BASIC INSTINCTS

The sophisticated range of Swedish-designed guitars made by .strandberg* has lured thousands of players over to the headless side. But the company's new stripped-back Boden Essential model is its strongest play yet for the hearts and minds of mainstream players

- Jamie Dickson

Headless guitars have risen phoenix-like from the ashes in recent years. They came to prominence in the 1980s when the heavy through-neck slabs of cocobolo and brass that characterised guitar design in the late 70s fell from favour, and the whiff of patchouli oil that lingered around rock music went with them. The age of the synth had begun and, suddenly, rockstars were more likely to wear Armani suits than kaftans. Headless instruments by companies such as Steinberg, Yamaha and Warwick seemed to fit this clean-lined new aesthetic perfectly. They became so much a part of the look of that era that it's easy to forget that pure functionality underpinned those headless designs - such as the use of then-novel materials such as graphite to make necks ultra-stable, while the loss of the headstock and minimalist bodies made lightweight handling effortless.

The stronger a look, however, the more tied it is to the era that gave birth to it. Headless guitars had a long stint away from the limelight after the 80s and it's only now, some 40 years on, that they seem to be having something of a resurgence - and a lot of that may be down to the efforts of Ola Strandberg, the founder of Swedish guitar maker.strandberg*, to make players look afresh at them. Scandinavian design is famously good at uniting form and function in an elegant, modernist way. This is certainly true of Ola's guitars, which make few concessions to tradition in their quest for the ultimate in ergonomic playing performance - though they do make some, which is probably key to the maker's success.