In the late 1970's, an industrial designer with a background in sculpture and furniture design came across a new design challenge, one which also crossed into the fields of engineering and manufacture.
In the mid-seventies, Ned Steinberger shared space with bass luthier Stuart Spector in a Brooklyn, NY woodworking co-op. Spector approached Steinberger with the idea of looking for a new electric bass design. Applying himself to the problem, Steinberger developed a design classic - the Spector NS. This shape which has gone on to become one of the most successful modern bass designs, and later adopted and enhanced by the German bass manufacturer Warwick. Perhaps more importantly, Steinberger also became intrigued by several key engineering problems relating to bass guitar design, manufacture, and use.
Steinberger approached this engineering problem from a new perspective - one not beholden to the established approaches of the past.
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:10 (9 months ago) Permalink
Buck Dharma of Blue Oyster Cult was playing this model when I saw them recently:
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:11 (9 months ago) Permalink
we had a few of these (the ones with the tiny square bodies) in the music room at my high school, we'd go in there and play metallica songs on them
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:12 (9 months ago) Permalink
"I'm Big Daddy LongstrokeYa man's Pee Wee Herman"
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:12 (9 months ago) Permalink
there is no way to play one of these and not look like a dick
― vincent black shadow giallo (Edward III), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:13 (9 months ago) Permalink
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, August 1, 2012 11:12 AM (50 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
wow! that seems pretty spendy for a high school must've been a good district!
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:13 (9 months ago) Permalink
PERFORMANCE.
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:14 (9 months ago) Permalink
it was a private american school in a foreign country so your taxes probably paid for those steinbergers
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:15 (9 months ago) Permalink
From the Smithsonian:
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, August 1, 2012 11:15 AM (2 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
WELCOME TO OBAMA'S AMERICA
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:15 (9 months ago) Permalink
if it kept them out of this country it was money well spent
― vincent black shadow giallo (Edward III), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:16 (9 months ago) Permalink
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:16 (9 months ago) Permalink
maybe my new hobby should be buying these off ebay, attaching headstocks to them, and sending them back into the world
― vincent black shadow giallo (Edward III), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:17 (9 months ago) Permalink
shit i didn't know eddie rocked one, lol @ the paint job
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:18 (9 months ago) Permalink
How about Kleins?
― Moodles, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:27 (9 months ago) Permalink
― tylerw, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:35 (9 months ago) Permalink
nice design, though i detect a distressing presence of non-graphite materials in their construction???
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:44 (9 months ago) Permalink
VICTOR WOOTEN
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:45 (9 months ago) Permalink
xp lou had his made from a rare graphite tree
― tylerw, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:46 (9 months ago) Permalink
ALLAN HOLDSWORTH BRINGS BACK THE WHITE STEINBERGER!!!!
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:47 (9 months ago) Permalink
Something just looks...wrong about these? Like I imagine Mark Knoppfler wailing away and then I'm like "Uh, uh" and I point to it, and he looks down at it and suddenly his eyes bulge and he starts screaming.
― Will Chave (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:49 (9 months ago) Permalink
funkyflo_with_steinberger_guitar.jpg
― arby's, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:53 (9 months ago) Permalink
man that first pic
― goole, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:54 (9 months ago) Permalink
man all these pics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=S9vV5TndLto
― goole, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:55 (9 months ago) Permalink
― tylerw, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 16:57 (9 months ago) Permalink
yeah there's just something unsettling about a guitar w/o a headstock. something that invokes freud's sense of the uncanny, you know?
the p much sum up Gong:
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:00 (9 months ago) Permalink
i ... kind of like the visual aesthetics of the tiny little square steinbergers? it's like here's the bare minimum of what you need to be an electric guitar.
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:01 (9 months ago) Permalink
In 1990 I got an el cheapo steinberger knock off through the mail for like $100. Sort of wish I still had it.
― Lewis Apparition (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:03 (9 months ago) Permalink
Michael Yonker's punk Steinberger (i think he just cut the sides off a guitar with a table saw....also he did it because of debilitating back problems which in fairness I'm sure Steinbergers are pretty light and easy to wear ppl w/back issues)
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:03 (9 months ago) Permalink
holy shit @ daevid allen stage garb
― tylerw, Wednesday, August 1, 2012 12:57 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
more like freud's sense of the castrated, amirite?
