The 5 Best Headless Guitars of 2023
Headless guitars look great while also offering a host of other benefits. They are well balanced, easy to tune and transport, and have great intonation.
Even though headless guitars have been around for decades, they have really started to gain popularity over the last few years.
The 5 Best Headless Guitars of 2023
1. Strandberg Boden Original 6 Black
At the top of my list is a model from Strandberg, one of the biggest innovators of headless guitars. The Strandberg Boden Original 6 is my top pick as the best headless guitar.
Strandberg guitars are generally not particularly cheap, but their quality is amazing. This particular model has a chambered swamp ash body and roasted maple neck.
The way the body is cut gives great ergonomics when wearing the guitar around your neck as well as while sitting down.
As for the electronics, you will get two humbuckers with a 5-step lever to pick the tone you want. The frets are multiscale, meaning they are slightly tilted to one side. This gives you much better tone resonance when playing and a much more precise bending of the notes.
Overall, this is a really solid headless guitar, and you can’t go wrong when choosing this one!
2. EART Headless Electric Guitar W2
If you’re on more of a budget, the EART W2 is a very popular choice. This is a great-looking guitar with a C-shaped body and beautiful color pattern, but there are a bunch of other designs available.
The body of this particular one is built out of African redwood with a maple finish on the neck.
Tuning-wise, this instrument has a very nice octave-changing system. Basically, you can always change the octave of your tuning in one go. All you have to do is use a wrench to untighten the module on the side of your pickup and adjust the tone you want. Once you’re there, you just tighten it up again, and voila!
The W2 comes with two humbucker coils and provides you with a sharp, modern sound. It’s perfect for hard rock and metal music or anyone looking for that sharper, aggressive tone. And all of that for a really low price!
This is a great buy for beginners or anyone looking to get a quality made headless guitar when on a budget.
3. Traveler Guitar 6 String Escape Mark III
Traveler is a popular brand that makes very light headless guitars that are easy to take on the road. The Escape Mark III is their take on an acoustic/electric fretless guitar.
This guitar uses standard acoustic guitar strings and has a built-in headphone amp and a tuner, meaning you can play it right out of the box.
What sets this guitar apart is that it is only 29” long, without any compromises on playable part size. They managed to do this by cutting off all of the excesses—the head (of course) but also a large part of the standard guitar body, since it’s really not needed here for any reason.
If you’re looking for a small, light, easy-to-use acoustic/electric headless guitar, then this is an option worth considering.
4. Steinberger GTPROWH1 Solid-Body Electric Guitar
This is another of the compact headless guitars out there. The GT-PRO is a really small electric guitar with some interesting features and good sound quality. The body is maple and is really sturdy, so it can take the road pretty well. The body itself is quite small actually, making it great for traveling.
Electronics-wise, this model has two humbuckers and one single coil, giving you plenty of sounds to choose from when playing. It provides you with a classic rock and roll sound, the sort of people think of when they think of electric guitars.
The main feature of this model is the tremolo bridge. It takes a bit to get to know it, but once you’re there, you’re going to love the floating bridge and the possibilities it gives you.
5. Traveler Guitar Ultra-Light Solid-Body Electric Guitar
As we’ve mentioned, Traveler has a thing for compact-sized guitars made for traveling. This model is as compact as the full-scale guitar can get. You will get a full-on electric guitar, but at a 60% size, and a guitar you can fit in an overhead bin in an airplane.
It uses standard strings and comes with one dual-rail humbucker coil. The plugin is on the back of the body, which is practically non-existing.
If you need to play the guitar on your lap, you can deploy a removable lap rest, which is also light and stored in the gig bag until needed.
This is also an affordable option for anyone looking to get a compact guitar without sacrificing too much on quality.
What’s the Point of a Headless Guitar?
Headless guitars have all the benefits of regular guitars, while also being lighter, more ergonomic, and having a more consistent sound for open notes.
Headless guitars have increased in popularity as guitarists are becoming more aware of their benefits, while manufacturers such as Steinberger and Strandberg are innovating to bring out great guitars without heads.
How Do Headless Guitars Work?
Instead of winding the strings over tuners on a guitar head, with headless guitars you just connect the strings with the bridge and the neck. You can tune the strings through a mechanism on the back of the guitar, usually located on the bridge.
Benefits of Headless Guitars
Headless guitars are lighter and better balanced; they sound more consistent on open notes, and are easier to restring and transport. They also have a very distinctive look, which some guitarists love.
They are lighter and better balanced simply because they don’t have a head. These are much easier on your shoulders when you play them and you don’t have to spend as much time balancing the neck of the guitar with your hand.
Since they don’t have a nut at the top of the guitar, they sound far more consistent when playing open notes.
Cons of Headless Guitars
There are no cons per se for headless guitars. The main opposition comes from the people who don’t really like how they look, and there are quite a few of those around!
Also, guitar manufacturers haven’t caught onto the idea of mass-producing these guitars as much as regular guitars. Therefore, you can’t really pick from a wide range, and most of the manufacturers out there are smaller companies working in this niche particularly.
Conclusion
We hope that this article has helped you learn something new about headless guitars. Whether you’re looking for a high-end pro model or just one that offers good value, there should be something for everyone on this list.
Featured Image (Left) by: “1991 Steinberger Sceptre electric guitar” by tawalker is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Featured Image (Right) by: “File:John Ellison.jpg” by Skot Nelson is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
