I have always had an interest in 'headless' basses when I saw a video of Mark King doing a solo with one. So I did some research and found Steinberger. I watched some sample videos and found that their fretted basses sound great but their fretless basses sound like butt. Is this true?
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Curious about Steinberger...
- Thread starter The Troll King
- Start date
JAUQO III-X
Inactive
As how good or bad a fretless Steinberger sounds is really a matter of opinion.I have owned 6 Steinbergers(L's and XL models) over the years with one being a fretless and it sounded great and had growl for days
One of the best fretless basses I have personally heard..
Untrue IMO. What sample videos are you talking about? I had a mid-80s XL that started life fretted but was made into a fretless, and with flatwounds was the best-sounding fretless I've ever had in my hands.
Depends on the Steinberger.
An original L-2 or XL-2 fretless sounds incredible. The dense and rigid composite body gives it tone for days. However, they are fairly hard to find and very expensive, as Steinberger has not made any of the all-composite basses in over a decade. Still, if I were a fretless player I would really, really want to have one just for the tone (I always feel awkward about the looks of my fretted XL-2, and don't care for the tight string spacing).
The wooden ones sound pretty much like other fretless basses with similar electronics. My guess is that's what you've heard. You may or may not like the tone.
Also, I don't give much weight to how a bass sounds on a video over the web. It doesn't give me a very good idea of how I will sound playing the bass (with my fingers and my rig, etc.) IMO.
An original L-2 or XL-2 fretless sounds incredible. The dense and rigid composite body gives it tone for days. However, they are fairly hard to find and very expensive, as Steinberger has not made any of the all-composite basses in over a decade. Still, if I were a fretless player I would really, really want to have one just for the tone (I always feel awkward about the looks of my fretted XL-2, and don't care for the tight string spacing).
The wooden ones sound pretty much like other fretless basses with similar electronics. My guess is that's what you've heard. You may or may not like the tone.
Also, I don't give much weight to how a bass sounds on a video over the web. It doesn't give me a very good idea of how I will sound playing the bass (with my fingers and my rig, etc.) IMO.
Just depends on the setup and the player. Some players have been switching back to flatwounds, halfrounds, etc... Not my thing, but that sure would change the sound.
There is nothing wrong with fretless Steinberger, damn fine instrument. As long as it's the REAL Steinberger, not the cheap wood version.
Now the new SB synaps I am not a big fan of, just because of the demo video. Don't know if it was the player in the demo, or the new instrument, but it just didn't do anything for me.
I have owned a couple of fretless / headless basses, loved everyone of them. I prefer carbon necks and boards, nothing like the growl of carbon. I have played, but couldn't afford a real steinberger fretless, it had the growl even with dead strings.
You find the real deal, you won't be dissapointed. You also won't be buying anything else for a while, they are very expensive.
Good luck.
There is nothing wrong with fretless Steinberger, damn fine instrument. As long as it's the REAL Steinberger, not the cheap wood version.
Now the new SB synaps I am not a big fan of, just because of the demo video. Don't know if it was the player in the demo, or the new instrument, but it just didn't do anything for me.
I have owned a couple of fretless / headless basses, loved everyone of them. I prefer carbon necks and boards, nothing like the growl of carbon. I have played, but couldn't afford a real steinberger fretless, it had the growl even with dead strings.
You find the real deal, you won't be dissapointed. You also won't be buying anything else for a while, they are very expensive.
Good luck.
