The video of the 1989 RockAid Armenia “Smoke On The Water” popped up on my YouTube the other day. Watching it again after all these years (it’s actually quite good), I notice that David Gilmour has this weird “headless” guitar (see about 1 min into clip).
So questions for the many guitar players / experts on here….What is it ? Why was he playing this rather than his trusted Strat? and how the hell does he tune it ?
I know I could probably find the answer of googly, but it gives an excuse to post Smoke On The Water, it opens the thread to comments on other “unusual” guitars used by the rock glitterati…. etc etc
It’s a Steinberger guitar, which were quite common in the 80s, more-so for bass guitars. They had a ball at each end of the string, and they would lock in place and be tuned by small knobs at the bridge (i.e. body end). Most guitar strings have the ball at one end, which is attached to the bridge, and then the string is wound around the tuning post at the headstock. The purpose was to minimise any string length beyond the nut to allow improved stability for tremolo systems (i.e. whammy bars). There is undoubtedly some tonal effect by having less weight at the end of the neck as well. They were also lightweight (carbon bodies) and portable. Johnny Winter used a Steinberg for a while in the 80s and those old ones are still highly regarded.
Edited to say that headless guitars are still a thing with some high-end brands.
Used by Daevid Allen in his latter years – and by Steve Hillage to this day.
These things are hated by nearly everyone here who plays guitar. Except me. I have had a couple of these, and note that they have been making a comeback in recent times.
Tuning is achieved by sort of ‘barrel’ tuners at the bottom end of the guitar. In the case of the guitar above (made by Steinberger I think), this had special ‘double ball end’ strings made especially to be the right length for the guitar. You could just slot them in and the tuners + retaining nut would basically clamp them in place. Tuning would only need to be in tiny increments.
The advantage? They were very, very hard to put out of tune.
Other guitars at the same period had more traditional looks, but the mechanisms were also trying for ultra-stable tuning. Floyd Rose tremolo systems also lock strings in place, with small adjustments possible at the bridge. Those guitars were favoured by shredders for the same reason that headless guitars were popular.
I noticed that Hester from Wet Leg was playing a Floyd Rose-equiped guitar at Glastonbury; that was a good choice for doing the shoegaze type of stuff.
Strandberg (no relation to Steinberger despite similar name) are making good headless guitars these days. I had an 8-string when I was playing in a duo, that enabled me to cover bass and guitar parts with one instrument (it also had fanned frets and was ergonomic and lightweight).
Of course, they are the work of the devil, as everyone else will tell you.
Yep, I hate them. I saw Johnny Winter in London with one and he looked like Samson shorn, the guitar god had traded his Flying V and Firebird for a wanky 80s monstrosity with characterless thin sound. There was a huge round of applause when the roadie handed him his Gibson for a slide driven Route 66.
A friend had one and said whist he doesn’t like the aesthetic it’s light, stays in tune and is handy when traveling.
A female pal of mine has a bass one which she likes because a full P or J bass is too big for her. Sounds odd but it’s ok.
She should try a Mustang…
She did borrow a pink Mustang which was very cool but in the end the headless stayed. I don’t think it was actually a Steinberger – was there a Hohner knock-off?
Yes, indeed – made of wood rather than space age composite.
Frankly when you’re as cool as Pip you can play what you want!
Ohh ‘err, um…I’ve come over all unnecessary…
Route 66 or Highway 61?
To be fair to Johnny Winter, at the latter end of his career (and life), I don’t think he had the strength to hold the mighty Firebird for an entire gig. When I saw him, he just played the ‘bird for a couple of numbers.
He looked so frail, but it was a great evening.
True, he did when I saw him too.
Roland G-707 guitar synthesizer and controller.
Probably none more futuristic, I’ve never seen one played. I recall R Thompson played one of these on an album, can’t remember which one.
Always happy to help
Here’s Wendy Melvoin playing a paisley (what else?) version at 1:35. Her sister Susannah still pulling focus in those shots IMO.
