berger KiNg PauL aLCaNtara reCOuNtS NeD SteiNberger`S

GBV&C 1991 STEINBERGER XL2A
BERGER
KING
PAUL ALCANTARA RECOUNTS NED STEINBERGER’S
STRUGGLE TO REINVENT THE ELECTRIC BASS
Conceived over 30 years ago
by a designer with a
background in furniture rather
than musical instruments, the
Steinberger carbon-graphite
headless bass was the most
radical rethink in four-string
design since Leo Fender launched
the Precision Bass back in 1951.
Here, we discover how Ned
Steinberger came to design this
innovative and instantly recognisable
instrument, with help from a fine
example from the early ‘90s.
Meanwhile, on page 116, we talk
to the man himself.
...
110 guitarbuyer July 2008
NEW THINKING
Like Leo Fender before him, Ned
Steinberger came to the guitar
industry unencumbered by tradition.
A graduate of the Maryland
Institute of Art with a BFA in
sculpture, his introduction to the
world of musical instrument
manufacture was the result of a
chance meeting with Brooklyn bass
maker Stuart Spector back in the
mid-1970s. Ned went on to design
the NS range of basses with
Spector, an experience that would
eventually lead to the development
of the headless basses for which he
is perhaps best known.
In an attempt to improve the
balance of the basses that he
designed for Spector, Ned installed
a lead weight in the body.
“I succeeded in getting the thing to
balance but I didn’t like the idea of
adding weight to the structure.
I wanted it to be comfortable to
hold,” he comments. This was a
eureka moment for Ned: “I figured
that, rather than put weights in the
body, why not just move the tuners
to the butt end of the guitar? Once
I got this headless idea I became
➔
a true believer, because it just
July 2008
guitarbuyer 111
GBV&C 1991 STEINBERGER XL2A
BUYING A STEINBERGER BASS
WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR WHEN SEEKING OUT AN
ORIGINAL STEINBERGER
n Four Steinberger bass
models were originally
offered: the H1 and the H2
(one or two high-impedance
DiMarzio pickups) and the
L1 and L2 (one or two lowimpedance EMG pickups).
The DiMarzio-equipped
versions were soon dropped, and
since the L2 was by far the most
popular, this name has become
synonymous with the Steinberger
bass. The composite used in the
manufacture of Steinberger’s
basses does not age gracefully.
That’s not to suggest that these
instruments weren’t tough – they
were – but to look their best, the
plastic material needs to be free of
chips and scratches. A beaten-up
Strat may look cool but a battered
Steinberger doesn’t.
Early models came with a
detachable leg rest that is often
missing. Also the logo on these
basses was either a silk-screen
print or a sticker, both of which
would often wear away with use.
Over the years, Steinberger basses
n The XL2A’s ‘pivot plate’
gives it perfect balance
when worn on a strap
have maintained a small but loyal
following and today a clean,
all-original four-string XL2 bass
can fetch as much as $2,000.
Expect to pay $3,000 or more for
the five-string version and rare
colours (though most L models
are black, the company did
produce white, red, blue and even
a run in custom silver) push the
price still higher.
made so much sense.
“The first prototype that I built
was a disaster,” Steinberger
continues. “From an ergonomic
standpoint, I wanted to make the
bass as light as possible, but I soon
discovered the importance of weight
and stiffness.”
A series of experiments convinced
Steinberger that, in order to
improve the instrument’s sustain,
he needed to increase its rigidity.
A fortuitous meeting with boat
designer Bob Young provided the
solution. “Bob was an amazing guy
and a brilliant engineer,” Ned recalls.
“He knew all about composites.
Remember this was 30 years ago
and graphite was still considered
a space-age thing that wasn’t used
much in recreational stuff.”
CARBON DATING
The two men experimented with
various compositions before settling
on epoxy resin reinforced with
carbon graphite and glass fibre.
“The graphite instruments were all
about providing a rigid structure
that was still light enough to be
comfortable,” Ned comments.
