The Boden Essential
NOW EVERYONE CAN PLAY MORE
Make room for fun with all-new hardware and the .strandberg* straight-scale design. The Boden Essential summarizes everything about the Boden identity, honoring the past while looking ahead. Now everyone can play more and enjoy the true headless experience.
The Boden Essential is 100% a .strandberg*
The new Boden Essential is the culmination of this effort to bring the heralded benefits of the Boden design to musicians and music lovers of all stripes – from experienced pro players to casual hobbyists and every type of musician in between.
Ola Strandberg’s new challenge was to develop a new Boden model that would bring the costs down but without compromise to retain all of the essential features of what made Boden the gold standard of headless guitars. On paper, it may not seem so daunting; in practice, it is a painstakingly difficult and complex process as the Boden has always had unique features which required premium materials and components as well as more complicated manufacturing methods not typically used on “standard” electric guitars. Still, Ola was not deterred and we worked closely with our manufacturing partners over a period of two years to develop a new Boden that is more affordable and will appeal to a wider range of electric guitar enthusiasts who have always wanted a Boden but felt it was out of reach.
The next step in the Boden Evolution
Since its inception nearly 15 years ago as a hobby project of Ola Strandberg, the Boden has evolved and developed into an electric guitar that has made an indelible impact on the guitar industry.
The Boden is now the undisputed standard in headless guitars with its groundbreaking innovation in ergonomics, unmatched playability, and a distinctive yet versatile sonic character. Achieving such a standard meant an all-out no-compromise approach to research and development when it came to design, materials, components, and workmanship. From the early one-off Made-to-Measure guitars and Custom Shop guitars to the OS and NX production models, the result was that they were costly and difficult to produce and, hence, priced accordingly and out of reach of many working musicians and casual hobbyists.
To achieve the goals of the Boden Essential
We looked at every aspect of the instrument from the ground up, from the materials and components to the manufacturing processes, and developed a whole new instrument that lives up to the .strandberg* Boden name.
We near-sourced the body materials for minimum environmental impact and chose Meranti (grown in Indonesia) due to its light weight and resonance. Our stringent wood selection process ensures the lightest and most resonant pieces. Meranti shares many of Mahogany’s properties and provides a familiar tactile response and tonal character.
Roasted Maple neck is back in one-piece construction instead of the Boden’s usual multi-laminate and carbon fiber reinforcement. It is by no means a step back when considering that one-piece construction has been in use for electric guitar necks for over 70 years. It offers a different feel and sound – a little more traditional with more warmth in the midrange while the multi-laminate neck is brighter and punchier. The ever-popular Rosewood is used for fretboard with a scale length of 25.5”. The revolutionary EndurNeck ™, stainless steel frets, and glow-in-the-dark inlays and dots retain the unmistakable look, feel, and playability of the .strandberg* neck.
OEM PICKUPS
Our proven and very popular OEM pickups that were developed in close collaboration with our pickup supplier deliver aggressive yet complex tones rich in overtones and are wired to a 5-way switch with 5 distinct and very usable sounds for the utmost in sonic versatility.
From high-gain metal and classic rock crunch to warm jazz tones and sparkling clean funk sounds, the Boden Essential can cover them all, making it a versatile instrument for a variety of playing and recording environments.The pickups were specially wound to best match the particular acoustic characteristics of the Boden design – balanced and neutral and ideally suited for tailoring your sound with today’s modeling amplifiers and computer plug-ins as well as performing superbly with traditional standalone tube/valve guitar amplifiers.
The EGS Arc hardware
The feature that is totally new in the Boden Essential is the EGS Arc hardware, which has been optimized for ease of use. All the features on the EGS Arc are brand new and improve on the previous generations’ hardware.
Understandably, it was this new hardware that the bulk of the development and manufacturing time was spent for the Boden Essential. In a way, the EGS Arc pushes the envelope of the Boden design further than ever before, making the Boden guitar more easy to use and maintain than ever before. Some of the new features of the EGS Arc as follows:
What’s special?
Some of the new features of the EGS Arc as follows:
- New elegant design of tuner housings and string lock
- Visual references for correct intonation with standard string gauges
- Setting intonation with micro-adjustments under full string tension
- Continuous seamless string height adjustment
- New robust design of core tuner components for better durability and fewer parts
- Modular saddle design, with chrome-plated cast zinc saddles out of the box
- Upgrade saddles made from brass, steel, aluminum, and bronze are planned
- Housings and base plates are made from cast zinc, and key wear components still machined from aircraft grade aluminum or stainless steel
- Plating is carefully controlled and done as ecologically friendly as possible
- While aluminum has many properties that are more sustainable than most common guitar hardware materials, zinc has a lower melting point and consumes less energy during manufacturing, balancing out the environmental impact
- EGS Arc hardware retains the features of NX/Rev 7 hardware
- Fully locked-down components for efficient energy transfer of the string’s vibrations
- All wear-and-tear parts are easily replaceable
- Same generous warranty terms for hardware, being that we are the sole source of it
The Boden Essential
The Boden Essential is .strandberg*’s commitment to continually furthering and refining Boden’s features and concepts to an ever wide-range of guitar players who are open to innovation and new ideas in guitar design. The Boden has evolved and will continually evolve into a platform that adapts to the requirements of today’s musicians and introduce new innovations that will inspire them to be the best musician that they can possibly be and stimulate the creativity to achieve their artistic goals. The Boden Essential can be the next step for many aspiring and experienced musicians alike to reach those heights.
