Steinberger Spirit GT PRO Deluxe, Black with Bag

I bought this as a travel guitar and I always wondered how these would play since they came out it the '80s. I know this isn't the kind Eddie Van Halen blew our minds with but still I kinda wanted to try one. I read a lot of mixed reviews and came to the conclusion that when getting a guitar from the other side of the world at a cheap price, you might get a lemon occasionally. At very least you are gonna have to do a complete setup on it. Mine arrived packaged very well. Beautiful guitar. Frets are finished very nicely. Works great. The Volume and Tone knobs were not all the way down but they are push on, so easily fixed.I did a complete setup on it. Relief, Action, Intonation, Tremolo. And I really like this little thing. Pickups are very decent. I'll probably upgrade eventually, but I'm able to pretty much get the tones I want with adjustments on the eq of my pedalboard. I'm definitely gonna do an upgrade on the tuners. These are a challenge to operate. I found an upgrade that I'm gonna do for about $40 that has great reviews. Looks like an easy adaptation and makes a lot of sense. I did change the strap knob from behind the neck at the body to a better location so it hangs better. I gave the tremolo a rough workout and it stays in tune very nicely in dive only. I rarely use full float anyway. I haven't tried it in fully floating yet.So far I'm very satisfied. The volume knob gets in my way so I'm adjusting my picking to accommodate.I will probably get rid of the Volume and Tone pots and install a double pot double knob at the Tone knob position for both. But for the price, I'm stoked! Great bang for the buck.

It's a real guitar! Not simply a travel instrument.Just update pick ups, set it up and voila:) it's quite heavy for the size and it resonates very well (it's not as loud as standard size guitars unplugged, but still...u can feel the wood resonance) it also has a very good sustain.BTW, I have seymour Jazz neck and JB bridge....On clean it has very punchy, distinct sound, when played through fender reverb!With high gain and good saturation (like driving with tube screamer) ...it gets very tight, no mud, no mushiness and sustain is just surprisingly great...At first, the neck seemed too thick, but after a while it gets pretty comfortable...in fact I prefer it over my strat.

Made in China, no quality control, the guitar was covered in dirt and several scratches,a big Crack on the left side of the neck where it meets the body of the guitar,tuners sticking and binding.This actually comes from Gibson,they purchased Steinberger years ago,I called Gibson and the customer service representative was flippant and could care less. Like many other companies, Gibson has bought up many smaller companies and is focused on money only,not making quality products. Another customer lost.

The one I received (9/4/14) is marked made in Korea. The action was set very high, I was initally concerned id gotten a lemon but the Steinberger hardware is easy to adjust and ultimately was able to get it setup (about 20 minutes). Dont let setting up the action scare you, its very simple to do, not much more difficult than learning to tune the guitar. Happy with the tone and % 85 of the build quality. The body/neck look good, the price point is surprising. The tune nuts at the back of the bridge was about 90% black finish the rest being bare metal, doesnt detract from the look but in hand it gives the hardware a worn look. Pickups, marked steinberger, sound adequate, not impressive but sound good enough for a learners or first guitar.Pros: Beautiful guitar, good hardware, more than you'd expect for the priceCons: Pickups give away the price, minor finish issue on unseen metal hardware.

I bought this guitar for a vacation I took with my family for two weeks. The set up out of the box is dreadful (hence 4 stars) but luckily I brought tools with me to set this guitar up, as I had it shipped to our hotel directly. Once properly set up it's awesome! The pick ups are decent, the engineering on the tunable tremolo system is interesting - and sort of brilliant. It took me several tries to get the locking tremolo to work without detuning the instrument. The manual that comes with this is incorrect for this model. You need to to adjust the dual-action truss rod and know that it works both ways as my neck was slightly reversed out of the box. You can get amazingly low action and the fret finishing is satin i.e. rough but the fret ends are done correctly. No sprout. By all means get the one with two humbuckers I think I would find the single coil at the neck position disappointing. Because the pick ups are so close to each other it's hard to get the neck position one low enough to play properly but high enough to be loud. Took me a while to find the sweet spot. Eventually I will replace the potentiometers, switch, and capacitor and shorten the pick up leads which are preposterously long. Overall the guitar is a joy to travel with it comes with a reasonable soft case that can hold the wiring I need to turn my iPhone into a Marshall stack! I am using an application called JamUp from Bias (I tried all of them), The Apogee guitar input gizmo, and have a small speaker from Brookstone that sounds amazing with this rig. Remember to order dual end strings you will need them the strings that come on the guitar are junk. Also pack a small kit with nano oil to hit all the points on the tremolo and tuning system they come perfectly machined but unlubricated! The guitar is all maple, so it is basically a giant guitar neck but it sounds surprisingly full and Van Halen like. You can work on your picking and keep your hands in shape while traveling. All packed in its case it's so small I don't know I'm carrying it The only problem being it looks a little like a weapon case I'm glad it says Steinberger really big on it

If this is your first guitar, there are better guitars in this price range. If you need a travel guitar, the Steinberger Spirit Pro is a decent choice.

Great quality for the money!