Steinberger Prototype fretless

Tony Levin played what was a Steinberger prototype fretless bass with Peter Gabriel during the early 1980s. Especially on the Melt and Security tours in 1980 and 1982-83. He normally played the Steinberger prototype on a few numbers, while he did the rest of the setlist with a Music Man bass or his Chapman Stick.

Inventor Ned Steinberger approached Tony Levin in the late 1970s with a prototype of his new bass guitar (which became the ground-breaking Steinberger L2; a carbon fibre-bodied bass sans headstock), but Tony suggested he worked better with a fretless version so Ned made him one. Interestingly, it was Tony Levin playing the Steinberger that inspired others like Curt Smith of Tears For Fears to play Steinberger basses.