# [NGD] .strandberg* Boden 8 (custom-shop pickups)



## ramses (Jul 1, 2014)

I ordered this guitar the last week of November 2013, and received it in May 2014. It is my second Boden NGD.

This is my first 8 string guitar. I have been playing 7 string guitars for years, but I still felt weird the first couple of days because of the extra string. The guitar is tuned to drop-E.

The only non-standard option are the pickups: custom shop slanted Sentient/Pegasus.

[edit: read my replies in this thread for additional useful information]

Enjoy the pr0n:


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## Alex Kenivel (Jul 1, 2014)

Noice! 

HNGD

Specs?


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## JLocrian (Jul 1, 2014)

Looks gorgeous dude! How would you compare this one to your first Boden?

Oh, and dibs if you ever decide to sell


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## trayenshreds (Jul 1, 2014)

Whoa... truly impressive. .strandberg* guitars are so friggen awesome! my coworker has a boden 7 and i loved trying it out


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## StevenC (Jul 1, 2014)

HNGD man!

It's beautiful. I might have to go natural when I eventually get a pro mod Strandberg. If it plays like mine, I guess you'll be enjoying it.


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## capoeiraesp (Jul 1, 2014)

Always good seeing a tight n tidy neck pocket.
Happy NGD!


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## RickSchneider (Jul 1, 2014)

The way you ordered those pictures made it quite a lovely reveal when the front was shown - it looks great!

What pickups did you get in your previous boden, and how do the SDs sound?


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## vilk (Jul 1, 2014)

....


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## TBF_Seb (Jul 1, 2014)

Congrats! I hope it plays as well as it looks 

I ordered in the last week of november, too, hopefully I'll get mine soon.


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## Steinmetzify (Jul 1, 2014)

Friggin SWEET! HNGD man....this is beautiful.


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## Svava (Jul 1, 2014)

noice xS

so excited for mine xD


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## ramses (Jul 1, 2014)

Alex Kenivel said:


> Noice!
> 
> HNGD
> 
> Specs?



Regular production specs:

Wenge neck with maple filets, and carbon fiber filets.
Wenge fretboard.
26.5" to 28" scale.
Flame maple top.
Swamp ash body, chambered.
Ebony knobs.
Luminlay side-dots and fret markers.
Jumbo stainless steel frets.

I don't know what the finish is. They claim it is natural oil, but I own two more guitars with natural oil and this is different, and new to me. You cannot actually feel the body's wood, as with, for example, my tung-oiled Carvin.

I chose to go with Seymour Duncan Sentient/Pegasus, slanted (custom-shop).



JLocrian said:


> Looks gorgeous dude! How would you compare this one to your first Boden?
> 
> Oh, and dibs if you ever decide to sell



Specs are different: This one has stainless steel frets, and some kind of satin finish. Alumitone pickups vs SD pickups. My Boden 7 has a rosewood stripe in the middle of the top, that detail was eliminated by AstralEXRS.

Comparing apples to oranges: I feel that my Boden 7's walnut top figuring is more impressive than this one. In any case, this top, although not very deep in figuring, is beautiful.

Attention to detail was better this time. See my Boden 7 NGD to know what I mean (http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/sevenstring-guitars/249553-ngd-strandberg-boden-7-a.html). Unsurprisingly the Washburn Custom Shop is more skilled than the S7G shop.



RickSchneider said:


> The way you ordered those pictures made it quite a lovely reveal when the front was shown - it looks great!
> 
> What pickups did you get in your previous boden, and how do the SDs sound?



My Boden 7 has Lace Alumitones. As you would expect, the SDs are louder (but not hot like actives).

I tested the SDs with high gain rhythm tones, high gain lead tones, crunchy blues tones, cleans, and jazzy tones, and I was pleased. My main worry was how the difference in timbre between the eight strings would be handled; but the eight strings sound great across all the situations I mentioned.




vilk said:


> ....



...


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## JLocrian (Jul 1, 2014)

I just meant from a quality standpoint, being that one is an Astral and the other is S7G. Either way, it's looks delicious


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## lewstherin006 (Jul 1, 2014)

Congrats bro she is amazing!!!


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## Jonathan20022 (Jul 1, 2014)

That looks incredible, that wait time is a bit much but thankfully the end product came out great. HNGD!


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## MAJ Meadows SF (Jul 1, 2014)

Damn I'm upset the Wenge may no longer be an option. IT looks sooo freakin' good dude. Congrats on a beautiful and classy guitar. I hope that pickup combo serves well; I'm interested in trying that set in an 8.


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## ramses (Jul 1, 2014)

JLocrian said:


> I just meant from a quality standpoint, being that one is an Astral and the other is S7G. Either way, it's looks delicious



Like I said, the Washburn Custom Shop pays more attention to the details than the S7G shop. Check out my Boden 7 NGD for some of those details: http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/sevenstring-guitars/249553-ngd-strandberg-boden-7-a.html

There are a couple more things that I can mention, though: I had to take my Boden 7 to a guitar tech, for some fret leveling. The Boden 8 fretwork was way better.

Unexpectedly, this Boden 8, unlike the Boden 7, was hit by the "snapping Es bug." I'm happy to say that it is not too bad in my case: as long as I don't go beyond whole-step bends, the string won't break. In any case, there is a trivial fix that I'll get from Ola Strandberg: Fix for snapping Es | Strandberg Guitarworks



Jonathan20022 said:


> That looks incredible, that wait time is a bit much but thankfully the end product came out great. HNGD!



