Steinberger XZ-2

I have had this bass for over a year now and I feel I can make a very helpful review for anyone interested in this bass.

This is a 2003 Stienburger "Spirit" XZ-2 bass guitar.It is headless. Made in Korea. 24 frets. 4-Strings. It's got a very cool 3-piece body made out of Swamp Ash body that has an excellent shape featuring a Honeyburst finish that is really nice. Individual Volume controls for each of the two humbucking pickups and a Master Tone Knob that dramatically affects the sound. You can get alot of different sounds from this control set up. The finish is Honey burst which in my opinion is the best finish they offer for this bass because it doesn't look "cheesy" like alot of sunburst finishes you find on guitars and basses selling at this low of a price. The body style is unique and sports a headless neck which at first, can kind of throw you off because the first fret is where the nut on any regular bass would be, but after a few days you get used to it. It uses a stienburger type bride/tuner combo that has a very funky set of bridge saddles that can only be set in place by ONE small allen screw on the side of the bridge unit. You wouldn't think this would work, but it seeems to hold every thing in place. It has a regular sized neck which helps to make up (in the areas of Tone and Sustain) for the fact tht it has no headstock. It came with a thin, cheap gig bag that is just barley adequate, but at leat you get one. A real gig bag for this thing costs $50 and a hard-shell case would cost $80.

After being properly set-up (see Action, Fit and Finish below) this bass sounds great. The humbucking pickups are much quieter and better sounding that regular single-coil type bass pickups. You can easily change the sound from Warm to Punchy simply by adjusting the controls. This bass features a wide variety of sounds.

The FINISH of the body was great! The Honey burst color was extra sweet and looked a million times better that you would expect.

The ACTION & FIT of this bass was bad. You see, due to a crappy set up at the factory the neck pocket was not angled back enough (if at all) which caused an unacceptable buzzing sound on all of the strings due to the fact that the string was not able to break over the bridge saddles at enough of an angle. They could have made things better by either A.) Setting the bridge unit lower into the body. or B.) Routing the neck pocket with an angle. I find this to be a serious oversight on the part of the makers of this bass since a beginner would have to take it to a repair man and get charged $80 to have the bridge cavity routed deeper.

Bottom line here, is that after it's set up (Just shim the neck with two 1/4 inch wide strips of credit card plastic, stacked and trimmed to fit) and you have a very cool bass! I must however give this a rating of 4 because there is simply no excuse for having to do this much adjustment on a $300 bass.

Seems very durable. I understand from an earlier review of this bass, that the part which holds the ball end of the string at the bridge end, has a tendency to break. I dont know about that and of course I certainly hope it does not happen. The strap buttons are solid, but could have been larger. The Truss rod is easy to get to and adjust.

Only time can tell what the reliability will really be, but I will GUESS and say this bass wil end up rating an 8 to 9

I have never contacted them.

If you have experience repairing and adjusting basses than this is a great bass for you because it sounds great (once properly set up and adjusted) and looks very cool.

On the other hand, If you don't have experience repairing and adjusting basses, then you are better of getting some other bass because I know for a fact, that you would be paying at least $80 in a repair shop to get this thing in proper working condition.

Once this bass has been professionally set-up and Adjusted you really get alot of bang for your buck! It rates an easy 8 which is really excellent for a bass with all of these cool features, especially in this price range.

However, not having been professionally set-up and adjusted when I purchaced it, this bass can only recieve and overall rating of 5 to 6.

This is a new Korean made 4 string bass. It is a solid wood (alder) body with bolt on maple neck, two humbucking EMG Select passive pick-ups (neck/bridge), a volume control for each pick-up, and a master tone control.

The neck has a clear satin finish while the body has a brown to yellow sunburst finish called "fireburst". The XZ body style incorporates the Steinberger headless design with direct-pull tuners mounted at the end of the body and a more traditional body shape. This is a full 34" scale bass that is less than 39" in overall length. The neck seems to be a medium size. The bass comes with a gig bag, cable, and two allen wrenches for truss rod and bridge adjustments.

I am a guitar player who has recently begun to play bass due to the fact that my church worship band already had two guitar players and no bass players. I run through a Nady wireless to a direct box. The XLR out from the direct box goes to the house for the main sound while the 1/4 out from the direct box goes to a Carvin AG100D acoustic guitar amp (12"/piezo tweeter). The Carvin amp serves more as a monitor than as a bass amp.