The design of the production
model of Steinberger’s L2 bass was
elegantly simple. The body and neck
were a one-piece moulding, with the
112 guitarbuyer July 2008
EMG pickups mounted on a
removable ‘lid’ constructed from the
same material. A separate
fingerboard of fibre-reinforced
phenolic resin was fitted with
conventional frets.
Neither the headless concept nor
the use of composite materials were
new – Les Paul had built a guitar
with its tuners positioned on the
body in the early 1940s and the
Modulus Graphite Company was
already producing carbon graphite
guitar necks. Ned Steinberger,
however, united the two ideas to
create an instrument quite unlike
anything that had gone before.
OUR GUITAR
“My Steinberger XL2A bass was an
eBay purchase,” says owner Dave
Swift, bassist with Jools Holland’s
Rhythm & Blues Orchestra. “I
bought it seven or eight years ago.
It had been sitting in a shop in Texas
for a long time, so although it has
been played it is still in great shape.”
Assembled in late 1991 in the
Newburgh, New York plant, the
featured Steinberger is fitted with
two low-impedance EMG pickups.
These feature an offset split-coil
design that is concealed within a
humbucker-sized housing.
The active electronics, which were
supplied by HAZ Labs, feature a
master volume control, a centredetented pickup blend control and a
single centre-detented active tone
control. (Though active and passive
versions of the bass were available
during production, most were
shipped with the active EQ.) Power
for both the pickups and EQ is
supplied by a single 9V battery that
is accessed via a small cover on the
back of the instrument.
The proprietary body-mounted
tuning system requires the use of
special double-ball-end strings. One
end of the string locks into a recess
beyond the nut while the other is
clamped at the bridge end by a ‘jaw’
that is adjusted lengthwise by
turning a sturdy knurled tuning knob.
The bridge saddles can be adjusted
for both height and intonation. Once
this has been set, the saddles can
then be locked with a grub screw.
IN USE
The combination of an ultra-rigid
composite construction and a tuning
system that offers a precise 40:1
gear ratio provides a very high
degree of tuning stability.
A flip down leg rest allows the
bass to balance comfortably when
played sitting down, while a ‘pivot
plate’ attached at the bass’s centre
of gravity provides strap mounts for
playing standing up. The pivot plate
rotates into its storage position
when not in use.
“The headless design makes so
much sense,” says Dave Swift. “The
tuners are recessed into the body
so they can’t get knocked, and once
the bass is tuned you almost don’t
have to check it again… ever! What
I like best about Steinbergers is
their consistency across the
fingerboard. There simply aren’t any
dead spots. I’ve got some old
Fenders and you hit certain notes
and they just disappear.”
Despite the enthusiasm Dave has
for his Steinberger bass, the
instrument doesn’t get used on
stage with the Jools Holland band.
“Jools is not a fan of anything that
➔
is too high-tech or modern,”
GBV&C 1991 STEINBERGER XL2A
MAKING A STEINBERGER
HOW IS A BASS LIKE THE XL2A PUT TOGETHER?
n Known as the ‘Steinberger Blend’,
the composite material used to
create the body and neck of the
Steinberger bass was a combination
of graphite, fiberglass and resin.
The basses were built in reverse order,
so that the outer gel coat is sprayed into
the mould first of all.
This formed a durable exterior skin that
was up to an eighth of an inch thick in
some areas. The phenolic fingerboard was
attached prior to moulding so that it
effectively became an integral part of the
neck. Ned Steinberger comments,
“I experimented with carbon graphite
fingerboards but the phenolic material
proved more practical from a
manufacturing perspective. This so-called
phenolic is actually a paper composite, so
it’s actually made out of wood fiber.
A phenolic fingerboard can be re-fretted
just like a wooden one.”
The pickups and knobs were mounted
to a separate composite faceplate that was
finished in the same gel coat as the body.
The engraved Steinberger logo was filled
with a contrasting gel coat colour that was
then sanded flush.
