The steinieland beemer guitar

This guitar was a project I was really looking forward to, ever since I've seen Ned Steinberger's NS FULCRUM self-clamping guitar tuners for the first time. I wanted these fantastic tuners (which are also used on the new NS Design Fin guitar) for their ease of use and their great tuning stability. It's like using double ball end strings, just with regular strings. I can even take them off the guitar, clean the strings, and put them on again. I wanted them on a guitar which I knew I would love to play.

So I decided to combine two great things into one: these self-clamping tuners on a guitar which is (more or less) a precise copy of my favorite everyday player guitar, my trusty Newburgh GM-7TA. It has everything the GM-7TA has, including a HazLabs EQ and an original Newburgh composite neck, but the NS Design self-clamping tuners instead of the TransTrem. And of course it has been redesigned without the cutout for the typical Steinberger type bridges. Here is the result, and it's pure happiness :-)

The guitar body has been made for me again by Stefan Zirnbauer (Munich Guitar Company), who has already done some other Steinberger related projects for me in the past. As usual he has done a fantastic job.

On this page here you'll find images of the finished guitar. Additional images of Stefan's work on the body can be found on this page, and images of my work on wiring the electronics on that page.

Equipped with EMG 89 - SA - 89R pickups and an active HazLabs v2 EQ, the steinieland beemer guitar offers an extremely wide range of different sounds.

Unlike the original Newburgh guitars, the steinieland beemer guitar runs on 18 V (2 x 9 V block), placed in a double battery box on the back.

The name of the steinieland beemer guitar has a very personal background. My forum handle in several guitar forums is "be.em". Additionally, "beemer" is a colloquial term for BMWs (I've been driving a 1997 BMW for decades, from a time when Steinberger USA instruments were still around), and the color of the guitar matches the Nardo gray of some current models.

These are the two guitars side by side. The double strap buttons on the bottom of the steinieland beemer guitar serve two purposes: the upper one allows me to use the same guitar strap as on the GM without having to change the length, and the second one allows to put the guitar on the floor (leaning against a wall or amp) without damaging the body.