Over here at the Strandberg headquarters, Sunday is turning into play day. Leaving the day job turned weekdays into work days, and as all of you on the waiting list and build schedule know, there is a lot going on. But it’s great to be able to free up a little time for new development! I have been planning a bass since 2012. The design was done, and the prototype hardware was manufactured at that time. However, things do seem to stack up and get in the way. I had 9 pcs of hardware made, and in a weak moment, I sold 5 pcs to the amazing bass builder Alex Watson. At this time, I really wish I hadn’t, because the prospect of making the first .strandberg* bass a 4-string hurts. But it might be a blessing in disguise, because if it doesn’t work, at least I know it’s not because it has too many strings. More information will follow shortly, but for now, I’m facing a lot of design decisions. The prototype will share the same materials as the first Varberg prototype guitar: Macassar Ebony top, Swamp Ash core and Mahogany back, with a Rosewood neck and Ebony fretboard. The pickups I purchased back then are Lace Alumitone...
Learn MoreWhile I’m at it with schematics, here is the one for #65, which is a little more interesting. It has a Lundgren humbucker in the bridge, and Bare Knuckle single coil in the neck, and switches through combinations of the different humbucker coils in combination with the single coil using a 5-way switch. And the DIYLC file. Again, this may be modified and shared under Creative Commons...
Learn MoreAs I was digging through piles of handwritten notes – some written on both sides of a sheet of paper, many without description what the actual schematic did – to find a starting point for a schematic, I decided to make a serious effort to retain documented schematics for posterity. From a Google search, I found the free software DIY Layout Creator (diylc.org), which turned out to work really well. Apparently, it is a favorite among stompbox builders. (Note that on MacOS X , you get a random error message trying to run it, and you have to allow running apps downloaded from “Anywhere” in order for it to work.) Here is the schematic for #61, which is an HSH guitar with two three-position mini toggles that switch the humbuckers into series/parallel/split (outer coil) mode, and combines the humbuckers with the middle pickup in position 2 and 4 of a 5-way blade switch. Enjoy! And the link to the DIYLC project file. Feel free to enhance, correct, and...
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