NS – Tales from the Shop
We’re very excited to invite you to subscribe and join us as we share our NS Design – Tales from the Shop.
Tales from the shop is an ongoing series of stories from Ned Steinberger’s workshop. Join us as we tell the stories behind the designs and ongoing innovations. Think of it as an all-access pass to the creative processes, inspirations, and relationships that led to some of our most innovative and boundary-pushing guitars, basses, and bowed-stringed instruments
Our first series was inspired by this picture Ned took of a Spector NS2 bass beside his latest NS Design FIN Bass. The Spector was the first instrument Ned ever designed. The FIN guitars and basses are the very latest.
You can follow along with regular emails from NS Design or head over to Substack and subscribe to the Stack.
From First to FIN
Part 2 – Mass vs Rigidity – lifeboats to guitars
It wasn’t the Spector NS’s success that hooked Ned, though that definitely played a role. Rather, it was the musician’s passion when they picked up the instrument, made an instant connection, and the energy of the music they made.
The Spector NS solved many of the traditional bass guitar’s balance and comfort problems. But Ned was a designer who grew up in a world that merged scientific reasoning with artistic expression. He wasn’t one to stop when an idea took hold.
He strapped on as many basses as he could find, both old and new. Balance became the biggest obstacle. Basses with big headstocks and heavy tuning pegs were inherently unbalanced, and the player had to adjust their stance to keep the bass in the optimal position.
The obvious solution (to Ned, who wasn’t a bass player) was to move the tuning pegs to the body. He made a couple of prototypes. The first, made of wood, had no headstock and was tuned by adjusting a mechanism at the end of the instrument’s small, rectangular body.
It felt great but didn’t sound so good. Determined not to give up, Ned clamped the bass to a massive workbench, and the magic revealed itself. When connected to the heavy bench, the bass sounded full and rich. The strings were free to vibrate without losing energy into the instrument’s body.
The magic?
Thankfully, this was the late 70s, and creative minds were exploring new frontiers. Ned’s searching led him to composite carbon fiber graphite. First, he wrapped the wooden prototype, and the stability, tone, and playability were all there. But he wasn’t done yet.
Enter P. Robert Young, who was well known for crafting fiberglass lifeboats. Robert specialized in advanced composite molding techniques. Ned sat at the foot of the master, learned the tools and tricks of the trade, and in 1980, the radical carbon-fiber Steinberger L2 bass made its debut at the summer NAMM show.
Less than a year later, the L2 had won the Industrial Designers Excellence Award and was featured in Time magazine. The rest is instrument design and music history.
Stay tuned for Part 3. of Tales from the Shop
“Redefining classic, the best of all worlds”
Learn more about Ned’s new NS FIN Bass Guitar!
NS – Tales from the Shop
An ongoing series of stories from Ned Steinberger’s workshop. The stories behind the designs and ongoing innovations. An all-access pass to the creative processes, inspirations, and relationships that led to some of our most innovative and boundary-pushing guitars, basses, and bowed-stringed instruments. Follow on Substack!