Vintage Bass Guitar – Steinberger Headless Bass
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In one way at least, Ned Steinberger was similar to Leo Fender… he was unconventional. This was clearly evident with his L-Series vintage bass guitar better known as the “headless bass.” These basses were also called by many names such as boat oar, cricket bat or the broom but they outlasted their detractors.
Steinberger’s First Bass
Ned Steinberger was not a luthier nor did he play any instrument. He was a cabinet maker and furniture designer who, by shear chance, shared a loft inside a factory building in Brooklyn, NY with Spector Guitars.
Intrigued with the concept of making guitars Steinberger told Stuart Spector that he felt like he could design a bass. Stuart replied “Be my guest” and a week later he showed Stuart his vision of a carved body bass that would become known as the NS bass, which is still being made today.
1979 Spector NS-2
The Spector NS bass made its debut in 1977 and became very popular. It was a neck-thru design with the neck piece glued to the body wings and it came in one and two pickup models (NS-1, NS-2). In order to give the bass better balance he added lead weight to the body of the instrument.
The Headless Wonder
While creating the Spector NS bass Steinberger became aware of the weight imbalance of the traditional bass guitar. This is due to the weight of the tuning machines on the headstock which sat at the end of the long neck. Although he compensated for it on the NS bass by adding lead weight to the body, he felt this was not the ideal answer because it meant making the instrument heavier.
His solution was simple yet it made a lot of sense, he decided to remove the headstock and move the tuners down to the bottom of the guitar’s body. But in producing a maple prototype he found that although it was balanced it sounded awful. He needed to make the base more rigid and began experimenting with different materials which eventually led him to making the bass out of a composite of resin, fiberglass and graphite.
Early Steinberger L2 "Headless" Bass With Leg Rest Intact
Now with the prototype of his vintage bass guitar completed he needed to sell it. He tried to get some major musical instrument companies involved but no one was interested. He then decided to go into business on his own and founded Steinberger Sound in 1979 and began producing about 6 basses a month, but it was still hard to get anyone to buy it.
In the summer of 1980 he displayed the instrument at Chicago NAMM and got the kind of reaction you might expect when first seeing this guitar… the people laughed at it. But during one of the shows bass player Andy West of the Dixie Dregs used the Steinberger bass and put on a great performance. The next day Steinberger’s booth was mobbed and the rest is history.
Collectibility
Initially Steinberger had four different bass models. They were the H1 and H2 (with one or two DiMarzio high-impedance pickups) as well as the L1 and L2 (with one or two EMG low-impedance pickups). The L2 was by far the most popular of these four and is the vintage bass guitar most associated with Steinberger. This bass morphed into the XL2 bass in 1984.
Unfortunately the composite material used in making the headless bass does not wear well. They also had a detachable leg rest to make the guitar easier to play when sitting down, but these are usually missing as is the logo which either peels away or wears away with time.
These basses have a small but rather loyal following. If you can find one in excellent condition you can expect to spend from $2,500 to $3,000 for the basic black version and higher for the rare color models.
That’s not bad when you consider how expensive these basses were when they were first offered. For example, the L2 vintage bass guitar went for $1,400 in the Steinberger 1980 catalog, that’s about $3,740 in today’s dollars.
A 1980 Steinberger Catalog Ad For His "Headless" Bass
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