Leaderboard

Well, that patterning is definitely the wood - and now I've sanded down properly you can see the bookmatching. It has also toned down the contrast a touch. I don't know how well the photo looks here but in real life it's beautiful! There's an orange hue mixed in with the browns - delightful and further finishing will only enhance I've also tidied up the surround of the rosette - I'll put up a shot once it's dry enough to sand off

I’m probably going to get slated for this but , Lakland do some stunning basses and I would definitely have one in my collection , but I can’t do the bridge shape

Something happened yesterday.

I've owned 4 streamlines (including a 5 and a fretless) and one XL2 transitional. The Streamlines were nice basses - I liked them but didn't love them (some had very expensive options too - I bought second-hand). I was initially fairly impressed - they're light and compact and the tone is ok/acceptable. They're very easy to transport as you'd expect. That said, the Status bags aren't good in my opinion - a bit cheap and nasty. They also mark the bass - one of my Streamlines was seafoam green and another sonic blue - both ended-up with difficult to remove black marks. I only re-bought Streamlines because of their portability... then gave up. For me, they're nothing like the quality of an SII. Now that's a bass that I love - solid, heavy, fantastic hardware and incredible tone. I still have the SII. Onto the Steinberger. In a different league to the Streamline and an incredible example of superb industrial design. Solid, heavy, truly innovative in so many ways and biblical tone. Really, unbelievable power and poke. I loved the Steinberger but only had it a couple of months. The balance was awkward for me - really awkward - and it exacerbated back pain. The neck is solid as others have noted and whilst twists/warps have been reported, these are unusual. The board is fascinating - really quite flat, and as there's no truss-rod, the relief is built-in as the neck is constructed. Ned really did re-think the bass from the ground-up with the vision and detail that only the best industrial designers bring to their creations. I wish I could get that tone out of a short-scale conventional bass. To address the OP's question, when you have a Steinberger in your hands, you can see/feel why they were so expensive. To resurrect the original would be horrendously expensive and I suspect that there's a really limited market at present.

For a short period (maybe 2-3 years) I owned my L2 alongside an 80s Status Series II. Both amazing basses. The Status was amazing to play, so fast, complete slap monster. But there was something about the sound that seemed very focused, really distinct .... possibly even dated (please don't shoot me!!! ). I thought the Steinberger was more versatile, but in the way a Precision is versatile - it doesn't do much, but that thing it does seems to work well in lots of different situations. Having said that, I still regret selling the Status, it was a beautiful example of one. EDIT: I just remembered something, about the Status sound. The preamp was probably the thing that I remember as being "dated". I had other basses with preamps, in particular a Sadowsky, and it has that sound that a lot of us are familiar with. The Status preamp dates to the 80s, and it was definitely voiced to suit the way people wanted a bass to sound in the 80s. So it's probably unfair to judge the Status on that - they produced a bass that was what people wanted at the time. I assume the voicing of their preamps has changed over the years - I don't really have much experience with later Status basses.

Just out of the CNC ! New EVO-5 Wenge Bass neck in progress 😉

It's my bass and if I want front dots I'm having front dots. 😜 One of the things I wanted to try in this build was a new material for dots made from hammer shanks (maple?) Close up of the one dot I finished before the heat drove me out of the shed.

Stay safe. Use Basschat!

I'll try to remember.. It was TOO light and small for me and bounced around when I played it. It seemed to exaggerate every bodily movement I made and not stop! Spent more effort trying to hold it than play it. Strings. If you don't want Status' own strings, you'll have to source other Double ball-end ones or use the clamp above the nut on regular strings. That's fine, but it'll leave sharp protruding ends. I stabbed myself in the hands a couple of times. That's a pain when you're just about to play. Why was I using regular strings? I use coated strings as my sweat attacks strings. No one makes coated DBE strings. Setting the intonation was a royal faff. Fretboard (phenolic) started staining and de-laminating from the playing surface downwards. Neither of my other phenolic-boarded basses have exhibited this behaviour. Lacquer started to crack around the base of the bridge/tuner assembly. I am religiously careful with my instruments and am fairly sure it wasn't caused by impact damage. They don't fit in regular hardcases. Maybe a guitar case would work, or a generic square one and cut your own foam and liner- To Hobbycraft with you! They don't sit comfortably in stands. Yes, they'll lean against walls, amps etc. while resting on their lower strap buttons, but it'll get damaged eventually. Electrics. I specced series/ parallel switching on mine. Seemed like a good idea after my experience with the Stingray 5. The Ray has the outputs from its series and parallel taps buffered down to the level of the single coil setting. No volume jumps when you switch settings. The Streamline didn't have this (IMO essential) feature. This led to me not using it. Didn't like the EQ much, and struggled to get a useable sound I liked from it. Might've been the pickups, but I couldn't get it to sit in a mix. It seemed to lack fundamental output, and the whole sound seemed "thin" I only bought a 4. Should've been a 5. That was my fault, but it probably spared me an even bigger hit when I sold it on! They are compact and well-made. They suit some playing styles. Mine felt like a product from a well-meaning cottage industry. Initially impressive, but longer term ownership (about 18 months) revealed the issues, and it reached a point where I couldn't bear to look at it. It remains both the most expensive bass I've ever purchased, and arguably the worst. Buy one second-hand. Edit- reminded about the gig bags! It is putting the bass in/ taking it out that leads to the impaled hands when using single ball-end strings. Mine was also the only bass I've owned in 30 years which the 9v batteries leaked. (And no, the rest weren't all passive!)

