wintoid

I'm guessing the leg rests are like rocking horse droppings?

2 hours ago, Lfalex v1.1 said:

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.

Thanks very much.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who has had problems with delaminating fretboards or cracking lacquer.  Not just with Streamlines, I guess, but with any Status bass.

19 hours ago, Lfalex v1.1 said:

Mine also suffered from a collection of issues which began to do more than just niggle, and I couldn't get a sound out of it that I liked (which is something I've never encountered before or since)

Beyond the sound, I'd be interested to hear the sorts of niggles a Streamline might have.

7 hours ago, EMG456 said:

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.

Thank you, that's incredibly kind of you.  Thanks also for the wealth of information in your post.

2 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

I've had my Streamline 5 for years now and I love it to bits. In truth, until I read your post I'd actually forgotten that it has a trussrod. I've just checked and yup, it surely does. I've never yet needed to use it, but it's good to know it's there.

Regardless of what it's made of, a Streamline can sound every bit as woody and organic as my 1965 Precision or my 1964 Hofner Violin. It may or may not be a 'slap monster' but I've never played a single note of slap in my life and I have no intention of starting now.

@fretmeister is quite correct about the rather squared off neck profile, and I can see how that would put some people off. I'm a right gear tart and I jump around from bass to bass in various different bands and musical side projects, so changes in number of strings or scale length barely bother me. Neck profile is way down the list of things that I'm concerned about. 

 

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas!!!

8 hours ago, Misdee said:

 I suspect that the reason that no one makes a proper Steinberger XL bass anymore is, yes,  they were difficult and expensive to manufacture  allied to the fact that that style of bass is very unfashionable nowadays. Nowadays it's all about blokes with beards playing P Basses strung with flats through an all-valve  Preamp  that is so old- school that it  has no controls on it whatsoever and is powered by organic olive oil rather than electricity. Hard as it may be for some younger Basschatters to  believe , there was a time long ago when unless you had a Steinberger or similar with an amp that had an 11 band graphic then  you might as well have been living in the stone age. It was magnificent. 

A full-tilt Steinberger would be very expensive with only a very small niche market. Status have a much wider range of graphite models to sustain their business model, not just the Streamline . They also  have a long-standing brand- identity associated with graphite basses. A  new Steinberger would have to establish itself in an already-crowded marketplace.  Not enough folks would actually buy them, most likely.

I seem to be very consistent in conforming with whatever is out of fashion.  A privilege of being an old fart I suppose

6 hours ago, BassBus said:

That's not stopped Ned Steinberger patenting an updated version of the original L/XL bass. NS Design also has a larger instrument roster than Steinberger Sound had. When it's released I'll be somewhere near the front of the que for one.

Oh really!  That IS interesting.

What neck shape does the Hohner have?

Ah interesting, so the streamline must be extremely light then.  Time to go look up stats

I've returned to bass playing after decades away, and am using my little Hohner B2A for now.  Of course, I always wanted a Steinberger.  Who didn't?

But proper Steinbergers aren't made any more, not from graphite, and supposedly it would be impossible for Gibson to make money from Ned's design because it's so difficult to manufacture.  So how come Status can make the Streamline and make a profit?

Is there something I'm missing here?  I know the Streamline has a truss rod too, which I don't understand if the neck isn't pliable.

Awesome, I enjoyed that on many levels.  Such a moving song too.

Oh wow, I had no idea such a thing was possible.  Thanks!

Just now, SpondonBassed said:

Welcome Simon.

Has your B2A got an XLR out as well as the standard jack socket?  If so, that will send a clean signal to the input device.  I'm told that a lot of studios had these just for recording.

For an active bass the output isn't huge, I agree.  Did you check the volume trim pot in the pre?  I can't imagine anyone wanting to reduce the output for a minute but it might be worth checking it out.  Check your pickup heights too.