Yup, looks incredible. The top is less figured than a Carvin flame maple top, but it is beautiful nevertheless.


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## Splinterhead (Jul 2, 2014)

congrats man, looks awesome!


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## ramses (Jul 2, 2014)

Silly story time:

When I paid the deposit, I didn't know if I was going to be happy with an 8 string guitar or not. I've been playing 7 string guitars exclusively for years, but I knew an 8 string was going to be more than just an extra string. In other words, ordering the Boden 8 was a risky decision.

After a month with the guitar, I have decided that I'll always own an 8 string guitareither this one, or some other 8 stringerbut, always just exactly one.

When I play any of my 7 string guitars, I still feel like I'm playing a guitar. Whereas with the Boden 8, I don't feel I have a guitar in my hands anymore. My approach to play it is completely different, and it feels really different (is is not just an extra string). I guess this is due to the combination of uncommon neck scales, the drop-E tuning I'm using, and the new possibilities.


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## jsl2h90 (Jul 6, 2014)

ramses said:


> Unexpectedly, this Boden 8, unlike the Boden 7, was hit by the "snapping Es bug." I'm happy to say that it is not too bad in my case: as long as I don't go beyond whole-step bends, the string won't break. In any case, there is a trivial fix that I'll get from Ola Strandberg: Fix for snapping Es | Strandberg Guitarworks


My boden 8 had this issue as well, got the little plate for the high E and everything is perfect. It really sucked though cause I waited almost a year for my guitar to be built and then I couldn't really play it for the first month because the high E kept breaking. The problem was fairly obvious too, I would find it easy to snap the e just by barely tightening the locking screw.

When I stop being lazy I'll post a NGD for my Boden8.


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## ramses (Jul 6, 2014)

jsl2h90 said:


> My boden 8 had this issue as well, got the little plate for the high E and everything is perfect. It really sucked though cause I waited almost a year for my guitar to be built and then I couldn't really play it for the first month because the high E kept breaking. The problem was fairly obvious too, I would find it easy to snap the e just by barely tightening the locking screw.
> 
> When I stop being lazy I'll post a NGD for my Boden8.



Good to know that you got it fixed.

It is definitely disappointing, because the high-E-breaking issue is older than AstralEXRS itself. One would assume that they would be careful to test for it&#8212;an obvious test like you found yourself&#8212;to immediately apply the fix, which is both trivial and readily available.

I can only guess that this is part of a new small business trying to get the logistics under control.

I'll be waiting for your NGD!


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## Lorcan Ward (Jul 7, 2014)

Happy NGD! Looks great!


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## Shawn (Jul 7, 2014)

Congrats! Beautiful guitar. Very nice!


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## Erockomania (Jul 8, 2014)

looks very clean!


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## Scruffy1012 (Jul 8, 2014)

HNGD man, looks insane


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## Metaldestroyerdennis (Jul 8, 2014)

I hate that most 8 strings look like someone either slapped a fat neck on a 6 or they just look massive. 

Strandberg 8s just look *right.*

Congrats


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## Emperor Guillotine (Jul 8, 2014)

Whew! Man, this is sooooo nice! Strandberg have really outdone themselves with this one! (Especially compared to all the numerous flawed axes that I've been hearing about lately from the Washburn run, as well as the S7G run of course.)


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## TBF_Seb (Jul 8, 2014)

Metaldestroyerdennis said:


> I hate that most 8 strings look like someone either slapped a fat neck on a 6 or they just look massive.
> 
> Strandberg 8s just look *right.*
> 
> Congrats



Agreed. That's one point besides others but an important one to me.


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## ramses (Jul 8, 2014)

You guys are such nerds ... photobucket just sent me an email stating that you exceeded the bandwidth limit!

You can still view the photos on pb:

Boden 8 Slideshow by doritosupreme | Photobucket


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## ramses (Jul 12, 2014)

Metaldestroyerdennis said:


> I hate that most 8 strings look like someone either slapped a fat neck on a 6 or they just look massive.
> 
> Strandberg 8s just look *right.*
> 
> Congrats



That's actually one of the things I like about the guitar. The Boden8's proportions are very nice.

I'm not a big guy, but the Boden 7 looks kinda small on me. However, the Boden 8 is just perfect.



Emperor Guillotine said:


> Whew! Man, this is sooooo nice! Strandberg have really outdone themselves with this one! (Especially compared to all the numerous flawed axes that I've been hearing about lately from the Washburn run, as well as the S7G run of course.)



My Boden 8 is not flawless. Please read my previous replies.


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## david_pri (Jul 17, 2014)

looks great


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## narad (Jul 19, 2014)

I somehow missed this but you definitely got one of the good ones! Nice! The back is probably more beautiful than my made-to-measure!


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## ramses (Jul 20, 2014)

narad said:


> I somehow missed this but you definitely got one of the good ones! Nice! The back is probably more beautiful than my made-to-measure!



I'm not sure about looking better than yours, but it is indeed a really nice back. I was actually surprised to see that they use a single piece of swamp ash for the body, instead of a two piece (which is usual for production instruments).


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## thatguyupthere (Jul 24, 2014)

That guitar looks like a damn cake. Congrats! I wish I could afford a bode. Time to get a job!


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