Episode 2: ‘The Search for A Body’ Part of this comedy of errors is retrospective, but you’ll be up to speed in no time. My first thought about utilising the neck was to recreate another very special early ‘60’s bass. Up until very recently, that was what I was set on doing, then I had a change of heart, partly due to conversations I had with a couple of well known luthiers around these parts. This other ‘60’s bass might come to fruition in a compete custom build at a later date - not by my hand I should add. So I started looking around for jazz shaped bodies on eBay, Basschat, Reverb etc etc. There are quite a few out there, ranging from fully loaded to new and unfinished. I wasted a lot of time thinking about what body finish to go for, without giving any thought to a possible refinish. It never even crossed my mind until seeing the work of David Wilson on @AndyTravis Marcus Miller and one of @walshy’s. Around the same time Andy sent me some links to a couple of jazz bodies for sale that he had come across. One of them was this Squier body on Basschat.... Given I know stuff all about the variations of Jazz basses and their clones through the ages, it looked OK to me. Slap the neck on, string it up and we’ll see if it works - or is likely to with a few tweaks. This is where I started to get ahead of myself. The seller of this fine body said he would be willing to sell for a reduced price without the pick-up’s. I had kind of decided I wanted to go the stack pot route anyway, so we sorted that and I received the body as above without the knobs, jack, wiring and pick-up’s. Here it is without the scratch plate.... Yes, it does have a lot more holes than I have screws for, but David will be vanishing a few of them for me. I still can’t make my mind up about a finish, but that’s a way off yet (sometime in September hopefully). It occurred to me sometime between paying for the body and receiving it, that it might be an idea to get a neck plate and some bolts to bring the two together (you were warned that I don’t know what I’m doing). It seems that a lot of Fender spares are not making it over the water in goodly time these days thanks to COVID. All neck plates are out of stock at my usual haunt (Strings Direct), so I bought (a quite possibly not genuine) one off eBay. It wasn’t until I started researching neck plates that a learned there was such a variety. Thickness of metal, gasket or not, different logos, custom logos. Anyway, I decided it wouldn’t be right to have anything ‘Fender USA’ due to the neck being Made in Mexico. A ‘big F’ would have been my preference, but this one was cheap and looks like the thick metal variety so I went with that. I digress. When the body arrived, with fevered anticipation (it might just have been the heat) I married up the neck to the body to realise a slightly unforeseen technicality..... ....no access hole for the truss rod. I know, it’s not the end of the world, but I’m just kicking myself for not seeing it. Obviously I couldn’t bolt the two together (see above), but the heel sits in the pocket very nicely, better than I could have hoped for in fact. Stay tuned for Episode 3: ‘Out of Control’

Arrived today from Serek in Chicago. Lightweight (7.2 pounds), retro short scale bass with three tone settings (deep, 'regular' and fuzz). #2 of limited batch of 3. Lots of fun

Tried Andy tonight - different league to Maurizio. Looks good.

I had a Streamline for about 10 years....only traded it because a Starry Night Stingray came up which I couldn’t resist. Regarding the fretboard; no delamination on mine but some discolouration (greying) which I’ve seen before on Status necks, just a cosmetic thing, which could be lessened by cleaning with WD40. No cracking at all on the body, but there was a little around some of the frets on the side of the fretboard, it was very minor and never got any worse in 10 years. Truss Rod; I set the action when I got it, lowest action on any bass I’ve ever had and never had to touch it again. Soundwise, mine was warmer than I expected it to be and the 2 band eq wasn’t excessive (mine was an early one - number 6), never had a problem finding a usable sound. I will get another at some point should the opportunity arise but at £2k and no gigs, it’ll be a while.