Also, these respond particularly well to light gauge, piano wound strings.  You might find it difficult to get piano wound now.  If you do, you may need a string clamp because double ball ends add another highly specific requirement.  When slap was a significant cult, they were plentiful though.

Hi!

Thanks for the friendly welcomes.

No, unfortunately it doesn't have the XLR out, that sounds like a nice feature.  Mine has the detuner on the E string to drop it down to a D, which I never use.  I think the trim pot only adjusts the active volume, not the passive.  It's loud enough when the active circuitry is engaged, but about half as loud in passive mode.

Tell me about this string clamp business as I'm not familiar with this.  What is the purpose?  I put some very light strings on from Status but I think the action has gone a bit low and I'm not sure I'm up for fiddling with truss rods etc.  I have some regular gauge strings on order from Status now.  It was all getting a bit rattly.

Cheers,

Simon

14 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

(I'm slightly disappointed, though; I read the title as being an introduction from Clark Kent.  )

That's a lot to live up to

Very tempting bass.  If it's still not sold in a month or so I might be back, but it would have to be posted alas.

On 11/06/2017 at 23:50, dms said:

this makes me feel very old, in 1989 essex county council ran a "rock school" weekend for young musicians, henry Thomas came and taught bass and deidre cartwright did the guitars, henry Thomas made all the bass players play a bit so he could assess us, he made some notes, I saw his notes later on and next to my name was "v.good" - that still makes me chuckle, then i got to play in deidre cartwrights band for the rest of the weekend, having been told I was "v.good" she handed me some sheet music, I pointed out I could not play a note, she said just jam on "g" and then go to "e" when I nod..... oh and I got to play henry's g & l bass, the first active high spec bass I had ever played at that time, it was amazing. in his way henry Thomas was probably as important as mark king in the early 80s to the british bass explosion

I've got a similar story.  Probably around 1987 ish, there was a week long JRSM Jazz Rock Studio Music course run at the Guildhall School of music "in association with Rockschool".  A bunch of us signed up and Henry was the bass teacher.

A room full of bassists, and the first thing he did was to ask each of us to play a bit.  A nervous chill went round the room, and someone volunteered to go first.  Well this "student" was a pretty awesome player, and I remember thinking "wow what's Henry going to be able to teach this guy?".  After the bloke finished his little bit, Henry asked him to play it again, and then delivered a fantastic improvised bass solo over the top of the guy's playing.  I was in heaven.

I don't remember how my own audition went, but I would probably have been in the middle of the pack.

Hi all,

I actually joined a while back but have been more of a browser than a contributor.  I thought I should say hello properly.

I'm a 52 year old guy who grew up obsessed with the bass from a fairly early age.  Jaco, Mark King and all that.  I started playing at around 13 years old, maybe earlier, on borrowed instruments at first.  My first bass was a Westone (?) Rail, which just looked like the future to me!

I'm a computer guy, and that ended up being how I made my living, but as soon as I was earning, I wanted to get myself a really nice bass.  I wanted a Wal.  However, at the time I was able to find credit from a music shop that did not have Wals but had Warwicks, so I ended up with a 4 string Warwick through-neck which took me 2 years to pay off.

Over a few years I accumulated a nice little collection of analog synths and studio gear, but when we had kids, I sold most of it.  Needs must.  I downgraded my bass at that time from the Warwick to a Hohner B2A, which I still have.  It has lain unplayed for nearly 2 decades now as I have been consumed with bringing up my kids.

During lockdown, I've found myself interested in music as a hobby again, and have been playing with Bitwig as a DAW.  I've got a reasonable soundcard now, so fished out the Hohner and had a go at recording it.  I need new strings!  Don't like the sound recorded with the active circuitry engaged, and it's a bit quiet in passive mode, but it's passable for now.

I still want a Wal!

Anyway, I'm here, and grateful for this resource and all you nice people.  Thought I should say hi!

Cheers,

Simon

Utterly beautiful instrument, I always wanted one of these. Lovely tones and great playing too