Steinberger L2

The Steinberger L2 was a carbon fibre-bodied bass with two EMG pickups and (infamously) no headstock. Notable users included Sting (The Police), Geddy Lee (Rush), Curt Smith (Tears For Fears) among others.

Mike Rutherford used a Steinberger L2 bass on the Genesis and Invisible Touch albums. He played it on songs like "Mama" and "Home By The Sea". On "Silver Rainbow", however, Mike was filmed overdubbing a Steinberger bass, plugged into a Boss Chorus unit and a Korg WT-12 Chromatic Tuner.

He started off with a Steinberger L2 fretless, which he borrowed to record "Just A Job To Do", but then that prompted him to buy the standard fretted version as well. Later he got into the Steinberger GL2T 6-string guitar around the time of Invisible Touch, and continued to use the Steinberger bass for studio recording until after We Can't Dance.

Quotes on the Steinberger L2 bass
"'I've been playing an Alembic, and the sound range from that was so great it was almost confusing. The Steinberger, you plug it in, set the level on the channel, and it sounds good straight away.' (One Two Testing, November 1983)" "The original [Steinberger] bass was the same, and I loved that; the sound was so small and precise, but on the albums, it sounded huge and had a real character to it. You can hear it on [1983 album] Genesis and Invisible Touch, but it sounded good because it is what it is, a graphite body and neck – there’s nothing to it.

"Later, someone [Roger Giffin] built me a shaped-body version with a gap in the middle for me to insert the original Steinberger [guitar], but I needed to find a way to attach it, so that all the resonance came from the graphite body part. Both the original guitar and bass sounded so good because they were, to a certain extent, quite crude.”