Series 2 with graphite neck

[dfung60]

All the Modulus necks have hollow headstocks.  The composite material is heavy and expensive, and there's an engineering elegance that comes from achieving the design goal in a minimalistic way.  Like the main part of the neck, the headstock has a plate of graphite epoxied to the top of the main neck piece.  If you crank down on the tuning head main nut too much, you may be able to crack the headstock face (so don't do that!).
 
David Fung

[dfung60]

Eiji -  
 
Both Geoff Gould and Rick Turner have told me that they thought the first graphite Alembic went to John McVie.  Fleetwood Mac was the biggest band in the world at the time, and they were in Northern California at that time, not far from the mothership.
 
My graphite Alembic has a 1987 serial number.  It took a long time to build (more than a year if I remember correctly).  I live in the Bay Area, and I think saw the raw neck blank at Modulus in SF (Modulus was a contractor to Alembic, so they don't know anything about the final instrument, but there weren't many of these).  I picked the walnut top and back at Alembic, visited it before the neck and body wings were joined to talk about the omega shape, and picked it up when it was done.
 
David Fung

[dfung60]

Joey -
 
Sorry, didn't see your message asking about Steinberger amid the stream!  I'm a big Steinberger fan too (I'm one of the moderators of the Steinbergerworld e-mail group) and have a bunch of Steinbergers of various vintages.  I had most of these basses before I got married - I would call them a collection although my wife calls it an affliction.
 
The construction of Modulus necks is really different than Steinbergers.  The Modulus neck is laid up from graphite cloth that's impregnated with epoxy, then it's cooked under heat and pressure in a big autoclave (the size of a small car).  The finished neck is hollow which is a strong structure from the physics standpoint.  Geoff Gould worked at Ford Aerospace building satellite parts so his techniques and materials carried straight over to guitar necks.
 
The Steinberger neck is a solid casting of resin that has a backbone that's made of graphite fabric and kevlar.  The (small) body of an L2 or XL2 is hollowed out (it looks like a TV dinner tray in there) to keep the instrument from being too heavy (most people are suprised at how heavy a Steinberger is when they first pick one up).  The construction technique was developed by a consultant who made power boat hulls.  There's no better or worse, just different.
 
If you played a Steinberger and a Modulus with the same EMG pickups, you'd definitely hear the difference.  The Steinberger sounds more like wood, and the Modulus has more high end.  Both are much more even across the neck than wood instruments.
 
The Steinberger is so different than a J-Bass that it can't help but sound different.  The Steinberger is much stiffer and denser than maple, it's a through-body, it's headless, and has really massive hardware.  Wood neck guitars don't suffer too badly from the wolf-tone problem, but the resonance frequency of a bass neck is in the audio range of the bass' notes, so when you hit one of those notes, the neck just swallows up the energy and you get a weak note.  The composite instruments are a lot stiffer, so the resonant frequency is shifted up, you don't get the dead notes, and the instrument sounds much more even across the range.  Laminating a wood neck or adding ebony laminates similarly affects the stiffness and resonance and changes the sound.  
 
In theory, the wood necks will vary from neck to neck because each piece of wood is different and composites should all sound the same, but in practice there's so much handwork in a Modulus or Steinberger neck that they all end up having individual voices as well.  I've got a bunch of L2  basses (the original model) from different factory locations (Brooklyn, Newburgh), and I can tell them apart by sound, although they feel exactly the same.  
 
FYI, the Status basses from England are similar in construction and materials to Modulus and the unplugged sound is very similar.  Their process is more modern then Modulus so they can make more complicated shapes.  The Moses Graphite necks are a cast structure more like the original Steinberger.
 
David Fung

[dfung60]

Oliver -  
 
At the risk of starting you off on a treasure hunt, there was a small b&w picture of Entwistle's 8-string graphite Spyder on the Questions page of some issue of Guitar Player, before Bass Player was a separate magazine.  Sorry, I don't know when it was!
 
Entwistle had Modulus-necked instruments made for tours where the arena conditions made it impossible to maintain his super-low action.  I played around with one of his prototype Warwick Buzzards which was sent to Modulus for duplication in graphite and as a donor for hardware.  When I picked it up, it buzzed on every note and I assumed that the setup was messed up, but it turned out that this one had been carefully set up to his stage preference.  
 
Modulus necks didn't have a truss rod back in those days (this was by design - only graphite carries the structural load and sound), so the action had to be established in the finishing of the fingerboard and frets.  
 
I played the first finished Modulus Buzzard and they copied it so closely that I couldn't play that one either.  That one wasn't quite right for John either, so they ended up making another one to replace it (that's the green one in Bass Culture).  I had an opportunity to buy this first green Modulus Buzzard, but decided that I was never going to have enough game to go out in public with a Buzzard, especially one that I couldn't play!  This Buzzard got signed by John and was a Bass Player equipment giveaway.
 