The bass is very quiet due, I expect, to the humbuckers. Immediately after receiving the bass I raised the pick-ups almost to their maximum height. With this arrangement the output is typical for a passive bass.

The bass seems to naturally tend toward a bright, punchy sound. By relying heavily on the neck pick-up and turning the tone knob toward the bass side, I can get an adequately warm sound, but it is not going to sound like a Fender P bass.

The "automated" aspects of the bass construction are excellent: the neck and body shaping (from CNC equipment, I'm sure) are perfect. The sunburst body finish is extremely well done. The hardware is not premium but is adequate: the "nut" (which secures one end of the strings) is plastic and the individual string "saddle" blocks have nothing to secure them into the bridge block except a set screw through the side of the bridge. The USA Steinbergers, by comparison, have a retaining bolt for each saddle block that also helps to set the block position when setting intonation.

The "human" aspect of the set-up is quite poor. The truss rod was too tight (for my taste) and the intonation settings were way off. I am experienced with set-up work, so this is of no concern; however, someone without experience in set-ups would be well advised to invest a few dollars in a professional set-up.

The bass looks like it should last. The only part that may be questionable is the plastic nut, but I intend to purchase the replacement nut that makes it possible to use standard bass strings. I assume this replacement device is of a more sturdy construction.

The finish seems very sturdy and the strap buttons are solid. I have seen the "fingers" that hold the ball end of each string at the tuning block break on a USA Steinberger, so I expect these parts will eventually need to be replaced, but replacements are readily available from Music Yo.

Overall, I expect that this bass will last.

Otherwise, the bass seems to be solid. I don't have any other bass, so I guess I will be using it without a back-up.

My only contact with Customer Support was to request that a registration coupon (which I found out about after I had placed the order for the bass) be applied to the bass purchase. Musicyo promptly responded that they would apply the coupon.

My lack of bass playing experience is certainly a factor to consider, but I consider the XZ-2 bass to be an outstanding value. I formerly played a Series 10 bass (really cheap, but it did the job). I then considered a used Ibanez ATK300 and a used Yamaha (active: I don't remember the model) whose used price was the same as the new price for the Steinberger. I much prefer the Steinberger to either the Ibanez or the Yamaha.

First, the engineer part of me loves the Steinberger design. I really like the compact size and the unobtrusive tuning mechanism. A hard case for a standard bass was out of the question: I would never have fit it into the back of my Jeep. The Steinberger, however, may fit and a TKL hard case is available from Music Yo for $80.

By the way, after reading other reviews mentioning the cheap gig bag that comes with the bass, I was expecting some piece of vinyl like you would get with a guitar from Kmart. The standard Steinberger bag is not that bad: it is a typical nylon bag with a little bit of padding, but it is entirely functional until I decide whether to get the hard case or the premium $50 gig bag also available from Music Yo.

Second, I like the fact that the electronics are quiet. This is particularly important when running through a wireless.

Third, I much prefer the traditional body shape of the XZ series to the "wedge" shape typically associated with Steinberger. I think the headless neck with the traditional body is extremely cool, especially with the great looking sunburst finish.

Finally, I find the variety and quality of sound to be acceptable, particularly considering that I rely entirely on the bass to shape the sound.

Two gripes:

1. The saddle blocks have nothing to locate them when setting the intonation: you loosen the retaining set screw and slide them individually backward and forward to the proper position. However, once they are set they should not need to be changed, so this is not a big deal.

2. The website color selection is very vague: it required some deductive reasoning based on the sample instruments shown and the available colors for each to conclude that "fireburst" is a brown to yellow burst, "cherryburst" is a red to yellow burst, and "honeyburst" is a yellow burst. I did not know until I opened the box that I had chosen correctly.

Nevertheless, these are minor complaints to get an instrument this nice for $275 including shipping: I would expect the bass to cost twice as much. I fully expected to be disappointed with some aspect of the bass, but instead I am entirely pleased with all aspects of my purchase.

A side note: I am already considering upgrading the EMG Select pick-ups to some of EMG's better quality active pick-ups. I have emailed EMG twice asking for a specific recommendation for pickups/pots/electronics. You would think that this would be a common request from Steinberger Spirit series owners and that they would have a ready answer: purchase package XYZ that has already been designed for this purpose. Instead, their reply is vague and inconclusive: I still do not know whether it is feasible to purchase a pick-up/electronics upgrade that is compatible with the XZ-2 bass. If anyone knows, I would appreciate the info.