.strandberg* Singularity announced, full specs + $1250 price tag

[HighGain510]

I missed out when the pre-orders went up, but I lucked out when I saw The Music Zoo had one of the swirl models coming as an in-stock! Here's mine, have to use the picture from the dealer for now so this is courtesy of The Music Zoo:

My OS7 is one of my favorite 7's, but this is different enough to justify the two so I'm exited to check these out and see how they compare to the OS and custom shop lines since I've owned a few of all of the lines so far!

 

[JP Universe]

I know i'm going to cave and grab one of these

 

[jemfloral]

I missed out when the pre-orders went up, but I lucked out when I saw The Music Zoo had one of the swirl models coming as an in-stock! Here's mine, have to use the picture from the dealer for now so this is courtesy of The Music Zoo.

Congrats, man! I debated giving MZ a call on one of these as well, but I'm going to wait and probably end up pulling the trigger later this summer

 

[TheOrangeChannel]

I missed out when the pre-orders went up, but I lucked out when I saw The Music Zoo had one of the swirl models coming as an in-stock! Here's mine, have to use the picture from the dealer for now so this is courtesy of The Music Zoo:

My OS7 is one of my favorite 7's, but this is different enough to justify the two so I'm exited to check these out and see how they compare to the OS and custom shop lines since I've owned a few of all of the lines so far!

Dude! LOL. IG convo moves here... I need to ask my dude Pete at MZ what he thought. I could've driven over there tho' and checked it as well.

 

[Bill Clinternet]

When will these be in stock without preordering? They look sick as hell!

 

[HighGain510]

Dude! LOL. IG convo moves here... I need to ask my dude Pete at MZ what he thought. I could've driven over there tho' and checked it as well.

Haha what's up man! Mine arrived today, I'm "lucky" in that I'm home sick as a dog, so I got to spend some time with it but my joints and muscles are pretty much fuxored right now. I posted a mini-review with initial thoughts on my IG, but for folks who don't follow here are the highlights:



Pros: Stock pickups aren't bad at all, they're not the best I've heard or anything but honestly they're way better than I expected! Fit and finish are surprisingly good, the swirl looks amazing, clearcoat is nicely done and no chips or haze to be found! The "Slim Endurneck" carve is not crazy thin, still the same basic shape as the regular Endurneck but definitely takes a bit of the chunk out on the first few frets which might be preferable for some folks. The fret ends are nicely rounded and all of the inlays are lined up, no wonky side or face dots here. The neck joint on mine is tight as hell, I could only slip a piece of COUPON paper in there but not a business card so it's nice and tight, kudos there!

Cons: The only things I could complain about are down to personal taste. The Slim Endurneck is giving my tendons/joints a bit of an issue, but again I am a little unique there in that my joint and muscle problems can make certain necks that are fine for most into a real issue for me personally. Since I know I'm sick right now, I'm going to give it a few days and see if that's all it is. I wish the body had the chambering like the other Strandberg designs as I love how light my other Strandys have been as well as the additional resonance that option adds. That being said, it doesn't make the guitar much heavier than your typical solid body guitar since they use basswood on this one.


I'll toss up a couple of iPhone pics for giggles:

Overall, if the one I bought is any indication, the factory they're using for these is doing things right! Mine seems super solid, I might experiment with pickups if this one ends up staying but I need to be certain that the neck won't cause issues for me long-term first.

Anyone who was curious whether or not these would stack up to the OS or Washbodens, I can confirm they are indeed comparable (obviously the fretwork on the Washbodens is still the best I've seen on a Strandberg to date! ) so no worries there, they're as killer as Per and Ed have said they would be!

 

[Casper777]

You got a nice swirl on this one! Congrats

 

[Cheap Poison]

Regular Nickel frets, right?

 

[HighGain510]

Regular Nickel frets, right?

Yes, with the exception of the zero fret which is stainless steel.

 

[shadowlife]

That's an awesome swirl!
It almost looks like one of Alan's from OOTS.

 

[HighGain510]

You got a nice swirl on this one! Congrats

Thanks dude!

That's an awesome swirl!
It almost looks like one of Alan's from OOTS.

