NS – Tales from the Shop – by Jim Reilly

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 3 – Redefining classic, the best of all worlds

Steinberger Sound began life in the same woodworker’s co-op where Ned created the Spector NS. Soon, they needed more space and moved out of the city to Newburgh, New York. From 1980 to 1987, Ned designed three different basses and three different guitars. In 1987, Ned sold Steinberger Sound to the Gibson Guitar Company.

Longtime Steinberger friends Tony Levin and Laurie Anderson, playing upright bass and violin, respectively, were among the first artists to pick up Ned’s bowed electrics. The instruments quickly became industry standards.

It’s hard to completely leave the world of electric bass and guitar behind, though. In 2012, inspired by the piezo pickups in bowed instruments and the self-clamping system designed for the violin, Ned created a new bass that incorporated the best of a headless design, a curved ‘diradial’ body shape, and the latest technological and construction advances to create the NS Design Radius Bass.

The first few were made in the US, but once there was no doubt that Ned’s vision would succeed again, production moved to the same Czech Republic factory that built Spector’s European instruments. NS Design Radius basses feature a patented self-clamping bridge-tuning system, EMG electronics, and four-, five-, or six-string configurations. Production has since expanded to include NXTa models with battery-free active/passive electronics and WAV models crafted in Indonesia.

Once the basses were firmly launched, Ned turned his attention to guitars. Over the years, he’s made several NS Design guitar prototypes. Once the basses were firmly launched, Ned turned his attention to guitars. Over the years, he’s made several NS Design guitar prototypes.

But that old pull towards the stability and durability of carbon fiber never really left, and the seeds for a new, 21st-century version of that little black headless guitar and bass began to pick away at Ned’s ever-present sense of possibility…

Stay tuned for Part 4. of Tales from the Shop

“The FIN guitars and basses: Back to the Futuree best of all worlds”

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!