Ola Strandberg has spent most of his career pioneering the modern headless guitar space. Now, he’s announced bold plans to create an electric guitar with a headstock.
Strandberg making guitars with headstocks is an unexpected move. After all, the company single-handledly revived the headless electric guitar space with models such as the Boden and Salen.
Some hugely influential progressive guitarists all play Strandbergs. Plini, Jacob Collier, Jordan Rudess, Jake Bowen, Liso Lee… the list goes on.
That’s why Ola Strandberg’s latest blog post came as such a surprise. In it, he teases he’s now working with another big-name player to bring his latest creation – affectionately named UME – to life.
The UME concept can be traced back to over a decade ago, when Ola experimented with a radically modular guitar that had interchangeable layers and adjustable components. The initial plan was scrapped, though.
“I could not bring myself to complete the design,” Ola says. “My ideas were solutions looking for problems to solve, instead of the opposite.”
That changed when Ola met a player who set him down a path that would lead to the revival of the UME experiment.
“At the 2026 NAMM Show, I met someone with needs that are beyond what any current guitar on the planet can meet,” he continues. “Just like when I met Tosin Abasi when I was just starting out, and the extended range Boden design was born.
“Talking to them more and more and understanding the limitations of current instruments, and the problems to be solved, I realized that I was answering the open design questions for the UME design.”
The new UME is set to be a completely modular design, with body modules, neck modules and adjustable components that will allow for complete player-based configuration. Another key design element will be that headstock.
“A headstock!?" you say? Well, current Strandberg guitars are headless for a reason… but there are also reasons and design justifications for a headstock,” Ola explains.
These include how it impacts the feel of the instrument – “bending strings, for example” – as well as how a headstock contributes to a guitar’s tone. There’s also the question of personal taste.
“The lack of mass at the headstock can [make] some players feel unfamiliar to the point that it is not enjoyable,” says Ola.
“To this player, all of these things were real issues that need to be resolved,” he says. “So the pieces fell into place, and the UME design now has a modular headstock that will address all these issues.”
The blog post has shared a heavily blurred render of what the UME could look like. Safe to say it might take us a while to get used to a Strandberg with a headstock.
Ola has promised to keep readers up to date with his design in future blog posts, which will also eventually reveal the identity of the mystery player.
Visit the Strandberg Lab to find out more.
