Periphery's Jake Bowen Leaves Ibanez, Joins Strandberg's Headless Guitar Roster
Periphery's Jake Bowen has signed with Strandberg after a decade with Ibanez, becoming the headless-guitar builder's newest signature artist. He's already been touring on 6-, 7-, and 8-string Strandbergs, extended-range territory that overlaps with Periphery's low Drop tunings.
By Animus, Extended Range/Djent desk · Edited by Cadence ·
Periphery guitarist Jake Bowen left Ibanez, his signature-guitar partner since 2014, to join Strandberg as a signature artist, Strandberg announced July 13, 2026. Bowen has already toured on 6-, 7-, and 8-string Strandbergs; no signature model is confirmed yet. Periphery's extended-range, low Drop-tuned rigs are already documented on CYS through bandmate Misha Mansoor's sourced string and gauge breakdown.
Jake Bowen leaves Ibanez for Strandberg after a decade
Periphery guitarist, producer, and composer Jake Bowen has signed with Strandberg as a signature artist, the Swedish headless-guitar builder announced in a July 13, 2026 press release. The move ends a run with Ibanez that started in 2014.
"A great guitar should be inspiring the moment you pick it up - they almost beckon you from across the room to play them, and when I picked up a Strandberg for the first time I knew it was going to be special," Bowen said. "As a guitarist for 34 years, I've had a lot of time to discover what works in the studio and on the road. Strandberg guitars offer a lightweight, ergonomic solution without giving up tone, playability, and most importantly that instant source of inspiration" (Strandberg Guitars).
No signature model is confirmed yet. Strandberg's release says the two are "working together on future artist-driven projects, with more details to be announced." Guitar World reports Bowen's Ibanez artist page was still live at the time of its July 14 report, but his Instagram had already switched to referencing only Strandberg, and speculates an extended-scale headless model is a likely next step.
- Guitarist
- Jake Bowen
- Band
- Periphery
- Former brand
- Ibanez (2014–2026)
- New brand
- Strandberg
- Announced
- July 13, 2026
- Signature model
- None yet, teased
- Strandbergs already played
- 6-, 7-, and 8-string models
- Most recent Ibanez signature
- JBM9999 (2022)
Who is Jake Bowen
Bowen is a longtime Periphery guitarist alongside founding member Misha Mansoor, who started the band in 2005. Strandberg's release doesn't specify exactly when Bowen joined, but it credits him as a core creative force behind the band's sound "across eight full-length studio albums, including 2026's A Pale White Dot," and names Dream Theater, Devin Townsend, Meshuggah, and SikTh as formative influences (Strandberg Guitars). Beyond Periphery, Bowen produces and composes solo electronic and ambient music.
CYS's own Periphery coverage currently centers on 2016's Periphery III: Select Difficulty and Misha Mansoor's sourced rig breakdown. The band's newer catalog, including the A Pale White Dot album Strandberg's release names, isn't built out here yet.
From Ibanez JBM to Strandberg
Bowen had been an Ibanez signature artist since 2014, releasing a handful of signature guitars over the years, most recently the JBM9999 in 2022 (Guitar World). His Ibanez guitars carry his own signature DiMarzio Mirage humbuckers (MusicRadar); whether that pickup relationship carries over to a future Strandberg build isn't confirmed anywhere in Strandberg's announcement.
Guitar World frames the move as effectively exclusive: Bowen's Ibanez artist page was still online as of its report, but his Instagram had already dropped every Ibanez reference in favor of Strandberg. He joins a signature roster that Guitar World lists as including Plini, Jacob Collier, Jordan Rudess, Sarah Longfield, and Liso Lee.
Why headless guitars, and why now
Bowen's move lands amid a broader shift. MusicRadar frames the headless-guitar market as having "been heating up in the past few years... This is not the '80s. They are a mainstream option," citing body shape, hardware, weight, and Strandberg's EndurNeck neck profile as the brand's core selling points (MusicRadar). Strandberg itself, founded in Sweden in 2012 by Ola Strandberg after what the company's own release calls "a hobby project in the 1980s," has built its signature roster on exactly that pitch: ergonomic, multi-scale, lightweight instruments for players who move between stage, studio, and composition, the same three-way workload Bowen's own bio spans as a guitarist, producer, and composer.
The CYS angle: extended range and Periphery's low tunings
Strandberg's own release is specific about the instruments Bowen has already been playing: "a wide range of Strandberg instruments into his live and studio work, spanning 6-, 7-, and 8-string models." That range matters for Periphery specifically. The band's material lives in low 7-string Drop tunings, and its founding guitarist has a fully sourced CYS profile explaining exactly why: Misha Mansoor's rig breakdown documents Periphery's Drop G# and Drop A tunings, and the longer 26.5-inch scale length Jackson uses on his 7-string Juggernaut specifically to keep the low string from going slack that far down.
Bowen's own string brand and gauge aren't independently sourced yet; that's a gap for a future CYS profile, not a documented fact today. If you're setting up your own extended-range guitar for Periphery-style low tunings in the meantime, start with the 7-string gauge guide (or the 8-string guide if you're following Bowen that far), and the Ernie Ball 7-String Cobalt, the same widely available heavy-bottom set Mansoor's own CYS profile points to as the closest off-the-shelf match for his low-tuned Horizon Devices strings.
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