NS Fin (Steinberger for 2025)

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

I’ll just wait for the Harley Benton version for £500 in yellow 🙂

[Bolo]

Stupid. 

They could make 18 if they only used four strings per bass!

[Woodinblack]

2 hours ago, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

I’ll just wait for the Harley Benton version for £500 in yellow 🙂

 

or the hofner wooden version!

[LeftyJ]

That would probably be Hohner 

[Russ]

On 28/09/2025 at 13:21, Misdee said:

Bear in mind that most bass manufacturers have had to acquiesce to the fact that the prevalent trend is for P Basses and retro instruments in general. Kudos to Ned for completely ignoring that with this offering. There's no dressing this bass up as being anything but futuristic and hi-tech. 

 

 

I think that may have been the case maybe 5 years ago or so. You're starting to see a lot more interesting stuff showing up these days - headless and multiscale (and headless multiscale) have taken off in a big way, to the point where almost every major guitar manufacturer (except the dinosaurs like Fender, Gibson, etc) have added them to their ranges. I think Ned has come in with this at the right time. The people who like his NS stuff *really* like it, and are prepared to pay for it, to the point where nothing else will do. 

[Misdee]

28 minutes ago, Russ said:

I think that may have been the case maybe 5 years ago or so. You're starting to see a lot more interesting stuff showing up these days - headless and multiscale (and headless multiscale) have taken off in a big way, to the point where almost every major guitar manufacturer (except the dinosaurs like Fender, Gibson, etc) have added them to their ranges. I think Ned has come in with this at the right time. The people who like his NS stuff *really* like it, and are prepared to pay for it, to the point where nothing else will do. 

You might well be right; I'm getting too old and confused to understand what young  people  really want. (That was the basis of my defense in court, anyway.) That whole math rock, new metal thing is unlistenable for me so I don't pay too much attention 

 

  In terms of sales numbers I have no idea, but traditional designs still seem to proliferate in the mainstream.

[tauzero]

3 hours ago, Misdee said:

You might well be right; I'm getting too old and confused to understand what young  people  really want. (That was the basis of my defense in court, anyway.) That whole math rock, new metal thing is unlistenable for me so I don't pay too much attention 

 

  In terms of sales numbers I have no idea, but traditional designs still seem to proliferate in the mainstream.

 

I do quite a few open mics which have featured bands, and 90% of the bassists have 4-string FSOs.

 

Having had both fan-frets and parallel frets, I prefer the parallel. I also prefer 5-strings to 6-strings (and 4-strings). For those reasons, this doesn't interest me except in the sense that I'd like to see if NS comes up with the CF equivalent of the Hohner B2AV or Spirit XT25 (with a nicer neck). It does look like a better thought out body than the symmetrical cricket bat.

[Bagman]

I think the L2 is the best bass guitar design of all time 

[Russ]

19 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

I do quite a few open mics which have featured bands, and 90% of the bassists have 4-string FSOs.

 

Having had both fan-frets and parallel frets, I prefer the parallel. I also prefer 5-strings to 6-strings (and 4-strings). For those reasons, this doesn't interest me except in the sense that I'd like to see if NS comes up with the CF equivalent of the Hohner B2AV or Spirit XT25 (with a nicer neck). It does look like a better thought out body than the symmetrical cricket bat.

The current NS Radius range of basses are rather nice - I was surprised. The higher-end ones have a graphite/maple sandwich neck, but even the cheaper wooden-necked WAV models are really nice and apparently super-stable. They're more a spiritual successor to the 1990s XQ series than the good ol' cricket bat though.

[EMG456]

17 hours ago, Bagman said:

I think the L2 is the best bass guitar design of all time 

 

2nd that! For me it was the pinnacle.

 

I've got loads of other more "conventional" basses one way or another but when the time comes, my L2 will be the last to go.

 

That said, I liked this when we first saw it a couple of years ago but not a particular fan of fanned frets or indeed, monorail bridges.

[roger]

6 hours ago, EMG456 said:

 

2nd that! For me it was the pinnacle.

 

I've got loads of other more "conventional" basses one way or another but when the time comes, my L2 will be the last to go.

 

That said, I liked this when we first saw it a couple of years ago but not a particular fan of fanned frets or indeed, monorail bridges.

+1 on the L2 I just personally didn’t like the neck, narrow 38mm nut and quite a deep profile (IMO) I read somewhere Ned made it like that on Stanley Clarke’s advice🤷‍♂️ an absolute design masterpiece, I just sold mine as there’s so many other ‘itch’s to scratch’🤣

[visog]

Oh wow! Nate Navarro putting it through its paces... What an interesting bass. Sounds great.

 

 

[BassApprentice]

You know what, as limited and expensive as it is, I think it's really cool.

Status are winding down, Ken Parker just passed away. Wood and screws is all well and good, but we're seeing less innovators so we should appreciate what they are doing just now.

 

Maybe someone else will pickup the carbon fibre/graphite mantle in the near future....

[Bagman]

On 02/10/2025 at 02:09, EMG456 said:

 

2nd that! For me it was the pinnacle.

 

I've got loads of other more "conventional" basses one way or another but when the time comes, my L2 will be the last to go.

 

That said, I liked this when we first saw it a couple of years ago but not a particular fan of fanned frets or indeed, monorail bridges.

I've yet to play an instrument with fanned frets , I think I understand it's principle but asthetically it's difficult to like 

[Russ]

2 hours ago, BassApprentice said:

You know what, as limited and expensive as it is, I think it's really cool.

Status are winding down, Ken Parker just passed away. Wood and screws is all well and good, but we're seeing less innovators so we should appreciate what they are doing just now.

 

Maybe someone else will pickup the carbon fibre/graphite mantle in the near future....

Well, our very own @Kiwi is doing his graphite neck thing, there's Klos, who are making Modulus-esque basses and replacement necks, Modulus and Zon are still going in the US, and the Germans like Bogart and Clover are still offering graphite necks on their instruments. Supposedly Mike from Zoot will soon be joining the graphite club. 

 

In terms of using alternative materials, there's also Aristides out of the Netherlands, who make guitars and basses out of something they call Arium. No idea what's in it, it's some kind of reinforced resin. 

[itu]

Many fibres are more than functional with resin: wood, glass, carbon... even paper (phenolic resin fretboards). 

[Russ]

21 minutes ago, itu said:

Many fibres are more than functional with resin: wood, glass, carbon... even paper (phenolic resin fretboards). 

Yep, Richlite is basically layered paper infused with resin. So is ebonol. They're very stable though, and do sound suitably "woody".