Steinberger L2 Bass - USA 1982

The Steinberger L2 - or the ‘Headless bass’. One of the most iconic and progressive incarnations of the electric bass since the first Fender Precision rolled off the production line in 1954. The ultra-minimalist state of the art design of the Steinberger L2 is space aged even by today’s standards, some 40 years later.  

Ned Steinberger was originally a furniture maker, training at the prestigious Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York. ‘Form follows function’ was a mantra he learned while studying at Cooper Hewitt. A practice which came to manifest itself in the Steinberger L2 bass. Construction utilized a graphite carbon composite material which Ned felt to be superior to wood. Much like Leo Fender, Ned Steinberger was by no means a musician, and approached the development of his basses with focus on sheer practicality and ergonomics without any ties to traditional ideologies. The end result was a bass design that was thoroughly futuristic yet utilitarian which is as iconic today as it was controversial in the early 1980s. 

The graphite carbon composite material was stiff, durable, and overcame a number of inconsistencies that wooden basses would often have. Wooden bass necks would often have a resonance that would be out of phase with some notes, leading to dead spots on the neck. Steinberger aimed to eliminate this by using a material so stiff that resonant frequencies were no longer an issue. In fact, the neck of the L2 bass is so stiff that it didn’t even come with a truss rod!

This Steinberger L2 is in excellent condition with no substantial nicks or scratches. The frets are in excellent shape, the neck is dead straight and the electronics are working perfectly.

With the uptake of the Steinberger L2 by big names such as Geddy Lee, Sting, John Entwistle, Tina Weymouth, Tony Levin, and Bill Wyman, Steinberger well and truly established their reputation as a serious, high end and highly progressive instrument maker. The Steinberger L2 is up there with the most iconic instruments of the 1980s.

Features:

Fretboard Radius: 15” 

Action at 1st fret: 0.7mm 

Action at 12th fret: 2.0mm 

Neck depth at 1st fret: 23.5mm 

Neck depth at 12th fret: 25.7mm 

Nut Width: 37.3mm 

12 fret width: 49.3 

Neck material: carbon graphite composite 

Fretboard inlays: white dot markers 

Body: carbon graphite composite 

Body size at lower bout: 175mm 

Front Pickup: EMG active 

Bridge Pickup: EMG active 

Tuners: Original bridge tuners 

Pickguard: N/A 

Bridge:  Steel two piece with separate tuner assembly 

Electronics: Neck volume, bridge volume, master tone 

Hardware: Original steel, plastic and carbon graphite composite 

Case: Original hard-shell case