Single cut, never seen one I like.

I'll add a "+1" to this. My '96 Vigier Passion S3 may be a different beast to Ped's S2, but it's still rock solid. It's one of the other phenolic fretboards that hasn't had any issues. And further to three's post; the S2 is the bass I should have bought.

Nothing on my Vigier (no truss rod, dead flat and immovable since 1988). I've asked Patrice Vigier about how the necks are constructed which should be interesting. I wonder what's inside!

I used to use the 100Hz slider on my ABM600 for the low end so that I was adjusting the same frequencies as on my RM500.

Nice start to the day today. Came downstairs to find a very tired looking white-tailed bumblebee stumbling about on the hall floor. I recalled reading something about bees responding well to a bit of energy and hydration, so i mixed a tiny bit of sugar in a splash of water on the end of a teaspoon, and held it down in front of the bee. It found it and immediately started to drink, I could see its tongue lapping it up. After slurping for a couple of minutes it stopped and visibly began to revive, so I took it outside. It headed straight for some flowers and started doing what bees do, looking a lot healthier. My feelgood moment for the day.

Episode 3: ‘Out of Control’ We’re nearly up to date 👍. Anticipating that I’ll need to source pick-up’s and stack knob controls necessitated more web trawling. The obvious choice for pick-up’s for this bass seems to be.... They appear to be readily available and would seem to fit the theme of the bass. I’m happy to be steered elsewhere of course if anyone has any recommendations? Controls - Having read so many excellent comments regarding @KiOgon’s controls and wiring, I contacted John to see what he could offer and he came back with this, which I like very much.... It has a switch for series/parallel for an extra couple quid on top of the version that doesn’t. I couldn’t think of a reason not to have that option, so what the heck. You only live once. Whilst stripping the body of parts, I kept looking at the channel which the bell plate covers thinking that’s awfully narrow. It’s exactly 20mm to be precise. By now I’m starting to wise up that it’s best to check stuff fits to cater for unexpected surprises. After a quick message to John, he reported back the his stack controls are a little wider than 20mm.... The thing is, I really like the look of this unit, plus, it means I don’t have to get the soldering iron out. They are literally screw the wires into the terminal block and you’re good. It does, however, mean I have to get the router out 😬. Given that the whole body is getting refinished, what can go wrong? One of the things is that I’ll have to strip out that shielding in the control cavity. You can’t see most of it as it’s covered in black electrical tape for some reason. On a side note, the cavity for the bridge pick-up seems devoid of any shielding at all, so that will be another lesson to learn. I don’t know what to call the next episode as it hasn’t been written yet. It will probably be neck plate related. Stay tuned.

The lowest price seems to be about £239 from some quick googling, or there's @walshy's brand new set in the classifieds for a bit less. I think I'm going to email Aaron Armstrong first though, and just see wear he can offer and for how much.

Anyone forming the impression Neil Young nicked @Dad3353 's girlfriend when they were at school?

Here you go then. Fretted and fretless L2s XL5W XL2TA Status Custom

Last of the recent jobs, shaping the end of the fretboard. A bit chipped away which was a bit annoying. I may fix it up or I may just leave it. My instruments are always to just be played rather than be perfect so I'm not massively bothered.

I got an artic!! 😉

I wasn't going to do a build thread for this. In fact, I wouldn't even call it 'building' as it's more 'putting together', but judging by the way today has gone, I think I'm going to have get my hands dirty anyway. So this is more for your comedy value than anything else as it's the first time I've done anything like this - and will possibly be the last. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This sorry tale starts with my purchase of a Fender Flea '61 Jazz Bass just over four years ago. It was a very nice bass. They are made in Mexico and my one bettered a few of the USA Fender's I've had pass through my hands. You may have read this elsewhere, but one day in 2018, I went to play this bass and found the strings were about half an inch off the fretboard. Definitely not where I had left them the night before. Long story short, the truss rod had failed. Cue long boring discussion with Fender UK who appeared uninterested. Such was my frustration with the failed neck scenario, that I ended up getting a graphite neck from Status fitted to the Flea body by Rob. It's still on it and I plan to leave it that way. Some time later, Fender sent me this.... It's sat around doing nothing since I received it and I thought I had better make use of it. In hindsight, it was nice of them to send me the neck fully loaded with tuners and string tree as I had stripped the faulty neck when I returned it to them. Stay tuned for the next episode: 'The Search for A Body'