Probably a more word worthy example of one in use, but in my defence I believe Electric Russell was a member of the Human League
I forgot to mention that I actually own one of the GR700 floor units, but not that particular guitar. I went for the red G505
That is one ugly fuck of an instrument
Knowing nothing about guitars, other than liking the sound of them, usually, I was always bemused by Ron Kavana, who had an odd looking beast made by Casio, a company ai always associate with low end computer games and keyboards.
A chrome Steinberger was axe of choice for Reeves Gabrels in Tin Machine. He gave an interview to a fanzine ages ago, part of which reads:
“The chromed ‘berger was my idea, not bowie’s. nor did he order it. i believe i spoke directly to ned and pat (who went on to brian moore guitars, i believe) when it was ordered by me. ned should remember. i appreciate your fanzine worthy fantasy that bowie “ordered” them because he thought they “would look great onstage”. it is simply totally false.
at that point david was not even aware that i was having a special instrument made. i came up with the idea because i wanted a distinctive guitar to use for a video we did for a song called “one shot”, the first single from the second tin machine album. also, the L series is small and i am 6ft and 190lbs so i thought that for live use it would make that guitar stand out.
unfortunately, they didn’t really chrome it but covered it with a chrome/silver mylar and put a sealer on the entire guitar… frets included. every time i bent a note it scraped some chrome slivers off. eventually i scraped enuff of that off so i could play it (but the mylar made it impossible to bend notes on it). plus (and you can tell rob turner at emg) my pickups were simply painted silver.
i used it only once … live on ABC “in concert” filmed at L.A.X. on 1 song only. luthier and friend danny ferrington put black nubbed fret dots on the side of the guitar neck so i could see and feel it. even if it had been a really playable instrument stage lighting would have made it impossible to use. it just became my $1800 (that’s what it cost me) video and TV miming prop.
david saw mine and decided he wanted one like it. my guitar tech, andy spray, called the factory in newburgh to see if they could make another chrome L series. apparently, they had a guitar they used as a test run for the chroming process. that one had a normal fretboard (it did not have a chromed fretboard) making bowie’s copycat completely playable while mine was not. the non chromed fretboard is the easiest way to tell them apart.
oh and another thing. his was free…
his originally had a chrome trans trem but it stopped returning to pitch a month into touring and so my tech, andrew spray, replaced it for him. i used to go thru about three trans trems on every tour so we carried a few spares. i still have a box of busted ones (including bowie’s)
there was never a chrome bass. 1st tin machine tour tony sales endorsed b.c. rich, 2nd tour he endorsed vigier.
my chrome L-series guitar now hangs in the Shanghai Hard Rock. db, hunt sales and tony sales and myself all signed it at the end of the second tour and then i retired it. a few years later i sold it to them as reeves’ chrome L-series steinberger. unfortunately, by all reports, the hard rock has it displayed as bowie’s.”
Here’s David Bowie in the video of Valentine’s Day from 2013
Of course! I forgot the Steinberger gets an airing in this vid
Was the infantile attention-seeking lack of capital letters the work of the ‘fanzine’ or the musician here? It’s bloody irritating whoever it was.
I recall clever arty types not writing with capitals or punctuation from the mid-80s on. I suspect it started with wannabe Neville Brody’s and percolated down.
e e cummings was doing that sort of typographical jiggery-pokers
in the early 1920s
I’m guessing it was the musician, in email interview mode, being too busy with dreaming up sonic cathedrals of sound to bother with such humdrum concerns as correct use of capitalisation.
I suggest not reading Archy and Mehitabel, a collection of humorous stories by Don Marquis, all in lower case as Archy is a cockroach and cannot use the shift key on a typewriter.
I’ve just read a post on Facebook where every word apart from a is capitalised which I find more difficult to read than all lower case.
Yes I can imagine that being a headache.
The random use of Capitals on those Truth Social posts is also maddening.
Thank you for your attention in this matter
Lowell George always wrote in lower case. At least on album sleeves.
Oh, and, @chrisf , appreciate the post headings link to Miss Williams Guitar, by the Jayhawks.