― Will Chave (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:04 (9 months ago) Permalink
― Lewis Apparition (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, August 1, 2012 1:03 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
it would make a good visual prop for your chillwave band at least
― Will Chave (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:05 (9 months ago) Permalink
It was def not a great instrument but it was def better than $100...
― Lewis Apparition (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:06 (9 months ago) Permalink
Yonkers also wears his guitar belted around his waist Albini-stlye which some how makes his hacked up guitar look even stranger, just floating in front of his body.
Back to Steinbergers...I'm not a great desgin brain but are these really well designed? I've always thought they looked like ugly pieces of shit.
― chr1sb3singer, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:08 (9 months ago) Permalink
this was one of the greatest things i ever witnessed btw
― arby's, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:08 (9 months ago) Permalink
― tylerw, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:09 (9 months ago) Permalink
much like parker flys (which kinda deserve their whole own thread) these were actually pretty crazily tech spec forward looking instruments back in the day - the pretensioned double ball end string thing was actually kind of an amazing idea, and the transtrem, which let you physically transpose the guitar +/- 3 half steps iirc in like half a second was like next level engineering. plus graphite unwarpable necks etc etc. the g-series were the least horrible looking ones, but yeah, thats a pretty ugly guitar, and i say that as a dude that likes weird looking guitars.
― O_o-O_O-o_O (jjjusten), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:10 (9 months ago) Permalink
the pretensioned double ball end string thing
these shits have their own strings??
― goole, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:11 (9 months ago) Permalink
I've never understood the tech aspect of it, that's good to know. Still, they look someone thought "The problem with guitars is they don't look enough like fanny packs"
― chr1sb3singer, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:12 (9 months ago) Permalink
i will admit some slight bias because we also sold a shit ton of these back in the day and they were $$$$$. i also have one dude on speed dial for any time one comes into the shop because he is a bonafide collector, i think he owns 40 or 50 of them by now, so m@tt if you are ever wondering why mpls/stpl has a steinberger drought, its because i sell them all to a weird dude in arkansas.
xpost hahaha
― O_o-O_O-o_O (jjjusten), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:12 (9 months ago) Permalink
kinda think no headstock is better than a jackson headstock
― fuck google analytics (am0n), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:31 (9 months ago) Permalink
jjj are there still el cheapo clones?
― Lewis Apparition (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:33 (9 months ago) Permalink
well gibson bought steinberger, so they do some but they are ultra shitty. Hohner had a clone for a long time (prob the one you had tbh) but i am not sure if they are still doing it.
― O_o-O_O-o_O (jjjusten), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:35 (9 months ago) Permalink
I had a Hohner clone in the late 80s. It was terrible.
― Moodles, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:40 (9 months ago) Permalink
Cosey Fanni Tutti
― Jeremy Clarkson Sex Face (snoball), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:42 (9 months ago) Permalink
(plus your gran on bongos vocals)
Bowie
― Jeremy Clarkson Sex Face (snoball), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:43 (9 months ago) Permalink
Tin Machine, Tin Machine, take me anywheresomewhere without alcohol orgoons with funny hair
― Jeremy Clarkson Sex Face (snoball), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 17:45 (9 months ago) Permalink
(FAIL on both counts)
Also, if your guitar doesn't have a headstock, why even bother with strings?http://www.starrlabs.com/
― Jeremy Clarkson Sex Face (snoball), Thursday, 2 August 2012 07:16 (9 months ago) Permalink
― Jeremy Clarkson Sex Face (snoball), Thursday, 2 August 2012 07:17 (9 months ago) Permalink
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 2 August 2012 11:58 (9 months ago) Permalink
Ahoy there!
that picture's so bad it's caused the hosting server to generate a '403 Forbidden' error.
