Body Glove Steinberger
Introduction – How This Started
In 1988, during my fanatical KISS period, I bought an issue of Kerrang! that featured Paul Stanley of KISS holding a Steinberger guitar. I turned out to be one of the few (as I learned later), but I was immediately captivated by it.
About 12 years later – around 2000 – I bought a Hohner in that same model. Steinbergers were for the wealthier people back then; they cost around €5,000 at the time, while the Hohner was €1,100. A perfectly good alternative. Nowadays, Steinbergers are much cheaper, around €440. This has to do with the material the guitars are made of: they used to be made from graphite, whereas today they are made from wood.
Anyway, I bought the Hohner with the intention of customizing it into the Paul Stanley version.
I was 30 years old and had absolutely no idea how to go about it. For years I came up with all kinds of scenarios, but never took action. During that time, I did pick up a Body Glove sticker from a shop, and I had already bought small reflectors back in the eighties (see photo), so I was prepared – just without taking the leap.
At the end of 2025, I was lucky enough to acquire a BC Rich Eagle Custom Shop with a leopard print. Paul Stanley played this model between 1982 and 1984, and it was also a guitar I desperately wanted back then. Last year, BC Rich built a single new example after 43 years, which makes me the only person in the world to own this guitar in that specific version. That experience also motivated me to finally do something with the Hohner.
I’ve written out the process and the choices I made in this PDF. This project gave me so much satisfaction that I’m now working on customizing a black BC Rich Eagle, which I bought fifteen years ago with the same idea in mind. I’ll create a separate document for that one once it’s finished.
The Steinberger Paul Stanley used in 1988-1989
This is the original Hohner, as I bought it in the late ’90s / early 2000s. The guitar has a Hohner bridge pickup and two Hohner single-coil pickups above it.
Paul’s version only has a bridge pickup. That means I needed to remove the two single coils, as well as the mini switches located between the volume and tone knobs. Paul also has an EMG 81 active pickup as the bridge pickup. So the entire guitar needed to be stripped down until only the wooden body remains.
Here the Hohner is fully stripped, and the openings for the single-coil pickups have been filled with expanding foam. It doesn’t look very nice, but a sticker will be placed over it.
The next step was wrapping the guitar with printed vinyl. I had this done by a professional sign maker.
First, I searched for the Body Glove logo and recreated it at the correct size in Illustrator (14.5 cm).
I sent the logo file to the sign maker without the yellow background. This allowed him to choose a yellow vinyl on which the logo could be printed, and to use that same vinyl for the border around the guitar.
While my guitar was being wrapped, I ordered an EMG 81 pickup and a steel pickup ring. I also wanted different volume and tone knobs. Paul’s Steinberger uses special plastic Steinberger knobs, while the ones on my Hohner were metal and a different shape.
In addition, I searched for the reflectors I had bought years ago. Unfortunately, I only found six red reflectors. Ideally, I needed eight red and seven orange ones.
More on that later.
After about a week, I got the wrapped Hohner back. The yellow edge turned out wider than expected, but due to some damage in the original lacquer, it could no longer be trimmed down.
Nevertheless, I was very happy with the result.
During the whole process I stumbled on one small problem.
The hole where the jack plug is located was too small for the jack that came with the EMG81 pickup. So I had to drill that hole larger.
This also taught me how important it is to use the right tools. I used a speed drill to drill the hole, which sent shards flying around my ears. After that, I used a countersink bit, and that worked perfectly. I covered the damaged hole with a jack plate, so my mistake is no longer visible.
Also, the original version doesn’t have a pickup ring, but I couldn’t get that to work. So my version has one.
As you can see on the picture above, the volume knob was positioned next to the pick up. On Paul’s version that knob is between the tremelo system and pick up. So I enlarged one of the toggle switch knobs and repositioned the volume knob on my guitar. Luckily the original one has reflectors on the exact spots where I had the holes visible.
So I covered them up.
The yellow outline is a bit thicker than it should be as well. So it is definitely not a one on one copy, but still I am very happy with the result. (Being my tryout project)