STEINBERGER
TIMELINE
1976
Ned Steinberger designs the NS basses for Stuart Spector
1977
Several prototypes built from graphite-reinforced epoxy are
manufactured
1979
The L2 is introduced at the summer NAMM show. Three
prototypes are sold to John Entwistle (the Who), Tony Levin
(King Crimson) and Andy West (Dixie Dregs)
laughs Dave. “On stage, I use a
customised Yamaha Silent bass and
a five-string, fretless semi-acoustic
bass guitar made by a guy in
California called Rob Allen.”
CONCLUSION
Lightweight construction, compact
size, unimpeded 24-fret access,
superior tuning stability and an
absence of the dead spots that
plague the necks of most wooden
basses are just a few of the virtues
to which the Steinberger bass can
lay claim. So why aren’t all basses
built this way today?
First off, the L2 was expensive.
Priced at $1,400 in 1980 (that’s
around $3,550 in today’s money), it
cost considerably more to produce
than a traditional wooden
instrument. Then there was the
question of image. The instrument’s
minimal aesthetics may have
appealed to design types – the L2
was awarded the coveted Industrial
Designers Excellence Award by the
Industrial Designers Society of
America in 1990 – but from a
rock ’n’ roll perspective, the
Steinberger’s minimal body lacked
114 guitarbuyer July 2008
the sexy curves and overt visual
appeal of a custom-coloured Fender
Precision or Jazz Bass. Moreover,
The success of Nirvana’s Nevermind
album (released in 1990) ushered in
the grunge movement, which
consciously rejected glossy 1980s
pop in favour of murky lo-fi sounds,
often produced using bargainbasement instruments.
Perhaps the most important
legacy of Ned Steinberger’s
groundbreaking instruments was
to legitimise the use of composite
materials so that today, the use of
graphite neck reinforcement and
phenolic nuts is commonplace.
Moreover, luthiers like Ken Parker
and Brian Moore continue to explore
the potential of non-traditional
materials. GB
n For more on Steinberger check
out www.steinbergerworld.com
n Special thanks go to Andy
Yakubik and Ned Steinberger for
their generous help and
cooperation with this feature, and
to Dave Swift for the loan of his
Steinberger bass
1980
Steinberger Sound Corporation is founded and Ned is
granted a patent on the design of his L2 bass
1981
The L2 is awarded the Industrial Designers Excellence Award
from the Industrial Designers Society of America (ISDA)
1982
The GL Prototype Guitar is introduced
1983
Steinberger Sound relocates to a larger facility in Newburgh,
New York, allowing the company to increase production.
The XL2 bass is introduced
1984
The TransTrem (the first ‘pitch-bending’ mechanism to
maintain pitch relationships throughout tremolo travel) is
introduced at the Winter NAMM show
1985
New electronics manufactured by Henry Zajac of HAZ Labs
in Washington, New Jersey are introduced to the line
1987
Steinberger Sound is purchased by Gibson Guitar Corp
1992
Steinberger relocates to Nashville, Tennessee
1998
Production of composite-bodied instruments is halted
GBINTERVIEW NED STEINBERGER
BETTER
BY DESIGN
PAUL ALCANTARA TALKS TO NED STEINBERGER, A MAN NEVER
AFRAID TO TAKE A NEW APPROACH TO INSTRUMENT DESIGN
did you do before
... What
becoming involved in
musical instrument
manufacture?
“I flunked out of college, then got
involved in photography and went
to art school. Later I worked as
a cabinet-maker and eventually got
a job as a furniture designer, but
the musical instruments were way
more exciting. Since meeting
Stuart Spector I have never
really looked back!”
How did your background in
furniture influence the
direction that you took in
musical instrument design?
n Ned Steinberger’s
NS Design Bass Cello:
it has the same scale
length as a bass guitar
“My specialty was industrial
furniture – office chairs and so on.
The chair is one of the most
interesting and challenging pieces of
furniture to design. It is all about a
relationship with the human body
and that’s what originally drew me
to musical instruments. I don’t think
I ever would have got started if
there hadn’t been that link, because
I knew very little about instrument
manufacture or music when I
started out.”