― Jeremy Clarkson Sex Face (snoball), Thursday, 2 August 2012 14:14 (9 months ago) Permalink
oh shit Holdsworth's Metal Fatigue is on spotify
― alternative riff (CharlieS), Thursday, 2 August 2012 14:23 (9 months ago) Permalink
Always thought these looked like Darth Vader's guitar.
― Josiah Alan, Thursday, 2 August 2012 14:46 (9 months ago) Permalink
Apparently Pat Metheny was a fan.
Ace Frehley
― Jeremy Clarkson Sex Face (snoball), Thursday, 2 August 2012 14:56 (9 months ago) Permalink
the bar parallel with the neck was designed to increase stiffness and improve note tracking #guitarnerd
― Jeremy Clarkson Sex Face (snoball), Thursday, 2 August 2012 14:57 (9 months ago) Permalink
BTW, it's worth reading the specs of Adrian Belew's Parker guitar. Weighs something like 4.5 lbs, tremelo arm can suspend, like, a car and guitar stays in tune.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 2 August 2012 15:02 (9 months ago) Permalink
yeah those parkers seem p cool tbh
― arby's, Thursday, 2 August 2012 17:11 (9 months ago) Permalink
anybody played one?
― goole, Thursday, 2 August 2012 17:12 (9 months ago) Permalink
keith rowe!
― lick of the rim (Matt P), Thursday, 2 August 2012 17:25 (9 months ago) Permalink
<3
Priest used those Roland guitar synths on the underrated synth pop metal classic Turbo:
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 2 August 2012 17:42 (9 months ago) Permalink
actually the guitar synth gets better shine on this one:
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 2 August 2012 17:43 (9 months ago) Permalink
I have played parkers - in fact i will still say that one of the samples i got was prob the finest electric guitar i have ever put my hands on. that said it was iirc $3800 dealer cost and looked as good as a parker can look, which is to say still pretty terrible.
― O_o-O_O-o_O (jjjusten), Thursday, 2 August 2012 18:08 (9 months ago) Permalink
finest just in terms of how it felt to play, or soundwise?
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 2 August 2012 18:21 (9 months ago) Permalink
i just don't understand how makers of a high-quality instrument can insist it also look so fucking stupid
― goole, Thursday, 2 August 2012 18:27 (9 months ago) Permalink
ha i just checked their website, look like they now make models with "an elegantly carved new shape, showcasing a new, more traditional and ergonomically shaped upper horn while retaining the look and feel that is unmistakably Parker."
― goole, Thursday, 2 August 2012 18:32 (9 months ago) Permalink
finest in how it felt - dont actually remember if i plugged it in at all - but the whole thing was one single piece of figured mahogany (like not glued in or with wings, srsly one piece other than the hardware and the fingerboard) and i remember lightly strumming the first chord and feeling the vibration through the entire guitar, like on my belly and into my thumb on the back of the neck. it was crazy.
― O_o-O_O-o_O (jjjusten), Thursday, 2 August 2012 18:36 (9 months ago) Permalink
so the neck and body is all one solid piece? damn....that sounds amazing
i check the website and i couldn't see any that didn't look stupid
man....Adrian Belew AND Vernon Reid as endorsees, you are on a high level of guitar mag swag
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 2 August 2012 18:37 (9 months ago) Permalink
and probably an enormous waste of excess wood? :[
― arby's, Thursday, 2 August 2012 18:44 (9 months ago) Permalink
well actually if you look at the weirdo shape, it wouldn't be that bad? you can kinda draw a triangle (thx to the headstock and the weird upper horns etc) that would contain the whole guitar if i am doing this right
― O_o-O_O-o_O (jjjusten), Thursday, 2 August 2012 19:16 (9 months ago) Permalink
like a right triangle actually, which means that with the right planning i think you could get two out of a prethoughtout rectangle of wood without all that much waste maybe?
― O_o-O_O-o_O (jjjusten), Thursday, 2 August 2012 19:18 (9 months ago) Permalink
yeah you would definitely have to do something like that. that's how i did the neck on my OM to get it all one piece w/ the heel. still left w/ a big chunk of mahogany from the middle that i ended up fashioning into a sanding block of some sort iirc?
i wonder about the quality control, getting an instrument grade piece of wood that big!
