Steinberger

hey all those stein guru's out there! I have a headless black bass, ive inherited. Im not sure which series it is, all i know its from the nineties (in top cond) with serial number N8821 on the neck. Its has the traditional bass body and is incredibly heavy!

There are two emg pick ups near the neck, and one further down nearer the bottom...sorry i dont know much in guitar terms. But if anyone can help me out dating and identifying it, its much appreciated!

very nice!  Take a look at this page: Music Yo

why you have a rare XM3. it's rare because of the P/J pickups - the M series basses usually had 2 EMG soapbar pickups. the neck is graphite and the body is rock maple (that explains the heaviness). according to the serial number, i'd say it was made around 1988-1990. there's a partial Steinberger serial number database here (in the "bolt-on" section) but your bass isn't listed. hope this helps!

rare?! wow, ive searched on the net and not having much luck finding any info anywhere on it. any ideas on value?? thanku for your help

i really need to learn how to play the bass!

cherry

yes, definitely rare. according to steinbergerworld.com (which has the old steinberger factory records), it says about the pickup configuration: "On bass, indicates P-J pickup configuration.  Only known to exist on several Newburgh bound XM3's and one XQ3 bass."

now i can't say what it's worth because i don't really know how desirable it would be to steiny collectors. i reckon SOMEBODY out there would pay a couple grand for it, though. i've seen stranger things happen!

thanks very much chris, ive posted some pics up, i have another steinberger, white, but its a bit smaller than the black one, if u have any ideas on that one too, would be great!

sure, the white one is a GR4. they started making those in 1988 and they were designed to be more affordable and more suited for playing rock. a red one recently sold on ebay for $1099.00 USD. not bad for a 20+ year old instrument!

gr4 great. thankyou!