Innovation Week: Strandberg opened the floodgates to a whole new era for the electric guitar. Headless, ergonomic designs are threatening to become the new normal. But New Zealander Dom Pearson, the brains behind Pearson guitars, believes the company has “shot itself in the foot” with its business model. And he has eyes on its throne.
By 2031 he intends to outsell the Swedes and perpetuate his belief that headless guitars are the future. The days of headstocks and industry giants, he thinks, are numbered, and the Pearson Omega – a bizarre-looking metal build with insane upper fret access – is him putting his money where his mouth is.
“From a playability standpoint, headless guitars are objectively superior,” he says. “The only reason headstocks are still popular is because of the culture. The next generation are watching TikTok, and they’re seeing all these crazy headless guitars. When they’re 60-year-old dentists with money for a vintage guitar, they’re going to want a Strandberg, not a Fender. Les Pauls will be collectible art pieces.
“Maybe I’m just young and delusional, but I would bet on headless guitars, and that’s what I’m doing with business.”
In his early teens he bought knock-off guitar bodies, borrowed his dad’s woodworking tools, sand them down and spec them with Chinese parts. His first fully original build was carbon fiber, drawing on his uncle’s experience of making bike frames from the same material. Raw aluminum has since proven more affordable, and just as malleable.
“You can’t do anything interesting with wood anymore,” he states. “It’s all been done. And I don’t believe in the tonewood debate.”
Pearson assembles the guitars himself. Their powder-coated bodies are machined locally in New Zealand. Modern C- and Strat-style necks are custom-made in China, with standard and multi-scale options available.
The modified Hipshot bridge design is bolstered by a Gotoh/Floyd Rose locking nut. It’s wired in with easily-replaceable OEM Alnico 2 humbuckers with dedicated coil-split switches, a three-way selector, plus A500K pots sourced for Korea. He makes around 80 instruments a month.
There’s a wicked attention to detail, too. The Pearson headstock is compatible with wall-mounted stands and there’s a subtle body cut for traditional stands, countering a Strandberg setback. The strap weaves through the guitar’s open-plan body, which means strap locks aren’t needed, and it hugs the player’s form better.
The Omega dials back some of the absurdities of his earlier builds, like the purposefully alien Hyper B. It’s a guitar built for the future, without severing all ties with the past.
“I wanted a Stratocaster neck with Les Paul pickups and a Strandberg body,” Pearson says. “I know there’s a market for a Strandberg Boden, but I know there’s also a massive market for a Boden that has more traditional attributes.”
Ibanez has recognized that, hence its Quest series of guitars, replacing Strandberg’s trapezoidal EndurNeck with its Wizard profiles. The Omega aims to be even more accessible. “The Hyper B was about how weird and wacky I could get,“ Pearson says.
“It got a lot of hate – that was half the plan. The Omega is me asking, ‘How can I build 1,000 guitars a week?’ I’m thinking about mass scalability, because I want people from all over the world playing them.”
He also feels the Omega’s price gives it the advantage. At $1,075, it’s slightly cheaper than Ibanez’s Q Series, and nearly $100 less than the Strandberg Essential. Moreover, he doesn’t want to fall into similar preconceptions of who his builds are for.
“Strandberg really pigeonholed themselves with prog metal,” he says. “I want to be broader – I want jazz and blues players to play the Omega. I want to see it in Taylor Swift’s hands. I need that for the brand.”
Crucially, he’s backing the industry to shift in his favor. “Ibanez saw it was losing out on a market because of Strandberg,” he says of the firm’s pivot into headless builds. “Fender and Gibson are going to start dying out; they’re so driven by shareholders they’re not going to take any risks. Smaller companies are moving the needle.
“But Strandberg is owned by private equity now, so I don’t think they’re interested in selling 100,000 guitars a year; they want to stay niche. That’s how I’m gonna overtake them. I’m thinking massive scale, affordable workhorse guitars.”
His ambitions are lofty, but with Paul Masvidal already showing an interest in the firm, and Plini’s interest piqued, Pearson might not be building these guitars on his own for much longer.
- Find out more at Pearson Instruments.
