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Disadvantages to headless basses?
- Thread starter foothilla
- Start date
Careful now, you wouldn't want the wrong kind of attention from mods for trying to sell without a supporting membership
@Scootbass1 .
Have you tried Headless USA and Ed Romans? Their prices are outrageous, but Ed Romans bought up a bunch of NOS Steinberger parts when the original company went under. They might actually have your missing trem parts, expensive no doubt but maybe cheaper than custom made.
STEINBERGER - HeadlessUSA - Headless Vintage Guitar & Bass Resource
Steinberger Parts
Have you tried Headless USA and Ed Romans? Their prices are outrageous, but Ed Romans bought up a bunch of NOS Steinberger parts when the original company went under. They might actually have your missing trem parts, expensive no doubt but maybe cheaper than custom made.
STEINBERGER - HeadlessUSA - Headless Vintage Guitar & Bass Resource
Steinberger Parts
Jeez there have been some truly asinine posts in this thread. And I'm not referring to the obvious jokes or "I don't like the look" opinions.
I have already contacted Headless USA and they don't have the pin, and do not know of any source for them. Ed Roman lost any possible business from me in the first decade of this century. The bass is tuneable and playable, but the pin is necessary for getting the trem spring tension set for proper float return to zero of the tremelo (like on a Floyd Rose tremelo for the guitarists) as well as setting the step you want to transpose to. It still works fine as a tremelo and is great for minor pitch variation, but I need the pin to set the trem float return to zero. It could be fashioned with a Dremel tool if I can get the dimensions for one. I thank you for the reference and have looked into many resources for this. I am hoping JCustom in Korea eventually offers a reissue of the guitar trans trem, I believe it uses the same pin as the bass one does.
Peace,
Mike
Yeah, I have memories of moments on public transport; bus or train, with that Steinberger "gun" style case over my shoulder, when passengers looked at me nervously and still tried to avoid making eye contact.......
Perhaps, but not in this case.
Aesthetically that bass is about as far as possible from anything that I'd ever want to own.
Fair enough. Different strokes, and whatnotPerhaps, but not in this case.
Aesthetically that bass is about as far as possible from anything that I'd ever want to own.
I happen to have a 1986 Hohner headless precision type bass. I will add a pic after I get home tonight. It is much higher quality than the Cort headless P basses I have seen.
Peace,
Mike
Yeah man! That is a killer machine! I have asked Vinnie to build me a headless even way before Matt's headless design (as early as 2005 or so). Yet, he was not keen on building one, as he wanted to endorse Steinberger's work and having suffered from his designs copied recklessly, Vinnie wanted to come up with a unique design as far as headless basses rather than imitating one that already existed in the market. Once I saw Matt's bass (and I think another Fodera fellow from LA had one as well), I got in touch with the Fodera folks and requested them to build me one with the specs of my main Fodera; just headless though. The outcome was unbelievable.
The link to that other bass is:
Flame Koa Imperial 5 Bolt-On - Fodera
Interestingly, the headless one has changed the way I look into bass building as well, as a person who assembles his own Fender-style basses. Not having a top wood like a standard Fender-style bass means no glue in the body. I believe any glue changes the sonic properties of the body of the bass significantly and to me it is in the negative sense. So the design I have started from a simple travel bass concept with no cosmetic appeal and "relatively cheap" in the Fodera league ended up sounding better than my other Foderas!
Actually no, a headless design is inherently more pitch-stable:
Far less string length outside the vibrating length, so less strechy, and less (non-frictionless) slipping back and forth over the nut.
String is completely straight past the nut. Winding a string around a tuner post creates a string with more 'give' and 'springiness'.
The effective 'ratio' of the tuner (assuming standard headless linear-pull type) is higher, so tuning is more precise.
Not being able to hang it is not an issue, hanging a bass from its head is not such a good idea anyway (for obvious reasons: unnecessary stress on neck and neck joint, and neck is not free to settle into its natural shape). That is just something that happened due to headstocks existing.
Clip-on tuners are inherently inferior, you are better off without them (note: you cannot use them for intonation).
'Dated' ... ? Only if you choose an 1980's design, headless is the future, it is the opposite of dated. The 95% of basses that are essentialy 70 year old Fender/Gibson designs are 'dated' =)
I just want to address what you've said in bold here, at any given point in time the strings on a 4 string bass are exerting a pull of 120-180lbs across the neck and body. Hang it by the headstock and you get... well, a force opposite the strings and equal to the weight the instrument, so maybe 10 lbs for 4 string.
I'm ready to say it's not an issue.
