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Steinberger guitars and why they matter

IMMUSICRULZ

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I wanted to ask if any of you have ever owned a Steinberger guitar or at least played one long enough to remember playing it or holding it.

Steinberger makes some very, very good guitars. They are more well known for manufacturing basses played by Peter Cetera, (Peter Cetera of Chicago played Steinberger basses around the time Chicago 16 came out in 1982,) Maurice Gibb of The Bee Gees, Earl Falconer of UB40, Geddy Lee of Rush, Greg Lake (who famously played a Steinberger bass during his tenure in Asia in 1983), Danny Klein of the J. Geils Band, Sting of the Police, Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, Roger Glover of Deep Purple, John Illsley of Dire Straits (during the Live Aid concert), Phil Soussan of Ozzy Osbourne, Greg Lake, Dougie Thomson of Supertramp (in the video for "Free As A Bird"), Jean Jacques Burnel of The Stranglers, Cliff Williams of AC/DC, Humberto Gessinger of Engenheiros do Hawaii, John Taylor of Duran Duran, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Robbie Shakespeare of Sly & Robbie, Gerald Casale of DEVO, Ross Valory of Journey, Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy (during Soul Punk in 2011, using the 5 strings bass), Christopher Rapkin, Curt Smith of Tears for Fears, Arif Mirabdolbaghi of Protest the Hero, Fat Mike of NOFX, Eddie Van Halen of Van Halen, Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads, Leo "E-Zee Kill" Williams of Big Audio Dynamite, Andrew Wood of Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone, Jozef Ráž of Elán, John Entwistle of The Who (in the video for “Don’t Let Go The Coat”), Tony Lewis of The Outfield and Zeta Bosio of Soda Stereo. I do think that Steinberger basses have a very ugly design. Like, how the hell are you supposed to play a guitar that has no headstock? Is their an alternative to tuning the guitar? Do you use your phone to tune it?

Either way, Steinberger guitars are owned by Gibson. The usual color I see of Steinberger instruments is white.
Notable players of Steinberger guitars are Jerry Garcia of Grateful Dead/Jerry Garcia Band, Warren Cuccurullo of Duran Duran, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, David Bowie (with Tin Machine in 1991–1992 and the "Valentine's Day" music video in 2013), Reeves Gabrels (also with Tin Machine), Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, Don Felder of the Eagles, Augusto Licks of Engenheiros do Hawaii (Brazil), Vito Bratta of White Lion, Allan Holdsworth, Luis Alberto Spinetta, Steve Hillage, Mike Rutherford of Genesis, Rhoma Irama of Soneta, Buck Dharma AKA Donald Roeser of Blue Öyster Cult (one of his Steinberger guitars is called a Cheeseberger and is designed to look like a piece of Swiss cheese), Johnny Winter, Martin Tielli of Rheostatics, Paul Masvidal of Cynic, David Rhodes with Peter Gabriel, Paul Stanley of Kiss, David Torn and David Sylvian.


The best-known Steinberger design is the L-series instrument, sometimes described as shaped like a broom, boat oar, or cricket bat. Initially produced as an electric bass and later as a guitar, the instrument was made entirely of the Steinberger Blend, a "proprietary" graphite and carbon-fiber mix in two pieces: the main body and a faceplate (the "blend" being an off-the-shelf carbon fiber "system" from the DuPont product line). The headstock was eliminated, the tuning hardware instead installed on a tailpiece mounted to the face of the guitar body. The tuners utilized a finer than normal 18:1 gear ratio, with 40 threads per inch, which gave slower but more precise adjustment and helped reduce string slippage. Depending on the tailpiece, calibrated or uncalibrated double-ball end strings were used, with the former required in order to use the transposing feature of the TransTrem vibrato unit. The rationale for the overall design was the elimination of unnecessary weight, especially the unbalanced headstock, and the use of modern materials, such as graphite, for their advantages over wood.

The all-synthetic construction gave a very smooth sound and feel, immediate note attack, and very even tonal response. Depending upon the preferences of the listener, this was either a good thing, as it made the instrument sonically clean, or a bad thing, as it made the instrument sound synthetic and unnatural. Steinberger was and still is proud of this dichotomy and one of their slogans was "We don't make 'em like they used to." In fact, I've read that if you play a Steinberger with flatwound strings and an Ampeg SVT, it gives off a fat tone similar to Eighties AOR guitar solos.

