Parker DF845 Custom, Project Name "Toxic", Serial Number "NX-01", 2011

[jb63]

I, too, must congratulate you! Its a hard thing to do.
I'm particularly interested in 3 aspects of the Boden:

1) The screws behind the nut holding the strings in place. Are they stronger and tougher density metal than the ones used on my favorite headless, the Carvin Holdsworth series. Those used a J-Custom part and I was regularly having to replace screws that stripped.

2) the weird shape of back of the neck. Any problems getting used to that?

3) how cool you look playing it.

(ha ha! just joking!)

3) the strandberg bridge saddles. how do you feel about the vibrato bridge for tuning and stability?

Thanks and congratulations again, new guitars regularly take 12 years to get around to...

[Nefarius]

Did you manage to find "your" tone with the new guitar?

The perceived difference is greater than the objective difference, it's probably more felt than heard. I accidentally compared a specific song's sound through the wrong preset, which resulted in a tone so ugly and harsh, it almost resulted in stupid me sending it back immediately. Luckily I noticed my mistake in time.

The Suhr pickups definitely are sharper sounding and to match certain presets I have to back off the tone knob about a third of the way. Of course that's perfectly fine, imagine having issues cutting through a mix live and you simply adjust the tone knob a bit instead of turning the volume up. I think mixing engineers the world over just felt a wave of intense arousal rush over them.

1) The screws behind the nut holding the strings in place. Are they stronger and tougher density metal than the ones used on my favorite headless, the Carvin Holdsworth series. Those used a J-Custom part and I was regularly having to replace screws that stripped.

Absolutely no clue, sorry. I haven't even changed the factory strings yet, but I will soon. I play 9s on my Parker and expected 10s to be fine for the Strandberg, since the treble side is half an inch shorter. It's still more tension than the 9s on the Parker though, I will try 9.5s this weekend.

2) the weird shape of back of the neck. Any problems getting used to that?

Almost none for me, even though I've never played one before. Some position changes felt a little rougher at first but that impression was gone on the second day. When I let a musical partner in crime (who plays Les Pauls) try it, he just grabbed it without looking and didn't even notice it, until I told him to turn it over and inspect the neck.

3) how cool you look playing it. (ha ha! just joking!)

I'm a fat old guy and a guitar playing singer fixed in position behind my microphone stand and my pedalboard on the stage. Unless there's life threateningly dangerous levels of pyrotechnics involved, I'll never look cool, no matter the guitar.

3) the strandberg bridge saddles. how do you feel about the vibrato bridge for tuning and stability?

Very much like my two Parkers, the guitar survived shipping (Sweden to Austria) almost perfectly in tune right out of the box. I'm not much of a vibrato bar user and I haven't even put it in its socket yet. I typically only wobble the bridge with the palm of my hand, just like I did with my Parkers, unless a song specifically needs whammy action. Which I'm very bad at.

Tuning stability has been rock solid so far. Adjusting the tuning with the screws behind a vibrato bridge is (literally) a little shaky, but I guess this is something I'll get used to in time and not much of an issue on a very stable guitar anyway. The saddle screws on the bridge felt like they were cutting into my hand at first, but I seem to have adjusted to that just as easily as to the neck shape within only a couple of hours of playing.



Looking forward to another weekend of playing!

Greetings...
Nef

[mmmguitar]

If I may be forgiven for piggybacking on Nef's post, I remind @jb63 and everyone else that I favor a Strandberg, as well; and am also happy to answer any questions comparing it to a Fly. FWIW, between the four Strandbergs I've owned, I've never had an issue with the headpiece screws stripping out or cutting strings (having experienced those pains with other headless hardware designs).

[Nefarius]

Some of you may remember the 2008 Fly Deluxe in Tangerine I used to have.
There's a shot on the first page of this topic.

I guess I needed an orange guitar in my life again.
No regrets.



Greetings...
Nef

[Nefarius]

On stage with the NX-01 on February 10th 2024.
Maybe for the last time, who knows.
But it was glorious as usual.


(Photo taken by my friend Lukas Preininger.)

Greetings...
Nef

[Nefarius]

I was getting the guitar ready for taking some photos tomorrow and couldn't resist recording a little something for you all!



Greetings...
Nef

[Nefarius]

What to do with a green guitar and an old friend who's both a musician and a great photographer?
Exactly... some Parker porn!

Photography by Martin Rettenbacher (the one with the hat, sunglasses, and his tongue out in the background of the shot two posts up).
Some minor editing (cropping, rotating) by me.


Every angle...




















And some ridiculously pretty (and only a little cheesy) beauty shots...






Greetings...
Nef

[Nefarius]

By the way... those minor imperfections are the only battle damage time demanded over the years:


The black coating on the bridge has come off in a couple of spots. The bunched up area on the bass side of the bridge is where my palm usually rests. The coating there is loose, can be moved around a little, but somewhat sticks to the metal with a small amount of pressure applied. It's probably the next bit to come off.


A paint crack at the bass side of the nut, more obvious in the picture than in person.


