so good dude!!



agreed, I'm loving all these projects right now


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