What are the hot guitars these days?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MadAsAHatter
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TheGreatGreen said:
Headless fanned fret guitars with classical position leg cutouts on the bottom seem to be the latest and greatest thing of the moment. Personally I'd like to try a Strandberg but I cannot stand the placement of the inlays. If they'd make a decent guitar with inlays down the middle of the neck, I'd probably buy one.

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Also the Ibanez AZ series seems to be blowing up. I've never been an Ibanez guy but I have to admit, some of them look great.

High end guitars from Suhr and Tom Anderson seem to have been getting more popular lately too.
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While a friend of mine got one and kept swearing to me that it was better than everything I own, I never could see myself getting a Strandberg. I also feel like it's rare to see someone with one. I live in a music focused city and it's still Fender, PRS, Gibson and Ibanez ruling the streets and studios.
 
psychodave said:
I want to own a Strandberg guitar, but refuse to pay $1,800- 2k for a guitar made in Indonesia.
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Nothing interesting in the shops. I refuse to pay over a thousand Euros for a guitar from Indonesia with FR Special. I have nothing against Indonesian guitars, I have one with FR Special myself and it's fine. But I bought it new for 400, not 1400.
 
SteveGlitch said:
While a friend of mine got one and kept swearing to me that it was better than everything I own, I never could see myself getting a Strandberg. I also feel like it's rare to see someone with one. I live in a music focused city and it's still Fender, PRS, Gibson and Ibanez ruling the streets and studios.
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Yeah I hear you. Honestly I think they look goofy as hell and make guitar players look like total dorks on stage, but at the same time, I don't know if I could envision a more perfect solution for practicing and getting seriously good at the instrument.

They're ultra light weight and designed with ergonomics as top priority. It seems like they're small enough that you could just wear them around the house all the time and keep it on you while you watch TV or hang out on the computer or whatever, and it wouldn't really even get in your way. I'd love something like that.
 
jchrisf said:
I remember hearing great things about Agile 25 years ago.. I haven't heard about them in a while. Do they still make great guitars?
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Yeah, I have a half dozen of them :ROFLMAO:, 2 perihelion pros, 2 chiral nirvanas, a pendelum pro, and a 7 string classical acoustic. All multiscale 7-10 strings. Made at World Music in Korea (prs se, schecter, some strandbergs, etc...). Truth is though, there are still lower quality models in their lineup like the chiral parallax and some of the cheaper intrepids that I wouldn't say compare to a Strandberg for QC/fit & finish.

Their top models all have stainless and usually fishmans as well as get the tooling reset every few hours as opposed to 4 times/24hr. The LPs are pretty sweet too and would recommend the 3000 series over any Epiphone or LTD, etc... Overall great values, but Legator (for the multiscale world) have come a long way since the garbage of the mid 2010s and are phenomenal in playability and comfort, but a little less value than Agile, imo. Rondo will generally take most reasonable offers, too.
 
DeathlyFighter said:
Bump for interest. I'm pretty curious about this myself, my favorite brand of guitars are Fernandes and they're more or less the way of the dodo now. I'm definitely curious if there's some kind of current production line Japanese brand that is worth checking out.
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Fujigen has it's own brand now FGN. Some cool modern models. Caparison, too 🤤
 
Arch Stanton said:
After looking at it for a few minutes, I see what they want you to do is send them a $1k deposit, then talk to them thru e-mail or phone call (🤷‍♂️) and tell them what you want built..

Then you settle up the balance when they finish it.
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I could be mistaken, but I thought the chubtone guy used to frequent these forums. I'm not personally big on the strats, but I would probably lean that way over a $3k Fender...
 
TheGreatGreen said:
Yeah I hear you. Honestly I think they look goofy as hell and make guitar players look like total dorks on stage, but at the same time, I don't know if I could envision a more perfect solution for practicing and getting seriously good at the instrument.

They're ultra light weight and designed with ergonomics as top priority. It seems like they're small enough that you could just wear them around the house all the time and keep it on you while you watch TV or hang out on the computer or whatever, and it wouldn't really even get in your way. I'd love something like that.
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it's true, you can barely tell you are wearing one. My 7 string strandberg makes my Gibson SG feel cumbersome.

I like the inlays though.Plus they glow in the dark.
I’m still not sold on active pickups though.