One tries……
Yeah – LOVE “Tomorrow the Green Grass”!
Headless guitars?
The answer to that question is ‘no’.
Imagine if Buddy, Jimi, Davy… no it’s simply too awful to contemplate.
The horror! The horror!
The Monkees film would have been called Headless.
Jimi would’ve bought one to try. Trem that goes all the way down to “rattling off the fretboard” and still comes back up in tune? Strange different look? Extreme light weight? Robust? Pure tone which can be manipulated with pedals?
I suspect he would have been more open minded than his (21st century) audience.
I think so too. I find his in-between song chat about getting in tune (‘only Cowboys are in tune anyways!’) quite entertaining, but he does seem genuinely frustrated at times. He’d probably have one of those sustainer pickups like Fripp.
I agree, Jimi was a great experimenter and indeed inventor in partnership with Roger Mayer.
You could probably flip them over and play lefty quite easily too.
The guitar player with Alanis had a whole load of them for her Glastonbury set.
…and he looked more than a little bit silly. Big fat old bloke with tiny guitar. But it sounded good.
I’ve only really used these out of necessity, but actually the modern Strandberg guitars (as he was using) are decent-sounding instruments, not the weird sound of the original headless guitars.
A bit like the Parker Fly, an innovation looking for someone to like it. Remember the Burns Flyte? Horrible. Played one once. Odd! I did like the Ovation Breadwinner though so I’m not a complete luddite. I nearly bought one in the late 70s.
I borrowed an Ovation Breadwinner but as I’m a leftie and it was a right-handed guitar it didn’t lend itself to topsy-turvyness. My problem entirely.
Yes it’s totally unsuited to flipping over, worst than any actually!
Adrian Belew plays a Parker.
Funny you should say that, @leffe-gin …I sometimes feel, when I’m playing my ukulele bass on stage, that I look like big fat old bloke with tiny guitar. But I soldier on regardless.
I was watching it with my kids and was struck by a particularly unpleasant looking yellow guitar. He really had awful taste in guitars.
Geddy Lee!
I had a cheap headless Aria (or possibly Hohner) bass in the 80’s. But not for long.
They’d have needed a different image for this album cover.
I have a Bond Electraglide as embedded in the 80s as the headless Steinbergers. I love it as much for its symbolic value to me as its actual functionality. They’re much easier and satisfying to play than some detractors would have you believe and have a lovely clean sound.
Mick Jones played a Bond when I saw Big Audio Dynamite. It looked really cool, and I never knew what it was until now!
Apparently Mick had about 8 of them at one stage. I like to think that mine might be one of his cast offs. I bought it second hand in a Ladbroke Grove shop. I’d often see him around the area and in Kensal Green where I lived. There were only around 1400 ever made and not all of them survived as a result of the complicated electronics.
On the subject of cast-offs: I bought a Gordon-Smith semi called a Galaxi from a shop in Glasgow in the 1980s – they assured me (no provenance) that its previous owner had been Lloyd Cole. Apparently he’d commissioned GS to make two identical guitars, a six and a twelve – but ended up only using the twelve.
Now that’s bound to be a cool guitar.
Very nice. Like most photos of Mr Cole and his band, I’m sure it looks great against a black polo neck or in monochrome.
Very cool Fitz.
John Lennon played this strange looking guitar, a Sardonyx, on Double Fantasy. Wikipedia tells you about its combination of pickups and so on, which I didn’t really understand. I never really thought of him as being a guitar buff who would be interested in this kind of thing. I think when Rickenbacker offered him an electric 12 string, as he was a Rickenbacker player at the time, he suggested that they show it to George as he was the one with the most interest in guitars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardonyx_%28guitar%29
Any pictures of anybody playing one on stage?
I could do with a laugh..
Maybe not on stage but here’s Mr Lennon with one.
Some of the comments in this thread may give you a glimpse into the ultra-conservative world of the electric guitar, and help you understand why 90% of guitars made today are near facsimiles of those made for a few years in the 1950s.
