Headless Bass - Steinberger vs Hipshot

[Slowgypsy]

I'm familiar with basses that have the Steinberger bridge, but don't have any experience with the Hipshot offering. Anyone have experience with the Hipshot bridge?

[jbybj]

I have the hipshot system on my Clement custom. I love it. Tuning is very precise, and very stable. I also like that is uses regular strings. The ball end goes in the bridge, and the free end gets trimmed and locked down at the headless end. The saddles are like the A type bridge, with easy adjustability, I especially like the side to side adjustment to fine tune string spacing.

I have never used a Steinberger, but the hipshot feels every bit as solid and functional as my Kubicki.

[Ian Perge]

I haven't used the Hipshot headless bridge, but it looks like it was based of their A-Series of Bass Bridges, which are my personal favorite out of all I've ever owned or played. Plus, when I called them regarding the installation of a Bass Extender they were super-helpful in getting me the measurements and specs I was in need of... good, professional people.

[Slowgypsy]

Originally Posted by jbybj

I have the hipshot system on my Clement custom. I love it. Tuning is very precise, and very stable. I also like that is uses regular strings. The ball end goes in the bridge, and the free end gets trimmed and locked down at the headless end. The saddles are like the A type bridge, with easy adjustability, I especially like the side to side adjustment to fine tune string spacing.

I have never used a Steinberger, but the hipshot feels every bit as solid and functional as my Kubicki.

Beautiful bass! How do you like the MM pup on Toms instrument? Is it close to a Stingray sound... or something else?

[spade2you]

I don't have any experience with the Hipshot system yet, but plan on ordering it soon.

Only recently have some outside company taken matters into their own hands and made replacement Steinberger parts. I really enjoy my Steinberger guitar, but I'm SOL if a few parts in my TransTrem break.

I'd probably go with Hipshot because they've been around and should be around a while. They can help ya if needed. You're on your own with Steinberger.

[jbybj]

Originally Posted by Slowgypsy

Beautiful bass! How do you like the MM pup on Toms instrument? Is it close to a Stingray sound... or something else?

It's a Nordstrand MM4.2. When I had the bass built, it was with a Tonestyler low pass filter, all passive. It proved to be a poor choice, (mine, not Tom's). I have since replaced the Tonestyler with a stacked active EMG B/T eq. Overall much better sound, to my ears, and more in the direction of a Musicman.

I can only compare it to a Ball Family reserve HH Stingray, with a mahogany neck, (not typical), and my recently acquired HH Bongo. I love the sound of my Clement, I just don't think I would ever mistake it for a Musicman in a blind test. It's likely a combination of the Nordstrand's own character, my pup placement, which seems to be in-between a typical MM placement, and a solid walnut body. So it's in the same quadrant as a MM, but still it's own thing....

I do love me some Tonestyler, they just seem to be very particular in their application. They seem to work best with single coils, and of a specific impedance range, which I have yet to figure out.

[jbybj]

Hmm, looking at the closeup of my string anchor, for the first time I see that these can also accommodate a double ball ended string as well. Nicely done Hipshot.

[Slowgypsy]

Very cool.... thanks for this info.

My main player is an old fretless Stingray. Beautiful tone with almost no eq effort. I'm thinking about a fretless Clement with traditional woods and a MM pup in the classic position. Just wondering if I'll get a Stingrayish tone, with Toms body and neck profiles added to the mix. Then was pondering the idea of headless, and wondering if there was a tone implication.

If I could only reach up, take it off the rack, and give it a test drive....