Fuck a Headstock! Steinberger Space Age Guitar Swagg Appreciation Thread

http://www.splotchy.com/images/blog/howe01.jpg

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.

Buck Dharma of Blue Oyster Cult was playing this model when I saw them recently:

http://www.edroman.com/guitars/lsr/images/cheeseburger_004.jpg

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

"I'm Big Daddy Longstroke
Ya man's Pee Wee Herman"

http://www.celebrityrockstarguitars.com/rock/images/alanh.jpg

there is no way to play one of these and not look like a dick

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, 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!

PERFORMANCE.

http://image.retrojunk.com/798_c97123ea1d.jpg

it was a private american school in a foreign country so your taxes probably paid for those steinbergers

From the Smithsonian:

http://www.edroman.com/guitars/images/MVC-027F.JPG

it was a private american school in a foreign country so your taxes probably paid for those steinbergers

― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, August 1, 2012 11:15 AM (2 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

WELCOME TO OBAMA'S AMERICA

if it kept them out of this country it was money well spent

http://www.mark-knopfler.info/gallery/guitars/steinbergergl2.jpg

maybe my new hobby should be buying these off ebay, attaching headstocks to them, and sending them back into the world

shit i didn't know eddie rocked one, lol @ the paint job

http://iheartguitarblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/lolcat42299b537a1ad2e5ad18aa5aecc709ad6502fa54.jpg

How about Kleins?

http://www.modernguitarist.com/wp-content/pics/bill-frisell-klein-guitar.jpg

http://www.ondarock.it/images/livereport/loureed2_5871.jpg

nice design, though i detect a distressing presence of non-graphite materials in their construction???

VICTOR WOOTEN

http://wpcontent.answcdn.com/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Victor_Wooten.jpg/200px-Victor_Wooten.jpg

xp lou had his made from a rare graphite tree

ALLAN HOLDSWORTH BRINGS BACK THE WHITE STEINBERGER!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRfMDXiZ2Fo

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.

http://www.guitarmaniacs.de/html/users/sirfunkyflo/funkyflo_with_steinberger_guitar.jpg
funkyflo_with_steinberger_guitar.jpg

man that first pic

man all these pics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=S9vV5TndLto

http://a2.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/92/1d129b31cdc4228ae3003eb6d2789c27/l.jpg

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:

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4024/4459927642_aec4006204.jpg

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.

In 1990 I got an el cheapo steinberger knock off through the mail for like $100. Sort of wish I still had it.

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)

http://scs.viceland.com/int/v14n10/htdocs/extreme_magic/main_large.jpg

holy shit @ daevid allen stage garb

yeah there's just something unsettling about a guitar w/o a headstock. something that invokes freud's sense of the uncanny, you know?

― tylerw, Wednesday, August 1, 2012 12:57 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

more like freud's sense of the castrated, amirite?

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, August 1, 2012 1:03 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it would make a good visual prop for your chillwave band at least

It was def not a great instrument but it was def better than $100...

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.

this was one of the greatest things i ever witnessed btw
http://lh5.ggpht.com/Terrastock7/SGMEwfkQJ2I/AAAAAAAAASg/hY4OK95FND4/IMG_6734.JPG

http://gp1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/802892/production_public/Artist/1362993/image/small/1337093101_Band_With_Bryan_and_Logo.png

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.

the pretensioned double ball end string thing

these shits have their own strings??

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"

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

kinda think no headstock is better than a jackson headstock

jjj are there still el cheapo clones?

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.

I had a Hohner clone in the late 80s. It was terrible.