I had a Hohner copy of the little Steinberger for a while. I had no problem with its appearance and I really liked the reduced weight. But I couldn’t get used to the “feel” at the end of the neck. No volute for your hand to bang into – my hand kept flying off the end. I always had to visually check where I was down at the “cowboy chord” end and I ended up selling it on. Perhaps I should have persevered.
Strandberg guitars interest me because they have what looks like a volute but no headstock – I’d need to try one and see what it feels like. But, TBH, probably outside my price range these days…😕
The thing is, we’re just talking about the shape aren’t we? Strings, pickups, frets – don’t really change other than minor variants. And things like what it’s made of make very little difference. So it comes down to ergonomic questions and pose value. I tend to think the basic S or T template got it right, but there’s unlimited possibilities for variation within that. That said, I’d love a Flying V. And an Explorer….
Well, a Flying V, yes – see where you’re coming from with that one!
Everyone needs one of those!
The first guitar I owned was a bright red Flying V, or a Chris Eccleshall copy of one at least. Great guitar in many ways but a bit intimidating to learn to play on and impossible to play sitting down. I traded it in in the end. I’d love to know what happened to it. Actually, I’d love to know who owned it before me.
Chris Eccleshall! Now there’s a name from legend! If you get a real luthier to make a copy, you get something really special.
I’m tempted to start a thread on British guitar makers, past and present…
Even though I have no ability whatsoever in playing a guitar, I would be interested in such a thread.
Doesn’t the guy from Muse have guitars from a British maker in Devon somewhere ?
Hugh Manson, I think. Manson Guitars also made basses for John Paul Jones.
And the Muse bloke, Ian Anderson and Martin Barre. And I’ve bought a couple of guitars from his shop!
Do it Fitz! The thread I mean.
50% of the guitars I own is an Explorer. Weighs a ton, kills your back, but looks the mutts nuts in pictures.
I started taking jazz guitar lessons a few years ago, and I do know the basic differences between the sound of single coil and humbucker pickups and the main effects, but as the music is jazz based, I haven’t really got too far into the electronics side. I’d agree that the basic designs of electric guitars haven’t changed much, but I’m surprised how people do still find fine differences. There is a Rick Beato video on his channel where he is with Paul Reed Smith and a guitarist who plays the same riff on a few Stratocasters of different eras, and they discuss the nuances of sound, which are clear to them, but I couldn’t hear at all.
Guitarists are much more conservative than bassists. Many technological advances (new materials, headless versions, active electronics etc) were adopted by bassists well before guitarists would consider them.
Any thoughts on Rickenbackers? A mate had a 4001 copy years ago which was ace. Many years later , with a very generous redundancy payout I bought a real one. …bad mistake. I just can’t get used to it, find it really hard to play.
My favourite bass, to play and listen to. Love the shape, love the sound. I got a 4001 around 1982, still got it, still play it when I get the chance. Having said that, I use flatwounds and NEVER use the treble pickup on its own.
Do you want to buy mine??
Edith. I’ve actually read your post so you might not want two I guess…
I’ve always wanted one…
Yikes. I really should do something about it…had it a good 20 years and barely played…
Don Roeser a.k.a. Buck Dharma of Blue Öyster Cult has played one for 30 years, custom made with cut outs that makes it look like Swiss cheese, christened the Cheeseberger.
I remember that Westone did a headless guitar (possibly called Rail?), where the pickup could be slid towards the neck or bridge.
Mike Rutherford sported an ill-advised Status headless doubleneck.
But surely the ghastliest headless ‘guitar’ was the SynthAxe, which Allan Holdsworth used for a while. The plucked strings were at a severe angle to those on the neck.
So these guitars have bespoke strings? Presumably you couldn’t just rock into a music shop on tour and assume a ready supply.
The Steinberger guitars use double ball end strings- still fairly easy to get. The modern Strandbergs use regular strings.
Saw Steve Miller play one of these extraordinary axes when he supported John Fogerty in Dublin in iirc 2018
https://www.premierguitar.com/gear/vintage-vault-1968-vincent-bell-coral-electric-sitar