Steinberger

Steinys always fascinated me, ever since I saw Pete Briquette from the Boomtown Rats playing one on the telly. They were horrendously expensive and nigh-on impossible to get ahold of. After a few years a lined fretless L2 came into my hands for appraisal. I loved it but alas couldn't afford it at the time as I had just forked out £1300 (back in the '80s!!) for a Status Series II. The then-missus would have killed me if the L2 took up permanent residency!

Then a new beast came to town: the XL series. I drooled like mad over the catalogue, even going as far as London to stare at them in The Bass Centre. Then one appeared in a shop in Edinburgh and a guy I vaguely knew on the music scene bought it with part of his inheritance money and this was the rare and elusive XL2A. Several times I saw them for sale in the UK only to find out they were the old L series being advertised as XLs, and often battered to b***ery. A few years after all this I noticed an XL2A for sale in the Edinburgh classified ads. I went to view it and found out it belonged to the previously mention guy who, in the spirit of true rock'n'roll, had wasted his inheritance on becoming a major coke fiend and was now reduced to selling his gear from a damp flat where the power had been cut off. "So how are you going to fund this??" the GF asked? I thought long and hard about it - like, ten seconds - and said "I'll flog the car!!" My reckoning was: I could get another car at a later date but there may never be another chance to get an XL2A. There was no contest : the old car got duly flogged and thus I aquired the XL2A.

This bass blew me away. I disagreed with everbody I met who said it was 'sterile' (this was, by now, the early '90s and the beginning of the Steiny 'backlash') and the tonal variety was amazing; I found it especially good for Reggae and got some super-fat Jazz bass tones off the rear pup. It was a totally different bass from the standard XL.

Fast forward a few years and I am forced to sell (by the ex-GF) to help pay sprialling household bills! I regretted it every day and often hoped I would see it again one day. And I did.

About ten years after flogging it, sure enough it popped up on Evilbay. I knew the guy who was selling it and PM'd him with an offer. He nearly bit but found out there was another serious bidder playing against me. I ended up paying double what I initially offered the guy and was rather puzzled and not a little annoyed to find out that this other bidder's history was all in dealing with mobile phones; not once had he bid on or sold a guitar or bass! Shill bidder? Maybe. In fact, probably!

So I take possession, yet again, of this lovely instrument, still in the same nick as it was when it left me; the gig bag even still had the lipstick kiss marks that the old ex-GF left on the bag the day I first bought it!! Rather than wipe them off, I've kept them as a memento as they remind me of all those events runnning up to the acquisition.

I think I've only ever seen another one and wonder how many of the As were actually made.

So, that's my first post on this forum. Hope you all liked the tale!

What a great story, thanks!

very cool, thanks for the history

My pleasure, guys!  I've posted an album of 'Dusty' in the photo gallery. Go and drool...........

My wife and I are moving back to the US. I'm seriously considering parting with my XL2. It deserves to be played, not stored in a closet. I'm no longer in bands and do solo singer songwriter stuff. How would I even begin to find out what it's worth for resale?

Durand at 07:38AM on Mar 15, 2010

My wife and I are moving back to the US. I'm seriously considering parting with my XL2. It deserves to be played, not stored in a closet. I'm no longer in bands and do solo singer songwriter stuff. How would I even begin to find out what it's worth for resale?

I sent you a pm, let me know if you want to sell it!  love XL2's

I would have said around about £2k. though there are a few guys, quite rightly, holding out for more. I saw one recently on a Japanese web-page for £2.8K.