Cosey Fanni Tutti
http://agitreader.com/img/news/throbbinggristle.jpg

(plus your gran on bongos vocals)

Bowie
http://image.retrojunk.com/acc_2393d7a6a3.jpg

Tin Machine, Tin Machine, take me anywhere
somewhere without alcohol or
goons with funny hair
http://www.steinbergerworld.com/special/chromegl-1.jpg

(FAIL on both counts)

ha bowie looks so uncomfortable in his leather jacket playin his lil d chord

lol bowie

banging out a d chord on one of these seems wrong

xp haaaa

http://content.bandzoogle.com/users/daveiglarband/images/photos/gallery/582487.jpg?0

Bowie plays a Steinberger while rollerskating through a shopping mall. A bit NSFW.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-u10bLJ0PY

I kind of like the small square body Steinbergers - it's the ones that have a more regular guitar shaped body that look wrong.

I rocked one of these for a couple of years in the early 90s. It was really fun but getting replacement strings (silicone!) was a nightmare. Finally another player from the noise band I was in made me an offer for it and it was farewell, eraserhead-baby bass:

http://www.steamroller.com/ashbory/AIR.gif

reeves gabriel is in the steinberger hall of fame

Gilmour w/Kate Bush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl9OKddQBRg

ashbory bass was awesome! the strings are back in production thx to fender reissuing it several years ago.

the transtrem, which let you physically transpose the guitar +/- 3 half steps iirc in like half a second

Could not for the life of me figure out how EVH got these crazy legato chord changes until I found out about that feature on this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_a8jtWVTtU

Not headless, but WTF?
http://www.guitar-list.com/files/9stein-guitar-bass-brochure.jpg

http://www.stick.com/instruments/ns/donashtap.jpghttp://www.stick.com/instruments/ns/donashtap.jpghttp://www.stick.com/instruments/ns/donashtap.jpg

those selling points are hilarious

it's in fourths! come on everybody, fourths! didn't you always want to play... in fourths!

xp just coming hear to post that...

a collaboration between Emmett Chapman and Ned Steinberger

Ninestein
http://www.terrahawks.org/images/ninestein_large.jpg

just in case people are worried that the ugly "ergonomic" guitar trend is dead, i would like to introduce you to the currently in production Peavey Powerslide

http://www.peavey.com/assets/images/large/116896_10702.jpg

Not a Steinberger, or even a stringed instrument, but the Stick like Eigenharp...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Eegenqaap.jpg/220px-Eegenqaap.jpg

xp is the curve on the top for accommodating the beer guts of lap steel players?

i don't mind a nu-explorer shape, but that peavey has the ugliest fretboard i've ever seen

weirdly classical head and tuners too.

haha yes actually it is! xxpost

wait that's a lap guitar?

ohh lord pac

i was gonna say, ergonomic for who

it's in fourths! come on everybody, fourths! didn't you always want to play... in fourths!

Kind of yes! I have tuned in all fourths before and sort of love it (NB I do not tend to play many full chords anyway)

Tony Levin + Chapman Stick = dope

http://indieethos.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/950_tony_levin_1982.jpg

Isn't Fripp's tuning in fourths, the one he has played in since the 90s or so? Sorry, muso question, but that is what this thread has become.

oh ffs

http://indieethos.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/950_tony_levin_1982.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3630/3617072684_2605f3b931.jpg

fripp he tunes in fifths

and tony levin looks like g. gordon libby.

Liddy wishes he was that funky

er whoops, wrong letter!

In my teen years, I was very excited to find out that Tony Levin graduated from the same high school as me

Oh, not sure where I got that bit about Fripp tuning in 4ths.

Dumb & Dumber-era Sting plays Steinberger!

http://image.retrojunk.com/dae_45fbc6d3e0.jpg

how can fripp tune in straight fifths??? Do strings exist which can bear that?

Isn't Fripp's tuning in fourths, the one he has played in since the 90s or so? Sorry, muso question, but that is what this thread has become.

― grandavis, Wednesday, August 1, 2012 1:23 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha i for one am PISSED that my Steinberger thread has devolved into guitar mag bullshit

how can fripp tune in straight fifths??? Do strings exist which can bear that?