― arby's, Thursday, 2 August 2012 19:56 (9 months ago) Permalink
i have instinctive suspicions of neck-thru designs
― goole, Thursday, 2 August 2012 20:12 (9 months ago) Permalink
#shotsfired @ carvin !!?!
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 2 August 2012 20:15 (9 months ago) Permalink
dude i don't know what the fuck anyway! i've played a mexican tele and a beat ass alvarez for 10 years.
― goole, Thursday, 2 August 2012 20:16 (9 months ago) Permalink
March Guitars J-Walker
― Jeremy Clarkson Sex Face (snoball), Thursday, 2 August 2012 20:26 (9 months ago) Permalink
― goole, Thursday, August 2, 2012 3:12 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
well there's this, anyway.
Although limited in scope, this study does suggest that correlation between sustain and neck joint type may not be of practical significance.
― arby's, Thursday, 2 August 2012 20:29 (9 months ago) Permalink
Lapstick
― Jeremy Clarkson Sex Face (snoball), Thursday, 2 August 2012 20:31 (9 months ago) Permalink
Traveller
the way i play is not really heavy on 'sustain' type playing, and i'm more worried about long-term maintenance and intonation.
interesting study tho!!
xps
― goole, Thursday, 2 August 2012 20:32 (9 months ago) Permalink
goole i was joking about carvin....but they made a big deal about neck thru body but i think they suck, some mail order company from the 80s
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 2 August 2012 20:37 (9 months ago) Permalink
I own one of these basses. It sounds pretty good but is a pain to play.
― Moodles, Thursday, 2 August 2012 20:37 (9 months ago) Permalink
mine is a 4 string though
― Moodles, Thursday, 2 August 2012 20:38 (9 months ago) Permalink
I don't really mind the Steinberger body shapes. It's the lack of a headstock, the ugly '80s black hardware and stupid floyd rose lookin bridge that make them so fugly IMO. But if you gave them a nice red finish with binding, all chrome hardware, and a bigsby they would look like something Bo Diddley might play.
Parker Flys on the other hand are the worst.
― wk, Thursday, 2 August 2012 21:23 (9 months ago) Permalink
hahahaha a bigsby on a steinberger is the most amazing thought, i'm sure that would make steinberger's head explode in rage
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 2 August 2012 21:24 (9 months ago) Permalink
― wk, Thursday, 2 August 2012 22:55 (9 months ago) Permalink
― wk, Thursday, 2 August 2012 23:07 (9 months ago) Permalink
lolololol
― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 2 August 2012 23:19 (9 months ago) Permalink
hopefully a Chinese manufacturer will jump on this pronto.
― wk, Thursday, 2 August 2012 23:20 (9 months ago) Permalink
Is Steve Howe the model for Peter Jackson's Gollum?
― calstars, Thursday, 2 August 2012 23:39 (9 months ago) Permalink
― Vast Halo, Saturday, 4 August 2012 17:48 (9 months ago) Permalink
^^^ uses the sound chip from a Commodore 64
― Jeremy Clarkson Sex Face (snoball), Saturday, 4 August 2012 17:49 (9 months ago) Permalink
Also this Apple II...(not a working guitar though, it was made for advertisement using parts from a pawn shop guitar)
― Jeremy Clarkson Sex Face (snoball), Saturday, 4 August 2012 17:55 (9 months ago) Permalink
ashbory bass was awesome!
I couldn't get on with it at all. I don't know if I've got unusually adhesive fingers or something, but I found I had to use ludicrous amounts of the lubricating powder in order to be able to slide easily along the strings. The powder inevitably went everywhere. The Ashbory is visually bizarre to begin with, so performing with what appears to be a coating of talcum all over your pants and the ground around you is really NAGL.
― Vast Halo, Saturday, 4 August 2012 18:04 (9 months ago) Permalink
"Girls will climb over each other to kiss your feet."If you're slinging an Ashbory, babies will climb over each other to ask for their diapers to be changed.
― Vast Halo, Saturday, 4 August 2012 18:08 (9 months ago) Permalink