Giffin/Steinberger M Series prototype

This is the Prototype guitar for the Steinberger M series, developed by Mike Rutherford, Geoff Banks and luthier Roger Giffin (who built the prototype) during the Invisible Touch tour.

Initially, in rehearsals for the tour, Mike felt rather uncomfortable about the Steinberger guitar looking as small as a toothpick on him while onstage (being 6'2 tall). This necessitated the idea of having a Steinberger but with a larger guitar-shaped body to get around the problem. Mike approached Steinberger to make one, but they weren't interested (bearing in mind they were a small company and couldn't afford to make one-off instruments). So Mike and roadie Geoff Banks resorted to experimenting with drawing out & cutting different shapes, using parts sent to them by Steinberger. But they got as far as designing something that "looked more like a hamburger than a Steinberger(!)".

So they enlisted the help of luthier Roger Giffin, who made guitars for famous clients such as David Gilmour, Eric Clapton & Andy Summers. In a private email conversation, Giffin remembers he was approached by Mike to build a guitar-shaped frame to attach to the Steinberger, but sensing it was an impractical idea he decided to build a whole new wooden body to it. With that he further modified the body shape (resembling his Micro guitar model), and added the Steinberger neck & hardware which Mike obtained for him from Steinberger.

Additional details from Roger in the 1997 'History of the M series' article: "I just kept drawing shapes until I got one that looked right. I wanted the curves to work with the rest of the guitar, and for proper balance, a double cutaway was best. I made a plywood cutout and Mike liked it. After some testing, we decided to add half an inch to the width for better access. Geoff suggested the binding, and Mike wanted the curved top. I put it together and we could see right away we had something really special."

Mike would play the newly assembled Giffin prototype with Steinberger parts on the Invisible Touch tour. The artist representative of Steinberger had learned of the new prototype, and was blown away with it when he visited the band in Hartford (in February 1987). Ned Steinberger himself came round to Hartford, and reacted the same way. This, of course, led to the birth of the M series, which directly copies from this guitar.