American ingenuity finds many outlets, especially in the realm of luthiers and instrument modders. Ned Steinberger, trained as an industrial designer, started a revolution in the guitar market in 1980 with the introduction of his unique blend of precision engineering, radical materials, minimalist body designs and improved functionality — all aspects of the now-famous array of headless basses and guitars bearing his name.
That legacy continues today in the Steinberger line of guitars with the new ZT3-Custom model and a host of other Gibson-produced instruments that now spearhead the new wave of commercially available headless guitars.
But there’s also a niche market for players who cut their teeth on Steinberger innovations, players whose love of headless guitars has reached a point where they desire unique customizations and exotic electronic palettes not available anywhere else.
Enter Jon Bondy, an American inventor whose love affair with headless guitars and entrepreneurial spirit led him to produce a new member of the headless guitar family.
Bondy recently introduced a limited run of headless guitars called the LBG Carbon Graphite Composite, complete with options like piezo saddles, various bridges and tremolo systems (including custom applications) and a minimalist-yet-elegant graphite body shape originally designed by Phil Langley. These instruments are manufactured out of a single piece of carbon graphite composite, with a neck that sports a beautiful rosewood fingerboard.
Bondy’s instruments are available in a wide variety of pickup configurations and are routed for further customization should the end-user desire to experiment with vintage Steinberger trems or other after-market bridge systems like the Korean XS-Trem from JCustom. All reports indicate these guitars are among the lightest available in the headless market, weighing in around 4½ pounds even with pickups and a fixed bridge. They also have an ergonomic design similar to that of the Steinberger, garnering positive accolades from both reviewers and customers alike.
Here are Bondy’s thoughts on a variety of subjects, including his new guitars, the interesting story behind their long, strange trip and highlights of the journey.
When did you become a fan of Steinberger designs?
I first became aware of the headless design back in the 1980’s, through music videos, but thought it was just a bizarre fad. About five years ago, I went on a trip, and wanted to bring a “travel guitar” with me, but could not find what I was looking for at local guitar shops. After the trip, I designed the kind of guitar I had envisioned, and then looked around to see if one already existed. I stumbled on the Steinberger guitars on eBay, visited the MusicYo web site and ended up buying a Spirit GT Pro, which I really liked. After that, I bought a used GL and decided I really liked the minimalist body style. The graphite instrument was awesome, but heavy.
I bought some lacewood and then built two custom guitars patterned on the P-body style. I wanted guitars that showed a lot of wood grain so I tried to make them with no visible pickups at all. The first one used a Roland GK-2A internal pickup kit, and the second a GraphTech Ghost piezo saddle system. All of this meant buying into the Roland hexaphonic virtual guitar technology, so I bought a VG-88, and later a VG-99. At this point, I’m hooked on hexaphonic guitars where all of the guitar modeling is done in the hardware. I doubt that I will ever buy a magnetic pickup for myself in the future.
How long have you been altering and building instruments?
I’ve only been doing this for about five years, but I have a complete machine shop so building the original lacewood guitars was fairly straightforward. I was able to mount the bodies on the mill table and create neck and trem pockets that were in exactly the right locations, with perfect orthogonality. The same tooling helps me when setting up the new graphite guitars.
What design are you the most proud of?
The thrill of making that first lacewood guitar was stunning. I expected it to play poorly, since it was my first guitar, but it remains a wonderful instrument. Of course, one never does a perfect job and I’m sure I could make similar guitars and make further refinements.
What tonal advantages do graphite guitars offer?
I’m one of the people who believe the acoustical properties of a solid body guitar are not as important as the electronics that follow it. The graphite guitars are, in fact, hollow but the faceplates are not designed with acoustics in mind: they’re just there to keep the pickups from falling off.
I like graphite guitars because they are physically tough and not affected by temperature and humidity changes very much. The new LBG graphite guitar design differs from the older GL design in that it’s much lighter than the GL, and playing one is effortless because you’re not carrying a lot of weight around. The second difference is the ergonomic curve along the bottom of the guitar that allows you to rest the guitar on your thigh if you want to play sitting down. This eliminates the need for the leg rest that the GL and P series guitars required.
What are some of the challenges involved in making parts for your creations?
I started out making non-trem [fixed] bridges that are drop-in replacements for Trans Trems, S-Trems, and R-Trems. I also made some 5-string narrow bass bridges, and I’ve just finished a run of 12-string bridges and piezo bridges that are compatible with the GraphTech Ghost system.
It’s not possible to make these products inexpensively using a commercial machine shop. Commercial machine shop runs require runs of at least 100 or so, and the market has not supported those numbers, at least so far. So, all of it has to be done by hand, and that’s both time consuming and a bit mind numbing. I’m more of an inventor and idea guy than a machine shop grunt, but in this situation I need to be both.
I’ve toyed with the idea of using a CNC, but most people I’ve talked to said I wouldn’t gain much, given the kinds of parts that I’m making. While I could, in theory, make a single bridge in a day or two, it’s much easier to make them in batches, because after the parts are made they have to be sent out for surface treatment. So making a bridge in one day would not be helpful because it would take weeks before it was ready to sell.
Where do you see the headless guitar market heading?
I think it’s difficult to explain why someone should consider headless in the first place. The fact that they’re better balanced, smaller and they hold their tune better is usually offset by the simple thought that “it doesn’t look like a Les Paul!” People want to make an impression on their audience, and using a “bizarre” instrument is often not the impression they’re looking for. I played one gig where a guy came up to me afterwards and asked, “were you playing a banjo?” All we can do is continue to show the instruments to other artists and hope that the advantages make people curious enough to try one.