That 4-string graphite Exploiter is really awesome!  This isn't one of Entwistle's is it (no cobwebs)?  Who is Lothar?  Station shows it as a 1989 bass, so this must have been close to the end of the line.
 
David Fung

[adriaan]

AFAIK, Lothar is the guy behind Station Music, and the koa/graphite Exploiter is his personal bass.

[tbrannon]

Fascinating discussion.  I have nothing to add, but I'd appreciate it if you guys could keep talking because I'm learning quite a bit.

[dela217]

Afrobeat_fool, Dfung60 -  The Hyak feels and sounds like a whole different animal.  They Hyak exhibits both the positives of the wood and graphite.  My Hyak is (was) quite warm sounding, with piano overtones.  It's a slap monster!  It has the same type of neck construction as the Moonstone, except with more laminates.  The neck recipe on my Hyak is not like any others I've seen.  Mine has 8 graphite laminates, but it is a 32 inch scale.  All other Hyaks I've seen only had 4 laminates but were long scale.  Perhaps they used more laminates in the shorter scale neck?  Here is a pic of the back of the neck.  You can clearly see the black graphite laminates.  

  Here is the rest of the bass:  

 

  Earlier in this post I mentioned that my Hyak was warm sounding.  It still would be if the electronics still worked!  You see, this is one of my basses that were flooded.  The electronics worked for about 4 years after the soaking in salt water.  But it finally gave up a couple of months ago.  It may be a simple fix, but I have not looked into it too much.  The preamp cards and filters still seem to work.  But, when I plug a 5 pin cable in I get mostly a 60 cycle type hum.  The way these electronics work is that there are 2 preamp/filter cards and another card that sums the 2 signals.  I suspect the problem is with the card that combines the signals of the 2 preamps from what I can tell.  Michael

[bigredbass]

Thanks, David, and now the other question about Steinbergers, perfect since you have several:  Did they all come with that baseball-bat neck profile?  The several I tried that ran me off seemed to have used a 2 pipe sawed in half as a neck mold.  I too was surprised at the weight.  And of course, being sold to Gibson killed it eventually.
 
I'm like the rest of us:  This is all fascinating!  It's always a hoot to see these one-offs.
 
J o e y

[dfung60]

Joey -  
 
The original Steinberger bass model was the L2, which has the thick and round profile you mention. The later model is the XL2, which is an evolution of the original design (evolution is not necessarily good though).  It has a more traditional neck thickness and has sharper edges of the fingerboard, but it's not like a Fender-style neck.
 
I bought my first L2 new around 1982 or so, right after they stopped being impossible to get.  It was my main bass for many years.  Switching off to a tradtional bass isn't too bad, but switching between the L2 and a Series bass challenging - everything is totally different - almost no body to giant body, how it hangson you, and carrying a little gig bag instead of an aircraft carrier-sized hardshell!
 
David Fung

[afrobeat_fool]

Michael, thank you for the pic's and info about the Hyak. You were very helpful to me back on '02. We talked on the phone for over an hour back then. Is that the original tailpiece on your shorty? Since that time my Hyak was stolen, but I found another and The family is going to bring it up to snuff with new p-ups, bridge, nut, etc. The reason I am saying this is because they are going to make new stuff and some of the work might be applicable to your situation. And, if you ever want to sell that shorty.......Call me first!
 
nick

[dela217]

That is the original tail piece on that bass.  
 
What I did change though were the brass screws that hold it in place.  I used some stainless steel ones to replace the brass ones.  I've had the brass ones fail on me on other basses.
 
Michael

[eligilam]

Pardon me if this is veering off topic too much...my SCSD is my main bass, but I'm also in love with my 1984 Steiny XL2, acquired last August.  My question is for Mr.Fung:  Since getting the XL2, I've been considering tracking down an L1 or L2 (however, most showing up for sale are usually beaten up pretty bad, it seems).  I know it's subjective, but are the XL2/L2 differences great enough to have both in the arsenal?  Thanks in advance!

[dfung60]

eliglilam  -
 
The L2 and XL2 have a pretty similar tone, but feel different to play.  The L2 neck is thicker and rounder.  The L2 bridge is milled steel vs. the cast zinc of the XL, but both work pretty well. This is more of a tactile issue.
 
Most L2s have an EMG pickup which was designed for this bass and which is only available as a factory special order now (the EMG-SS).  The difference in tone is noticeable.  Inside the EMG case, Steinbergers have P-bass pickup guts, 4 string on earlier L-basses, and a 5-string P-like pickup for later models.  
 
L2s are pretty common.  You'll have a challenge finding an L1 as they are extremely rare.  I happen to have one and posted pictures on the Steinbergerworld e-mail group when somebody suggested that they didn't really exist. That's my L1 in the American Basses book.  We have almost 2000 people on the group, only 3 L1s have emerged.
 
David Fung