Well here it is, photo's of my Westfield EB3 Bass guitar, and my Warwick BC80 amp. Now just to start to learn to play the bass! The adventure begins 😀

Not sure if this should maybe go in general discussion but hey, a fretless Musicman is supposedly the star fo the show here: oh, actually, there is a separate video devoted to the bass alone:

Never been 100% with Lakland bridges, but never let them bother. They just seem to work well and are part of the Lakland look. Never owned a Lakland that wasn't fantastic. The headstock on G&L basses though.......

I’m not a fan of basses with a stunning top and then a really basic rear with awful neck joint.

I know his name. Gonna google. Nope not sure how i know that name. Nice wee song. Relaxing. I can see my wife's foot tapping as its being played Dave

have a word with chris at overwater,I am sure he would be able to suggest something

It was horrendously expensive to produce in the 80s and they didn't charge enough for it. There was a limited market for it in the 80s and that market was filled pretty quickly. Those are the two reasons why it ultimately failed. They are still great basses though.

At a slight tangent, I had a MIJ Yamaha. It was excellent. Well designed, well made. Excellent fit and finish. Japanese craftsmanship / manufacturing is at least as good as the best that any other country produces.

A very kind comment, and this is possibly gratuitous, but here's an image of the SII (with a Streamline just visible behind it). Also, an image of the Steinberger - a truly lovely bass

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I have an L2, and what you've said in that sentence sums it up for me. There's something very special about the instrument. It's not for everyone, especially these days, when the look is pretty dated by current fashions, but it's such a well made, well thought out instrument. I'm going through a bit of a period of moving things out the door, but whenever I think about the L2, I just can't see myself selling it.

The bass is now with @andyonbass and nestled securely in his cab 😊

How can I date a Sandberg? Not as in take it out for dinner. I am sure I saw a list of serial numbers and years somewhere?!

Precisions - you can check out anytime you like but you can never leave...

Put a brick in the box at the other end from the neck?

Mmm. I could do, but it’s not very Jazz shaped. It would also have the worst neck dive in the history of basses 🙃.

Couldn’t you use the box for the body?

I’ve had the flea bass and the necks are really nice , I look forward to seeing what you do 👍

It's not a paying gig but think of the exposure you will get! Thats great, it just so happens that my rent is paid for in exposures!

Late to this as usual... Yes- totally different manufacturing process between Status and Steinberger meaning that it was very labour intensive to build the Steinberger necks and it's unlikely that they will ever be built the same way again. The Streamline was deigned to be a similar concept to the Steinberger L series but I believe is much lighter in weight. A Steinberger L2 is not a lightweight bass, despite appearances. I like Steinbergers- in fact my original L2 is my favourite bass. There were enough of them made for them not to be too difficult to source even today unless you are looking for an unusual spec so I would suggest you see if you can find one to try. Unfortunately I'm in Scotland so a bit far to come but if you're ever around you'd be welcome to try them out. I've also got a Status that Rob made for me in the Steinberger shape when I couldn't find a Steiney 5 string a while back. It's a great bass too, as was the Hohner I used for a while in the 80s. Functionally, no one has bettered Ned's design in my opinion. One point on the necks. Ned was heavily influenced by Stanley Clarke at the time so the L2 has a very chunky neck in terms of thickness back to front and a narrow and quite parallel fingerboard. Quite like the Alembics and Rics at that time. Some folks find the spacing too tight at the bridge. This was changed with the XL2 and it's at that time that the Spirit series and the licensed Hohners were introduced so your Hohner will have that slightly wider string spacing and taper, like the XL2. No truss rods in the graphite necked Steinbergers - the neck is very rigid and just doesn't move. You can't really change the neck relief apart from major surgery so to allow this. most graphite neck builders nowadays design a neck which is more flexible and will respond to string tension/ truss rod forces. With it not being wood though, as @Happy Jack states above, once it's adjusted, it never changes. I've had the Status since 2006 or thereabouts and it's never been touched since it left the workshop.

Yay! all fitted and glued Carefully re-did the slots to depth having radiused the fretboard. That was lots of tedious sanding, forgot to take a pic!