Extended Range Guitars

Our philosophy on extended range guitars

An “Extended Range Guitar” can mean many things. In popular terms, it often refers to a guitar that has more than 6 strings, but can also mean a 6-string guitar that might have a longer scale length and a lower tuning as a result. The .strandberg* brand has its strongest foundation in extended range guitars – this is where we originally gained popularity, through first the Made to Measure guitars, then the Boden and Boden OS series.

From a design perspective, there are some things one has to keep in mind in an extended range guitar, such as:

• Choices of woods have to be made to accommodate the new frequency range.
• The construction itself has to be sturdy enough to accommodate the extra pull from the strings when either extending the scale length, or adding strings.
• The hardware has to be available for the number of strings chosen.
• If the instrument is a multiscale instrument, the hardware has to accommodate the chosen angle at both termination points of the string.
• The pickups have to be designed for the right width (and possibly angle if multiscale) and the right frequency range.

Strandberg features

In the case of a .strandberg* guitar, we have found many things that work well. For example:

• Swamp Ash is an excellent body wood that provides a general purpose frequency range that works really well for extended range instruments and for most styles of music.
• Mahogany, which is by most people regarded as an unsuitable wood for ERGs due to often giving a “muddy” tone, works really well with the chambered design that we use, and in combination with our hardware.
• Our necks feature the patented EndurNeck™ profile, which has a little more mass than a conventional thin neck. This give better stability and better tone. Furthermore, they are always reinforced with Carbon Fiber using our proprietary lamination technique.
• The .strandberg* EGS hardware is modular and accommodates any number of strings, laid out in any multiscale arrangement. Furthermore, the tight coupling between all the components and separation of strings, really lets the wood “talk” and brings out the best in tone.
• We work closely with pickup manufacturers, such as Lace Music, EMG, Seymour Duncan, Bare Knuckle Pickups, and Lundgren pickups, to provide the best possible sound, tailored for your needs.

Above, you can see Made to Measure guitar #63, which was built for Javier Reyes of Animals as Leaders (based off #8, which was built for Tosin Abasi shown also on this page). This is an excellent example of an extended range guitar, featuring our very latest technology, which is a modular nut. This guitar not only has an extended range with regards to the number of strings, but also two additional frets beyond the nut, to provide even more range. Javier and Tosin tune the 8th string to a C# and the remaining strings AEADGBE.

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