Revolutionising Instrument Design | Ned Steinberger

Life With Strings Attached

I’m very pleased to have Legendary instrument designer Ned Steinberger as our special guest on this week’s episode of Life With Strings Attached.

With a remarkable 40-year legacy, Ned Steinberger has been at the forefront of innovation, with instruments that have revolutionized the industry and set new standards for performance and ergonomic comfort.

Those instruments have been adopted by an impressive list of artists, including Sting, Laurie Anderson, Les Claypool, David Darling, Tony Levin, Rob Wasserman, Eddie Van Halen and many others.

Arguably Ned’s most famous and lasting contribution to guitar history has been the pioneering of headless graphite instruments to worldwide acclaim; the Steinberger Bass received numerous accolades, including the coveted Design of the Decade award from the Industrial Designer Society of America.

His TransTrem™ – a unique transposing vibrato unit that allows strings to remain in tune with each other rather than detune randomly – has been adopted by other notable guitar makers, such as Steve Klein and Ulrich Teuffel.

As if this wasn’t enough, Ned’s other designs include electronic tuners, tuning hardware, structural systems and accessories for companies such as D’Addario, David Gage and The Martin Guitar Company.

And finally, Ned’s NS Design company is one of the few companies to have gained success in the ultra-conservative bowed instrument market, with patents on double basses and violins.

There are few people who can boast of such wide spread influence across musical instruments and genres as Ned Steinberger can, and as always, it was a pleasure to get to speak with him. I hope you enjoy listening along, and I’m certain there’ll be something valuable to take away from Ned’s insights.