Ryan's Gig Guide - August 2018

rgg Aug 2018 29 www.ryansgigguide.com hard to adjust to.At least this is what I thought. I tentatively began playing and im- mediately found I was wrong.The flat sur- face that moves in a diagonal fashion as you move up the neck guides your thumb into the appropriate position. It was com- fortable and fast! There is simply too much crammed into the Original to mention it all, so I will quickly run you through the juiciest bits. Have you ever heard of Multi-Scale gui- tars? If not look it up! The result is better intonation and tone on the lower strings with longer scale lengths and less tension in the higher strings for easy bending with shorter scale lengths.The frets are fanned to accommodate this and by adapting the scale length correctly they have found a neutral point that enables the fret layout that is most comfortable to the player.A zero fret keeps open notes consistent in tone to fretted notes. Suhr pickups com- bined with top-grade tonewoods result in a sound that is sublime.A Flame Maple top with a Birdseye Maple fretboard makes this a stunning piece of gear to look at. I didn’t even get a chance to talk about the stainless steel frets, graphite nut, roasted neck or specially designed hardware. Every detail has clearly been the result of years of research and thought that has fi- nally come to fruition in the form of an er- gonomic monster that will enable you to play the best of your ability. It is no sur- prise that it has attracted the interest of technical players such as Plini. Earlier this month GuitarGuitar set up a Strandberg stall at Tech-Fest, a festival that hosts bands with some of the most technically challenging riffs and solos in modern metal music.What was surprising was not only how much interest there was from festival goers but by how many bands were al- ready using Strandbergs. Guitarists at this level want an instrument that does not hinder their progress and it is warming to see them back the progress of a company striving to innovate. Local stockist...