― Lewis Apparition (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, August 1, 2012 1:34 PM (29 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

keep asking questions and the League of Crafty Guitarist black van will show up in front of your house

The League may already be coming for this thread! Hah!

Westone Rail Bass
http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/badger/7632/558122/640.jpg
...and Rail Guitar
http://www.nwlink.com/~paulcl/guitars/x189playerpage/rail2.jpg

http://s3.thisnext.com/media/largest_dimension/8D34A9DB.jpg

http://www.jedistar.com/images/guitar/rb_assault_bass2.jpg

not going to muso this up, but i still love the interview where somebody asked fripp how he came up with his alternate tuning and he gets all pissed at the dude and explains that his tuning isnt an alternate one, its the right one, and everyone else is just too stupid to accept it.

My friend Neil played this guitar he built at my wedding:

http://neilfeather.org/instruments/images/divynax2.jpg

The soundtrack to this thread:

http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/window/media/page/0,,2535945-6426565,00.html

"Steinberger Melody" by King Crimson

http://dudewithachapmanstick.com/

http://dudewithachapmanstick.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/400chapmanstick.jpg

Teuffel Birdfish
http://www.teuffel.com/bilder/guitar_pix/birdfish_pix/600%20x%20300/birdhimmel-unscharf.jpg

http://dudewithachapmanstick.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/dudewithachapmanstick_2.jpg

kewl peenus

man come on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIupV9HyeSE

Testsite-OverSticks&Stones 1.mp4

^^ some kind of attraction-revulsion to the word 'testicle' happening here

My friend Neil played this guitar he built at my wedding:

love the image of a dude furiously trying to assemble a guitar before everyone is done with the cake

just so he can solo over isley bros 'shout'

i do quite like the headless box ones, like stripping the guitar of all its phallic qualities. though oddly with even the slightest addition to that minimal extreme they become more dickish than ever.

Gittler
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/52/Gittler_guitar.jpg/356px-Gittler_guitar.jpg

My friend Neil played this guitar he built at my wedding:

more info/.jpgs pls!

http://neilfeather.org/

real talk, the only guys who rocked this look credibly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eglgj77T0rk

Well, a small headless guitar is probably the least strange thing about them.

http://neilfeather.org/

okay i've been watching some youtubes of these instruments and dude is sort of a hero

Neil's amazing. He played the Divynax and Anaplumb as my entrance and exit music. The Anaplumb got some second glances from a couple of my aunts because of the "marital aids" attached to it.

lol!

i've had so many seeds of ideas for instruments like his that i've abandoned due to no way to execute them. awesome to see all this.

http://dudewithachapmanstick.com/

― fuck google analytics (am0n), Wednesday, August 1, 2012 1:51 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

My new favorite website

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsrurflDuF1r01y02.jpg

hope that belongs to yngwie

http://www.wildwoodguitars.com/images/site/artist_adrianbelew.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nCvlcIIu3I

http://www.drumcityguitarland.com/drumcitygl/stores/1/images/2010%20Dean/Dean%20USA%20DS-7%20David%20Shankle%2029%20Fret%20Shred%20Machine%202011%207-String%20Electric%20Guitar.jpg

man idk if a 7 string flying V qualifies for this thread

yeah V is a very established style

above that is the legendary Parker Fly that JJJ was mentioning

The man himself

http://image.retrojunk.com/b34_7e8d1a0b2c.jpg

http://dreamchimney.com/tracks/artist_images/14591_image0_20061231_auto.jpg

http://cdn.mos.musicradar.com/images/features/outrageous-guitars/penisguitar-660-80.jpg

(I remember a better one from back in the day where the shaft was the neck, but I have a limit to the amount of Google Image searches I can tolerate to find it).

gentlemen, I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave if you insist on posting picture of vulgar and non-scientific guitars ITT.

xpost

WYMAN!!!?!? didn't see that one coming.

