I bought some EMG HBCS pickups and I actually hate the sound of them. The regular HB's that came with my XL2 sound way better. It's odd cuz I had a friend years ago with an L2 and his bass sounded phenomenal. EMG says the HBCS are supposed to be like the SS pickups right?
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Steinberger Club
- Thread starter king_xanadu
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Thank you! I appreciate never having to interact with you ever again.
FWIW the difference is minimal - there's youtube vids where people make conparisons.
You should be able to hear a difference. See post #1,712.
3.54 vs 2.52 KHz and no influence on the resonant frequency by external factors such as cable length with passive pickups.
I have the HBCS in the neck position and am extremely happy with it. A round, warm, full sound that doesn't lack treble.
Ornette Coleman and Jamaaladeen Tacuma with his L2.
I went with regular HB in my Woodberger clone: it should complement better with the warm wood tone, and it was in stock so I could have less lead time. I could probably approximate an HBCS tone with lowered tone knob, but I'm thinking of either selling it, installing a Haz preamp, or installing Alembic electronics.
Speaking of Alembic - anyone tried the Alembic HG or HB in a Steinberger? I believe it'll totally supercharge a graphite Berger, and also work well with a Woodberger if you could get it at an affordable price.
Speaking of Alembic - anyone tried the Alembic HG or HB in a Steinberger? I believe it'll totally supercharge a graphite Berger, and also work well with a Woodberger if you could get it at an affordable price.
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)
It was a tiny shop here in town, with a reputation for not knowing the true value of their inventory. Scored my 77 Precision there for 350. They are, unsurprisingly, no longer in business.
Well it looks like a Steinberger XP - it should have a serial number on it which can aid in figuring out the year etc.
There's a couple on Reverb for sale I think
Steinberger XP-2, don't know the date, but I still have my 86', looks identical. The neck is carbon graphite, solid hard rock maple body with some kind of bulletproof epoxy finish. Mine is black. I;m pretty sure the frets are stainless, mine have held up amazingly well after decades of rounds on them. The phenolic board is not easily re-fretted from what I've read, hopefully never have to. I've since made a more traditional mahogany body for mine, but kept all the original parts for eventual re-sale. It's getting hard to find the right strings for them, if you want or need to replace them, measure the ball to ball string length very carefully, most of the sets I've found online are slightly too long, so they can't be tuned properly. The original Steinberger single-ball string adapter never worked well, the set screws tended to crush the string causing the outer windings to separate or break. If anyone knows a source of "correct" strings for an XP-2, please hook me up!
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).
Yep, and it was also the E string I had trouble getting in the right length. I ended up leaving an old (and very dead) E string on mine until I find the right one. Again, any leads from the other Steinbeger owners appreciated.
Rototsound double ball end strings should fit perfectly. Or the ones from Labella. Also I've been using the string adapters for years, the trick is learning how much pressure to tighten. You only need enough to hold the string in place. Once you get that down you're golden.
I stole this from David King and it works the charm....
DK recognized the same problem with his in-house clamping system. He provided brass cauls which you would slide between the string and clamping grub screw. I'm guessing they were 1 mm thick x 3 mm wide. Apparently, brass is just malleable enough that it conformed / yielded to the underlying string WITHOUT damaging the wraps / core wire and distributed the downward torque along a larger length of the string.
DK's were actually concave and form-fitting for the various gauges but that's beyond my skill set. I've made my own from 1 mm x 6 mm stock (...readily available) and a Dremel cut-off wheel. Better wear your magnifiers and eye protection!
Riis
I had been using the super-light Mark King Funkmaster, .030 to .090 for years, I think it was GHS that made them . Last set I bought the E was too long, which is weird, you’d it’s all or nothing for a string set. I’ll check the measurements on the Rotos, thanks for the tip!
Don't you just love it when musicians listen with their eyes instead of their ears. I have a CS '59 Precision bass that I love, but when it comes to tone, my L2 leaves it in the dust.
That's a very old and and no longer maintained list. There's a new serial list here, which is still updated.
