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Steinberger Club

#1,981
Jakeman said:
Thank you! Very helpful info. The string issue makes sense - I get now why my old drummer has neglected to throw an E string on there, probably having trouble finding a set (and not looking very hard).
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I bought strings from Status Graphite for many years. For a long time there were individual strings and I could put together my own set.

Today you can still buy sets there.
I recommend the 100-string set, the very thin D and G strings in the thinner sets no longer sound good for my taste.
 
#1,982
XP2aficionado said:
I bought strings from Status Graphite for many years. For a long time there were individual strings and I could put together my own set.

Today you can still buy sets there.
I recommend the 100-string set, the very thin D and G strings in the thinner sets no longer sound good for my taste.
Click to expand...

Thank you, this is very helpful. I’ll track down a set!
 
#1,983
Jakeman said:
When I was a teenager back in the 90’s, I had been playing a cheap Ibanez until I walked into the local music store and saw a Steinberger hanging on the wall. Price tag: $200, negotiable. As a high school kid in the 90’s with a subscription to BP Mag, my mind was inundated with someday-achievable Warwicks, Foderas and such. But this thing? Unlike my peers, I was into funk music, and this thing looked funky. I bought it, and played it with joy through high school, but the night of my first real New Orleans gig, I learned a harsh reality - if you don’t play a Fender P here, you get judged. I got a Precision soon after and played it exclusively for decades. The Steinberger? In 2005, I had stupidly left it with a guitar buddy on my way out of my college town forever. The Steinberger lost at that point. Fast forward 20 years. College drummer calls me up out of nowhere, years since our last conversation - “I’ve got your Steinberger!” Apparently it had been passed off at various points to musicians I knew from college, traveling all over the country, but always in the hands of someone I worked with and respect. And now he’s shipping it home - pics below. Any info on my old friend would be much appreciated! I didn’t have access to the internet back when I bought it - research amounted to looking at it on the wall - I don’t even know the model name, year, nothing. What should I know about my newly-reacquainted old friend? (Yes, I will have to remind my drummer friend that these usually come with four strings, lol)

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The steinberger world site still exists. It has not been maintained for a long time and the connection is not secure and no longer meets today's security standards. But you can still find a lot of information there. Use it at your own risc!

 
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#1,984
Jakeman said:
When I was a teenager back in the 90’s, I had been playing a cheap Ibanez until I walked into the local music store and saw a Steinberger hanging on the wall. Price tag: $200, negotiable. As a high school kid in the 90’s with a subscription to BP Mag, my mind was inundated with someday-achievable Warwicks, Foderas and such. But this thing? Unlike my peers, I was into funk music, and this thing looked funky. I bought it, and played it with joy through high school, but the night of my first real New Orleans gig, I learned a harsh reality - if you don’t play a Fender P here, you get judged. I got a Precision soon after and played it exclusively for decades. The Steinberger? In 2005, I had stupidly left it with a guitar buddy on my way out of my college town forever. The Steinberger lost at that point. Fast forward 20 years. College drummer calls me up out of nowhere, years since our last conversation - “I’ve got your Steinberger!” Apparently it had been passed off at various points to musicians I knew from college, traveling all over the country, but always in the hands of someone I worked with and respect. And now he’s shipping it home - pics below. Any info on my old friend would be much appreciated! I didn’t have access to the internet back when I bought it - research amounted to looking at it on the wall - I don’t even know the model name, year, nothing. What should I know about my newly-reacquainted old friend? (Yes, I will have to remind my drummer friend that these usually come with four strings, lol)

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I also have an XP, also white.

The special thing about the XP: it was available with passive EMG pickups, recognizable by the EMG logo in the middle. If the logo is in the corner, it's the active HB pickups, which you can still buy new today.

My XP is active, I also had one with passive pickups. The sound with active pickups is a bit clearer, the attack is also different. I prefer the active pickups, but the difference is not very big. By the way, a battery lasts for years, you should not forget that one is inside, the active pickups cannot be played passively (without battery).
Conversion is easy, but the potentiometers must also be replaced.
 
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#1,985
Is this an H2 on reverb (with super low serial number 0056!). I've never seen one of these before. I wonder how those pickups would sound? Are they Dimarzios? [I'm not affiliated with the seller or interested in promoting the sale just thought I'd pass this interesting rare find along].
 

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#1,992
Interesting hybrid of a lot of features, basically a single-cut from the back, and now he's using the single-tuners instead of one monolithic bridge. Must be interesting, or maybe just aggravating, for him to see the continuation of his own designs becoming modern headless basses.
 
#1,994
I shot them an email about the Fin Bass because I am a very potential buyer who mostly plays 6 strings, as long as they have one to sell, and it won't go through a dealer in Japan that would mark it up 50% and skyrocket the price to 15000 USD.

Sadly that was early last week and still have not gotten a reply. I am guessing that they already have enough buyers lined up that put a downpayment. Too bad because I have the money and would buy it right this moment.
 
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#1,998
crazycloud said:
Were stainless frets even available in 86? My XL2 is 86 and I'm almost positive they're nickel.
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I’m not sure…I came across a reference online saying that Newburgh era basses had stainless frets, but not any actual proof to back up the statement.

I leveled, crowned and polished mine about a year ago and they sure seemed harder than other frets I’ve done work on…
 

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