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Steinberger Club

Has anyone replaced their stock XL2 pickups with the HBCS ones that are warmer? How big was the sound difference?
Thanks.

I got my XL2 in the late 90's. Not long after I got it one of the original pickups died. The pickups were replaced with an HB at the neck and an HBCS at the bridge, run passive. I do not recall the original tone, but I can say that it sounds great the way it is now. The warmer pickup tames the treble tone nicely. Sorry I can't give you something more up to date.
 
Well, I finally went for it and ordered the single/double stainless steel headpiece from HeadlessUSA and I'm happy to report it was well worth the cost of admission! It's a quality piece of kit, fits as it should and functions beautifully with no string slippage what so ever.
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Only thing I would recommend to anyone getting one is to have a metal file handy as the corners will catch your fretting hand if you're not careful and they're as sharp as one would expect for a milled chuck of steel.
 
Wow, it's black. I was hesitant to buy one because the picture on the website shows a silver one.

So it works just like the old L2 adapter with individual screws to hold the non-double end strings?

@Gfkfloyd Does it still fit inside the official gig bag? With the aftermarket Steinberger string adapter attached I can get my bass in but it's a tight fit.
 
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Well, I finally went for it and ordered the single/double stainless steel headpiece from HeadlessUSA and I'm happy to report it was well worth the cost of admission! It's a quality piece of kit, fits as it should and functions beautifully with no string slippage what so ever. View attachment 3267238 Only thing I would recommend to anyone getting one is to have a metal file handy as the corners will catch your fretting hand if you're not careful and they're as sharp as one would expect for a milled chuck of steel.

This one is replacing a twisted out B thread issue: made by Matthew Bean in Ireland (go fb, which i quitted); he only charged me a 100€ incl. lacquer & cargo, which a is a steal, thank you Matt. :smug:
Btw, i also fixed in 5 new claws before incidents ...
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Wow, it's black. I was hesitant to buy one because the picture on the website shows a silver one.

So it works just like the old L2 adapter with individual screws to hold the non-double end strings?

@Gfkfloyd Does it still fit inside the official gig bag? With the aftermarket Steinberger string adapter attached I can get my bass in but it's a tight fit.

Unfortunately it's just the lighting making it look black; I wish it had been anodized/painted like the original.

The new headpiece sticks out almost an inch past the original; however, if it fits now with the brass string adapter, it might just fit as stock headpiece + adapter appears to be just about the same length as the SS headpiece.
 
BGStainless was offering the headpieces in black a few years ago but their website looks abandoned now. :(
I just noticed that as well. They did renew their copyright for 2019 so hopefully they'll have products listed again soon.

One thing on my mind lately, as our instruments age, how will we maintain our necks (warps, refrets etc) as time goes on? As of now, I only know of 2 shops left that specialize in them. Hopefully there are enough of us around who appreciate these weird, beautiful instruments to keep a support community alive for them.
 
For anyone that might me interested, more than likely I'll be routing out Q4 to fit some EMG 35 sized sidewinders wound by our own big_teee paired up with either an Agular obp-2 or a modified Passinwind designed filter preamp over the next few weeks. It's a shame Steinberger bodies and necks don't show up for sale often; I could see them being a great mod platform
 
I'm curious what equipment people here are using with their Steinbergers.

I played through my buddy's Bias Amp 2 rig. He says the program is nice but requires a fair amount of work under the hood. He had a couple of really nice sounds he created that I liked but they made my XL2 sound like a P-Bass, which isn't bad but it didn't have any of that characteristic Steinberger tone.

I'm using Amplitube 4, I can get some decent sounds but not that elusive killer tone I'm looking for.