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If you want a shred stick, I think the Charvel ProMod series is hard to beat for the money.
 
psychodave said:
I want to own a Strandberg guitar, but refuse to pay $1,800- 2k for a guitar made in Indonesia.
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I would agree with you. I own a Strandberg Boden Original 6 (pre NX) and it's a pretty solid guitar, but the tuners and bridge design definitely leave something to be desired. The pre NX Originals are much much better guitars and were about $1700 when they were being made. There's still a couple NOS out there. They had Suhr pickups, roasted birdseye maple or ebony fingers boards, SS frets, roasted maple necks, and true flamed maple caps.

Since then Ola Strandberg has raised the prices of his entire line it seems, while simultaneously cheaping out on all the components. Pickups went from Suhr (for the 6 strings at least) to in house made pickups which don't sound great, the roasted maple and birdseye and ebony boards/neck went to regular non roasted maple and richlite, the flame maple caps went to veneers, but the price went from $1700 to $2300.

However I have to say that it's the most insanely comfortable guitar I own. It's a perfect recording desk or couch guitar. And at 5.5lbs they're feather light when you're standing with them.

If I were in the market for another headless style guitar I would strongly consider a Kiesel personally. Better build quality and materials across the board, cheaper, and also made in the USA.
 
Those Ibanezes that look like suhrs with the baked maple necks and the matte finish...

F gross......
 
Soundstorm said:
I would agree with you. I own a Strandberg Boden Original 6 (pre NX) and it's a pretty solid guitar, but the tuners and bridge design definitely leave something to be desired. The pre NX Originals are much much better guitars and were about $1700 when they were being made. There's still a couple NOS out there. They had Suhr pickups, roasted birdseye maple or ebony fingers boards, SS frets, roasted maple necks, and true flamed maple caps.

Since then Ola Strandberg has raised the prices of his entire line it seems, while simultaneously cheaping out on all the components. Pickups went from Suhr (for the 6 strings at least) to in house made pickups which don't sound great, the roasted maple and birdseye and ebony boards/neck went to regular non roasted maple and richlite, the flame maple caps went to veneers, but the price went from $1700 to $2300.

However I have to say that it's the most insanely comfortable guitar I own. It's a perfect recording desk or couch guitar. And at 5.5lbs they're feather light when you're standing with them.

If I were in the market for another headless style guitar I would strongly consider a Kiesel personally. Better build quality and materials across the board, cheaper, and also made in the USA.
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I used to have a pre NX Boden8 and I agree the roasted neck felt really nice. The guitar rung out acoustically very nicely too.

But I think the prog nx7 I have now feels more solid and sounds clearer. Once I switched out the Fishman moderns for classics I liked it even more
 
NowYou'rePlayingWithPower said:
Fujigen has it's own brand now FGN. Some cool modern models. Caparison, too 🤤
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I've looked into it before. Cool guitars.
I'm kinda interested if there's any brands that are Japanese and still make a fairly interesting Flying V. I already know about Edwards/Grassroots and Killer (way too expensive, unfortunately), aside from all the old guard brands that don't really seem to make Vs anymore such as Tokai, Fernandes/Burny, Greco, Bacchus, etc.
 
Other than lopping off the head and chunks of the body, I'm having a hard time envisioning how a Strandberg is more ergonomic that a standard strat or LP shape. But I've never played a Strandberg and rarely play sitting down. I'm standing or at worst leaning against a desk. So ergonomics have a different definition to me. I find larger bodied guitars most comfortable.
 
MadAsAHatter said:
Other than lopping off the head and chunks of the body, I'm having a hard time envisioning how a Strandberg is more ergonomic that a standard strat or LP shape. But I've never played a Strandberg and rarely play sitting down. I'm standing or at worst leaning against a desk. So ergonomics have a different definition to me. I find larger bodied guitars most comfortable.
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The necks are a big factor. If you are a thumb over the fretboard dude like me it will be an adjustment, but the neck carve almost forces you to have better technique.
Plus the cutouts of the body give you a couple options to position the guitar to balance naturally while sitting, partially because the angle and partially because there is not a lot of neck dive because is the lack of headstock.

Gibsons still feel like home to me because I have like 20 years of playing them, but I think if people started out playing something like a strandberg, holding a Les Paul afterwords would feel ridiculous. I’d be like driving a car without power steering
 
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