I've never owned a Hohner (or a Kramer Duke. That would be a fun one to find), but I do own an all carbon '90 Steinberger XL2A. I drag it out once in a while for gigs, especially for Halloween gigs where I dressed up as Gerry Casale of Devo. (BTW, although Gerry Casale is a lefty, he played a righty flipped over. Not sure how he did that considering the boomerang strap device can only mount one way). It was also my main travel bass for a while, so it's been all over Europe and Asia (if only for hotel room noodling). I have to give a shout out once again to Bill Woolery for saving mine, as the tuning screws and string "grips," for lack of a better term, can erode and crack over time. Good luck finding replacements for these proprietary parts, so Bill got Hipshot to machine me replacements.
I concur with your other comments, unless you're playing these consistently, they can feel awkward coming from a standards bass design. (There's been a few occasions when I thought I could just wing it and ended up playing a whole step higher than I should have been, forgetting the scale and layout.
). Sound-wise, I used to own a '83 righty before I found this one, which was made in the Brooklyn factory, and I always felt the Brooklyn made ones sounded better. Mine is a Gibson era, and it can sound a bit cold and sterile, though in the mix it cuts right through. I was told that there's a replacement preamp made for these that improves the overall sound (HAL HZ or something?). But I continue to be amazed at this little engineering marvel. Ned Steinberger was/is a genius.Attachment:
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