The
Missing
Link
How scouring the internet
led me to the long-lost first
STEINBERGER PROTOTYPE—
perhaps the most revolutionary
bass of the last 40 years.
BY DON GREENWALD
PHOTOS BY ROBERT TOMKINS
I’ve been an avid Steinberger collector for many years, so
I’m always on the hunt for rare
and unusual iterations of the
headless, graphite-and-carbon-fiber basses and guitars that
Ned Steinberger debuted in
1979—and that subsequently
garnered fame in the hands of
players such as Rush’s Geddy
Lee and Edward Van Halen.
Ned is not a player himself,
but he got interested in the
world of instrument design
through noted bass luthier
Stuart Spector. The two began
a collaboration, and the experience sparked Ned’s interest in
basses. Because Ned was not a
musician, he had no experience
or preconceived notions of how
a bass should look or perform.
Arguably, this clean-slate
approach was largely responsible
for Ned’s early success—just as
it had been for Leo Fender’s in
the ’50s and ’60s. Leo relied
primarily on customer feed-
back for his design adjustments
and modifications. With these
notable examples in mind (and
plenty of others to draw from),
one might argue that not being
a musician can have a lot of
benefits for a bright, innovative
luthier—rather than looking at
things the way they have been
or “ought” to be done, the
builder can observe problems
and brainstorm solutions that
aren’t hindered by tradition.
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