A paint crack at the treble side of the nut, less obvious in the picture than in person.

Photography by Martin Rettenbacher, just like in the previous post.

Greetings...
Nef

[Nefarius]

I'll continue to use this post for occasionally chatting about my gear journey, I hope everyone's fine with that.

There's a post showing the orange Strandberg RESQ:D Fusion above, which was a completely unplanned impulse buy. It came with Strandberg's own OEM pickups, the grey Prog model has Suhr humbuckers. The OEM pickups aren't bad at all, but they are quite harsh and stabby and somewhat demoted the Fusion to be a slightly underwhelming backup. But I didn't play a lot after the February 2024 gig and forgot about it.

Over the last couple of months I've returned to playing more again and started to show lower gain and single coil cravings. I was dangerously close to buying something roughly strat-adjacent a couple of times. At the same time I've also gotten increasingly P90 curious. During that time Strandberg released a signature model with P90s which made me aware that Bare Knuckle offer P90s in humbucker format. That got me thinking again and resulted in the purchase of a set of P90s plus a middle position single coil.

The result is essentially a new guitar. No longer a weaker backup but a uniquely voiced instrument that seriously sings. I still have a lot of exploring and experimenting to do but I've already found juicy tones for every position of the pickup switch.



Due to the warmth and considerable power of the P90s the in-between positions are much thicker sounding than on a strat-ish guitar, but can cover a lot of the same ground, especially with the right EQ, all the way to an almost acoustic tone in the neck-middle position with a very clean amp. But give me something to improvise over with edge of breakup to medium gain and a couple of hours will fly by in ten minutes.

Greetings...
Nef

[mmmguitar]

I'll continue to use this post for occasionally chatting about my gear journey, I hope everyone's fine with that.

"Fine"? I look forward to it!

Circa 2017, I went through similar P-90 experimentation in trying to get my Boden to sound as close as I could to a ES-330 or Casino (I wanted that sound in a featherweight, headless guitar with 24 frets and a floating trem). "A uniquely voiced instrument that seriously sings" nails what I loved about it. I await the next gear update, Nef.

[KenanJ]

Man please don't ever stop! I'ts a joy to read and go back to those beatiful picutre of "Toxic"! If you ever sell it .. I'll be there lol.

Cheers man

[KenanJ]

That Strandberg look sweet as well, how do you guys compare it to a fly regarding playability? I'd like to try one but it's very difficult to find some in stores, and since the fly is my main axe all guitars I tried since feel a bit off...

[Nefarius]

"Fine"? I look forward to it!

Glad to hear that, thanks!

That Strandberg look sweet as well, how do you guys compare it to a fly regarding playability?

Strandberg models with a Richlite fingerboard (like my grey Prog) are the only guitars I've personally experienced that are able to reach similar levels of comfort as the legendary smoothness and softness of a Parker glass carbon fiber composite fingerboard. They are slightly narrower and quite a bit flatter (20" radius) than a Parker. The maple fretboard on the orange Fusion is very nice and perfectly playable as well, but feels a little scratchy in comparison due to its... woodness.

I've had a neck-thru model with a roasted maple fretboard for a couple of days before sending it back. It was smoother than the regular maple of my Fusion and had a gorgeous caramel color, but it felt uncomfortably hard to the touch. A Parker veteran issue for sure and most likely something I would have gotten used to eventually, but it also had less sustain than my bolt-on models and just didn't feel right from the moment I took it out of its bag, even before plugging it in. Return and refund were quick and effortless.

The unusual neck shape ("EndurNeck") is something you'll have to try for yourself. For some people it's a non-issue (I handed the Prog to my Les Paul playing friend, he grabbed it without looking and just played, only noticing it when I told him to check the neck), others need time to get used to it, and some just can't connect with it. Same for the fanned frets, however on six string models the fanning is very mild, so it works for most.


Greetings...
Nef

[KenanJ]

Strandberg models with a Richlite fingerboard (like my grey Prog) are the only guitars I've personally experienced that are able to reach similar levels of comfort as the legendary smoothness and softness of a Parker glass carbon fiber composite fingerboard. They are slightly narrower and quite a bit flatter (20" radius) than a Parker. The maple fretboard on the orange Fusion is very nice and perfectly playable as well, but feels a little scratchy in comparison due to its... woodness.

Thanks Nef!

This is exatcly what I had in min, the feel of the carbon fiber glass is like a touching a piano key so smooth! I will try to try one out, because I really want to have a EMG's or Fishmans's equipped axe so this would be perfect for thath, I don't like modding Parker as I feel like they are already power houses!

Regarding the weight how you compare both?

[Nefarius]

Regarding the weight how you compare both?

The green Parker Custom is 2.5 kg. The grey Strandberg Prog is exactly 2275 g. The orange Strandberg Fusion was a little over 2.3 kg when it arrived. I haven't checked after the pickup swap, but the Bare Knuckle set made it a bit heavier (metal covers instead of plastic).

Greetings...
Nef