But if any of you like a Steinberger please let me know.
 

Amp360

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I remember trying them out in a store circa 1989. When I started at Berklee in the mid 1990s I knew a few people that owned them and I played a bunch more. Over the years I played a bunch of Ed Roman’s collection as well.

I remember the feel being very different and not loving the feel. They were unique and well made. Most of the people I remember would use a pretty sophisticated setup (preamp, effects, power amp) vs a regular tube amp. They seemed to work really well for that.

I would like to play one again to see what I would think of them now.
 

Dave P

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I owned 4 GL's 3 with Transtrems, one hardtail. Gibson really dropped the ball with Steinberger, considering the plethora of headless guitars out there right now. I guess without Ned, they don't have any new ideas.
 

Wilko

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They are the perfect example of why wood matters. Steinberger tone is BBBOOORRRIIINNNGGG.

Long list of players who played them for a minute.
 

somebodyelseuk

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I had one briefly, before they did the one with 'a body'. Fabulous thing, but I couldn't get on with not having somewhere to rest my arm and the strings were hard to get hold of - no interweb back then.
No desire to get one again, but I do have a hankering for a Status Bass from back then - headless with a body, think it was called the 2000 series?
 

Morlock

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The ones I just looked at on their site don't appeal to me. I guess I want a guitar not just a little rectangle with a neck on it. Aesthetics count for me.
 

Bob Womack

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Stweve Howe of YES wrote the music for their 1977 magnum opus, "Awaken," from the album Going for the One, on a lovely Rickenbacker 12 String. It sounded great! When they took it out on the road the first time, he found that he was fussing with the tuning continually so he switched to a Steinberger 12 and used it on the road for three decades. He eventually replaced it with a Line 6 guitar. The Steiny was a boring sounding guitar that was wonderfully in-tune. You don't seem to be able to have everything at once, huh?

Bob
 

IMMUSICRULZ

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David Ragsdale, the violin player for Kansas, also occasionally plays guitar on a Steinberger guitar.
 

Norton

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I was always more partial to the Roger Giffin designed M-Series bodied guitars than Ned's original design. The white ones especially for some reason were really cool, or maybe I just prefer curves.

But I feel like you cant discuss Steinberger on a Gibson - focused site without an honorable (or dis-honorable if you prefer) mention of Ned's Gibson 20/20 Bass. Technically it has a headstock and it's made of wood but it captures the odd aesthetic.

 

renderit

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Honestly


They don't matter...


The guitar world was not changed one iota because of them.


The players you list would have been great without them.


They are "cool", "different" and "totally NOT earth shattering in anything they do different".


Other than usability as a jack...
 

IMMUSICRULZ

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I also found a clip of Dave Hope from Kansas playing a Steinberger bass in 1982.

 

IMMUSICRULZ

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Stephan Ellis of Survivor also played a Steinberger bass.

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And check out that Gibson Explorer Frankie Sullivan is playing! Nice!
 

Dave P

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One problem with the GL's is that they used EMG's. I think the EMG's made an already sterile sounding guitar sound even more sterile. I put Seymour Duncans in a couple I had, and it helped a lot. The GL's were surprisingly heavy for how small they were.
 

jrgtr42

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I seem to remember David Bowie playing a Steinberger on Solid Gold back in the '80s. (anyone remember that show?)
I don't know why it sticks in the memory like that; I didn't even play guitar yet - hadn't thought about learning.
I've had a chance to play them since, and I'm not really a fan. You can't really sit with them, even with the leg brace, and my hand was always falling off the nut end.
However, they'd do great as a travel guitar - they don't take much space, and the original composite ones are impervious to weather changes.
 

thin sissy

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Mark Knopfler also used one occasionally.

They are intriquing guitars, but the feeling I get is that most guitarists liked them for a while but pretty quickly moved on? I can not judge them as I've never tried one, but live performances with them are usually not my favourites it seems :unsure:
 

Wilko

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They are important as an example of what NOT to do.

A great example for the "wood doesn't matter" crowd.
 

IMMUSICRULZ

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The intro to the song This Is The Time by Lindsey Buckingham was played on a Steinberger.

 
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