Your first involvement in the
bass guitar market followed
a meeting with bass maker
Stuart Spector…
“At the time I was sharing space
with Stuart in a Brooklyn, New York
woodworking co-op. He was building
custom guitars with natural wood
finishes and was getting feedback
from dealers to the effect that
116 guitarbuyer July 2008
these would be real cool if they were
basses. He figured that they had a
point and I became involved with him
in designing what would become the
Spector NS bass. Stuart taught me
everything I knew about musical
instruments at that time.”
At what point did you decide to
branch out on your own?
“While designing the basses for
Stuart, I became aware of the
imbalance created by having heavy
tuning machines at one end of a long
neck and a guitar-sized body at the
other. Remember that I came to
this from an ergonomic standpoint.
I didn’t want the balance to be sort
of OK, I wanted it to be perfect! I
tried putting a lead weight in one
end of the body and it worked. I got
the thing to balance but I didn’t like
the idea of adding weight to the
structure. So I figured that, rather
than put weights in the body, why
not just move the tuners to the
body end of the guitar?”
Were you aware of the headless
guitar that Les Paul had built?
“I wasn’t aware of Les Paul’s guitar
until we started to market the
Steinberger bass. Actually, it’s kind
of a funny story. I was going around
bragging, saying, ‘Look at this – the
world’s first headless guitar!’ and
Les said, ‘No, that’s wrong – I built
the first headless guitar back in
1942’. Of course, he was right.
I went to his house to see the guitar
but he couldn’t find it! He had so
many inventions in his house that
they were bursting out at the
seams. To Les, it was just
something that he did that went
into the closet along with a lot
of other great ideas.”
Did you try various different
materials before settling
on carbon graphite?
“The process that led from the
wooden prototype to the carbon
graphite production model was
totally experimental. First, I made a
maple instrument that was very
light and flexible but the sound was
uneven and weak. I then attached a
bunch of heavy C clamps to it to
hear the effect on the tone of
adding weight without increasing
rigidity, and the improvement was
encouraging. Next, I took the same
instrument and clamped it solidly to
a workbench that was built from a
three-inch-thick section of rock
maple. Adding all that weight and
stiffness made a huge difference to
its sound. It rang out true and clean
at every fret. I realised then that to
achieve my goal I needed to build an
instrument that was rigid and as
heavy as is comfortable to play.
That’s what became the Steinberger
bass. I used graphite because it was
the only material that could give
me the stiffness and weight that
I was after.”
How did you come to develop the
composite in conjunction with
boat designer Bob Young?
“I was looking for someone capable
of manufacturing composite
instruments under contract. Word
got out and a local fiberglass
supplier put me in contact with Bob.
He took the Steinberger bass home
with him to show his son Rory, who
turned out to be a talented musician
and a recording engineer. Rory said,
‘This is the real deal, Dad – help this
guy out,’ and eventually Bob and
I went into business together.”
How long did the bass take
to develop?
“Development of the L2 started
somewhere around 1977. It was
a product by 1980. The original
L2 had some practical and aesthetic
issues and these were addressed
with the introduction of the XL2
in 1983. “
How did the rest of the industry
react to the L2?
“Mostly with derision. When we
went to our first Chicago NAMM
show in 1980, people laughed at us.
The show featured a musical event
that most people attended, and
Andy West, the bass player with the
Dixie Dregs used his brand new
Steinberger. It was a great
performance that brought the
house down, and that’s what turned
the corner for us.”
You sold the company to Gibson
in 1987 – Why?
“To tell you the truth, I never really
wanted to have my own business. It
was a terrific experience but it was
just too much for me. Besides, I was
ready to get back to designing
instruments and doing the work
that I really enjoy.”
What have you done since
selling the company?
“I worked for Gibson for three or
four years but it wasn’t easy for me
to do what I wanted to do within a
corporate structure. I needed to do
my own thing, so I set up NS Design
to develop bowed electric
instruments. We now have a full line,
from violin to double bass, including
fretless and fretted models of the
Bass Cello, which has the same
scale length as the original L2
[see www.nedsteinberger.com
for more information on Ned’s
post-Steinberger instruments].
About five years ago I got back
together with Gibson. We signed a
new contract and today I’m involved
with Gibson and other companies as
a design consultant.” GB
July 2008
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