Used together, however, they provided a good range of sounds from classic deep bass to modern funky tones. Sound-wise, the neck pickup delivered a good, rich bass output, but the bridge one was a bit on the 'clangy' side for our tastes. The Cort only accepts double ball-end strings, by the way, but these are easy enough to get nowadays, from Superwound. What's more it's massively stable, and the tuners turn with a precision which makes accurate tuning extremely easy. This carries the tuners in a bottom recess, and is far better than most cheap-ish basses can boast in terms of its adjustment potential (full intonation and string height). The main attraction of the Cort, of course, has to be the Steinberger-licensed bridge.
A bit 'all or nothing' in use, they were nonetheless smooth in operation. Twin pickups are fitted, one 'Jazz', one 'Precision', wired to two vols, a tone and a selector switch. Access to the top frets (there are 24) however, wasn't too good, as the heel is quite obtrusive - a pity, but you could get used to it. The rosewood fingerboard was nicely fretted and the intonation was 'in'. Neck dimensions are a little on the chunky side, but the action on our Cort was low-ish and you should find it easy enough to handle. Like most (all?) Far Eastern headless types, the Cort Space Arrow is made of wood rather than Steinberger's advanced plastics, and doesn't have the 'swinging plate' strap fastening found on the original.īeing a 'V' means that the Cort is impossible to play sitting down but, once strapped on, the balance is good and the playing action quite acceptable. Korean-made Cort guitars, however, have found the best answer - they've officially licensed the original design and have fitted it to numerous models, from Steinberger look-alike basses and guitars to the Flying-V shaped 'Space Arrow', one of which we recently borrowed. It gets its first gig tomorrow.In the race to get a reasonable quality Steinberger-like headless bass onto the market, various manufacturers have adopted different ways of getting round the fact that the Steinberger bridge/tuner design is carefully tied-up with worldwide patents. This'll be my "bright & loud" bass.Ī real Steinberger is out of my range right now but this inexpensive Korean-made copy from the '80s is a good stand-in until I find the right deal. It's currently strung with a heavier guage of roundwounds which I think I'll keep (my other bass - a Jazz - has flatwounds). No dead spots at all - in fact a very precise sounding bass.
Pickups are decent - pretty good I'd say. It feels weird to play - quite a reach despite its compact size so I'm a little lost w/ my bearings for now. It's quite a nice instrument: Neck-Through body construction, a very well made ("licensed by Steinberger Sound") heavy duty tuner/bridge system. I know Aria made a line of instruments called "Mach 1" as well but I can't find any information re Steinberger copies in their line. I said it was a Cort since, though it says " Mach 1" it is identical to the Cort models I've seen, right down to the placement of the logo, gold ink etc. Here's a picture of the Steinberger copy I bought recently. This site has lots of Steinberger history, technical info. He plays a Fender when he's not on the road. I ran into a guy playing a 4-string bodyless Spirit with a local band who travels with it since he can throw it in the overhead when he flies. The Steinbergers (or at least the Spirits) have zero-frets which are supposed to make changing string sets/gauges simple. Bought a set of flat-wound strings from them for about $40.00, but I still have the originals that were on the Spirit when I bought it, so I can't tell you much about them. makes sets that are supposed to be excellent. Double-ball strings are hard to get, found that Status Graphite U.K. I'm not keen on the action of the tuners which feel stiff and creaky, but they tune the bass fine, and it stays in tune well. Haven't played conventional basses much, so I'm unsure about the deadspots thing that headless instruments are supposed to resolve, this bass doesn't have any obvious deadspots. I don't know what to tell you about the bandmates, some people can't seem to get past aesthetic hurdles and personal preferences. I'm content with its tone and feel, though I prefer the look of more traditional instruments.
Still don't understand why basses are built with such wide string spacing. I bought it because I actually prefer close string spacing. The price was only $200.00, and it was in essentially new condition. From what I hear the bodyless designs often require extensions for the strap knob mount to make them balance. It's the all-wood Korean made (under Gibson) headless 5-string bass built with a body for people who prefer a Steinberger with a body. I recently bought a used Steinberger Spirit XZ25 from craigslist.
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