Headless Guitars

[bnt]

About an hour after I posted in the "I want a cheap Telecaster" thread last night, I basically went in the opposite direction and ordered one of these:

It's a kind-of Strandberg clone, but with some major differences. The headstock is where the ball-ends go, and the string ends attach at the bridge. At first I thought the bridge was going to be like the NS Design basses, but instead there appears to be some kind of clamping system inside the bridge.

My first decent bass was a headless Hohner B2V, and my step-brother was inspired by that to get the equivalent Hohner guitar, the G2T. The Steinberger Spirit guitars today are basically the same. I've never stopped liking headless instruments, and have been pleased to see them come back in to fashion, but they cost more than I wanted to spend. Harley Benton (Thomann) have their Dullahan models, named after the headless horseman of Irish folklore that inspired the legend of Sleepy Hollow, but they're quite expensive and have some quirks (I hear), such as fiddly bits of metal that can fall off and get lost. There are also many Strandberg clones from Chinese sellers - Chandbergs? - and if you start spending real money the other main competitor is Kiesel (the company formerly known as Carvin).

I'm a pretty bad guitarist, as guitarists go, and Plini has nothing to fear from me. I was seriously considering a Telecaster, which is also a compact instrument, but this jumped out at me and looks like good value, so one will be here with me early next week. I know we have headless bass fans here, but do we have headless guitar fans too?

[bnt]

Ordered Thursday night, arrived from the UK on Saturday morning, which is quite amazing considering how cheap the shipping was. First impressions are good. Neck is very lightly finished, no thick lacquer there. I'm playing it through my old Korg AmpWorks box for starters, but want to put together a combined bass / guitar pedalboard at some point. The bridge ... I think you need an Engineering degree to figure out how it works, so it's a good thing I have one. 😎

[Doctor J]

I like that a lot.

[Nail Soup]

Wow, that really is the opposite of a Telecaster!

I love the look of a Tele, but I'm not a fan of that I'm afraid .

Anyway, hope you enjoy it!

[LeftyJ]

Looks pretty cool and well thought out! 

Does the bridge require using that little tool to tune it, or can you just tune it by turning the knobs by hand too?

Love this picture BTW 

[bnt]

That pic wasn't there when I ordered the guitar. They changed the guitar during production, they added some extra string clamps on the headstock as in the "living room" pictures. I've been very busy at work and haven't played much, but so far I like it.

The little tool is an Allen key, you can use a standard Allen key if one is handy. Fingers work on some strings if they're strong enough, but the tuners are tight and close together.

[prowla]

It's a nice looking guitar - it's sometimes difficult to fathom how they can do them at that price.

I guess you'll have to see how the bridge/tuning mechanism works (good to see it's now one of the awful "Overlord of Music" headless systems!).

I've got a Steinberger Spirit headless guitar and is it stupidly small.

[bnt]

The bridge is actually pretty straightforward, it just came with no instructions. Each bridgepiece has a height adjustment screw and a locking screw. It's possible to unscrew the adjustment screw too far, so that the bridgepiece can't be raised by the screw, but all you need to do is lift it a little by hand and tighten the screw again.  I was playing the guitar again last night, and I can't get over just how light it is. I bet a guitar purist would find fault with the pickups, and I think it could benefit from more shielding, but very playable.

PS - mods, when I started this thread I didn't realise that the forum has a Guitars section. It's kind-of hidden away at the bottom of the page which is understandable, I suppose.