Thanks! I was seriously shocked at how good it looked when I first pulled it out of the case! They really did a great job with these, I played it some more today and it truly is fun to play! The basswood body seems like a great choice as it works equally well for cleans as it does for high gain. Jammed through the JP-2C with a boost in front earlier and the stock pickups are definitely not bad, I had been debating as to whether or not I'd swap them out and I'm not sure if I'm going to be in a rush to do that now. They could be better but they're really not that bad at all!

 

[Razerjack]

Have been looking to get my first seven string and if the build of this machine is somewhat on par with Premium Ibanez and LTDs, I can definitely see myself getting one of these! I would much preferred one or two less pickups and a ebony fretboard though...

 

[RaulThrashMetal]

They seriously should release a MIC strandy with fanned frets at the price point of the singularity. It would own the market for sure. Already saving in case that happens

 

[Cheap Poison]

Yes, with the exception of the zero fret which is stainless steel.

Mhhh, good compromise. Although, I'd have to admit my interest would of been much higher with a full stainless steel fret job.
Not sure if that is even viable where they make them, but hey! Dreams!

 

[HighGain510]

Have been looking to get my first seven string and if the build of this machine is somewhat on par with Premium Ibanez and LTDs, I can definitely see myself getting one of these! I would much preferred one or two less pickups and a ebony fretboard though...

Can't help you on the ebony board but there are TONS of places that do custom pickguards if you sent them the template, so you could easily make this one a single pickup guitar if you really wanted to yourself. Personally I'm loving all the pickup combos, the split clean tones in both positions are great!

They seriously should release a MIC strandy with fanned frets at the price point of the singularity. It would own the market for sure. Already saving in case that happens

I'm curious to see if Ola is going to consider that, but I think it might be too close to eating into the OS market. No clue if the fanned fretwork adds a ton to the cost of the instrument or not, but my guess is that it's more complicated than standard parallel fretwork for the factory so I would imagine that's probably why they haven't done one for the cost of the Singularity. I don't know how much Per is taking home off each of these (nor is it really my business so I'm not going to ask him to share that info as that would be quite rude ) but I'd guess that even if you took that out of the equation, you likely still couldn't get the fanned fret option added for $1250.

Mhhh, good compromise. Although, I'd have to admit my interest would of been much higher with a full stainless steel fret job.
Not sure if that is even viable where they make them, but hey! Dreams!

Yeah personally I would have greatly preferred stainless steel frets all around, but I'm guessing that was ruled out as a cost-saving option between Ola and Per to help keep these affordable since Per has stated a half dozen times that he wanted to put out a signature model that was affordable enough so that it would be accessible to as many folks as possible. Honestly it wasn't the end of the world for me, if the guitar is great and I plan to keep it for a long time, I can take it to a tech to have SS frets added myself. The stock nickel silver frets play great, so we'll have to see how they hold up over time I guess!

 

[yellowv]

They didn't do fanned frets because Per doesn't play fanned frets. They did so true Temperment as an option which is what Per uses, but it kind of kills the whole affordability thing being that it's a $749 option. As for SS frets they are great, but I love the mindset of a lot of guys these days. Nickel frets don't just disintegrate after a few weeks. They hold up very well with proper maintenance and care. I have a 24 year old Jackson that has major wear to the fretboard yet the original jumbo nickel frets are still in great shape.

 

[HighGain510]

I was looking back at those preview pics Per posted on IG a while back and realized mine was the one on the left in the trio picture!

Pretty sweet, definitely looks better with a clear picture (even better in person!), although I would have been happy with the one in the middle too with all that wide black swirl going on!

 

[sezna]

DANG how did I miss this? I have been looking for a good strandberg for months now, and finally one in my price point appears?
anyone know if these will be in stock anywhere any time soon?

btw, how much does shipping cost on these? How much does the final price stray from the list price, when all is said and done? Thinking of ordering an os 6 this summer.

 

[dan0151]

Well I pulled the trigger on one of these from Guitar Guitar as they had them in stock... went searching the net and found mine was also one of the ones Per had posted on IG..

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