I knew there was footage of Devo with these but I couldn't find it.
Wyman seems to be winning itt.

Rob Wassermann, where you at?

besides the one I posted?

xp

http://israbox.com/uploads/posts/2008-02/1202992711_earth_run.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gb_eyTy6qxA/SeukiBcmSOI/AAAAAAAAALQ/khjXFHf-VAA/s400/stepp_dg1_midi_guitar.jpg

xp Gary Moore was apparently really into the idea of the Synth Axe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xsKpazeA5L8
(from the 2 minute mark for a few seconds)

Also, if your guitar doesn't have a headstock, why even bother with strings?
http://www.starrlabs.com/

http://www.thereminworld.com/files/Articles/13601/images/sonar-axe2.jpg
http://www.synthtopia.com/images/axesynth.jpg

http://i.pbase.com/g3/35/276735/2/88106500.W3S5WfQ6.jpg

Ahoy there!

that picture's so bad it's caused the hosting server to generate a '403 Forbidden' error.

oh shit Holdsworth's Metal Fatigue is on spotify

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/68/171897841_2c10531d66.jpg

Always thought these looked like Darth Vader's guitar.

Apparently Pat Metheny was a fan.

Ace Frehley
http://web.utanet.at/jentschi/AceFrehley/Instrument1985Aceunmasked.jpg

the bar parallel with the neck was designed to increase stiffness and improve note tracking #guitarnerd

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.

yeah those parkers seem p cool tbh

anybody played one?

keith rowe!

http://home.att.ne.jp/theta/ny-jazz/keith_sc_03.jpg

<3

Priest used those Roland guitar synths on the underrated synth pop metal classic Turbo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhY9GOhFwN4

actually the guitar synth gets better shine on this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr6rChjsWgs&feature=relmfu

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.

finest just in terms of how it felt to play, or soundwise?

i just don't understand how makers of a high-quality instrument can insist it also look so fucking stupid

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."

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.

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

so the neck and body is all one solid piece? damn....that sounds amazing

and probably an enormous waste of excess wood? :[

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

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?

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!

i have instinctive suspicions of neck-thru designs

#shotsfired @ carvin !!?!

dude i don't know what the fuck anyway! i've played a mexican tele and a beat ass alvarez for 10 years.

March Guitars J-Walker
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v118/turquoisemoleeater/guitars/marchjwalker.png

i have instinctive suspicions of neck-thru designs

― 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.

Lapstick
http://www.lapstick.com/img/lapstick_natural_chrome_rosewood.jpg

Traveller
http://www.mveducation.com/assets/products/44263_l.jpg

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 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

I own one of these basses. It sounds pretty good but is a pain to play.

http://www.eclecticbass.com/minima-sm.jpg

mine is a 4 string though

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.

hahahaha a bigsby on a steinberger is the most amazing thought, i'm sure that would make steinberger's head explode in rage

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h316/weirdling_2006/berger.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h316/weirdling_2006/howe02.jpg

lolololol

hopefully a Chinese manufacturer will jump on this pronto.

Is Steve Howe the model for Peter Jackson's Gollum?

http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/commodore64-bass-guitar-Jeri-Ellsworth-1.jpg

^^^ uses the sound chip from a Commodore 64

Also this Apple II...
http://www.apl2bits.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/guitarhero.jpg
(not a working guitar though, it was made for advertisement using parts from a pawn shop guitar)

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.

"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.

https://i.imgur.com/vO9zawh.jpg

https://schicksalgemeinschaft.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/keith-rowe-3.jpg

Johnny Winter

https://www.erlewineguitars.com/pgs/img/large/lazer/jw-concert2-big.jpg

Leslie West - this one probably would fit just as well on "I got my own album to do"

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71qzw9gppYL._SL1050_.jpg

Eddie Van Halen

https://www.vhnd.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/b4ee03d1264b25aeeaf2d11e71628284.jpg

He also used the one with the trans trem later on.