I played one at my local music shop way back in 1984. There was a lot of hub-bub about the shop getting one, and of course, it wasn't available for anyone off the street to play (usually, a closely chaperoned session). While the guitar itself was very playable, and sounded good, I did not like the small body section at all. It felt like I was playing a lacrosse stick with strings. Aesthetically, it wasn't that appealing, either. Anyways - that Steinberger sat in the music store for several years, cuz' nobody wanted to buy it. One weekend home from college, I went down to the shop, and saw it missing from its usual place. As a matter of fact, I think there was even an faint outline on the wall where it hung!! "Hey, what happened to the Steinberger," I asked. The owner grumbled that some collector had come into the shop, and shot him a lowball offer. I think he sold it just to get rid of it.
I guess it just goes to show you how fickle the guitar-buying public is when approaching new, or radically different designs. Even though there was some big-time engineering and design know-how behind the Steinberger basses / guitars, they certainly didn't set the market on fire commercially.
