Hohner G3T

There's loads of info on the features on this guitar so I won't bore. It does what it says on the tin.

I try and play bluesy jazzy type stuff (tho really not very good) for my own entertainment and so far have mainly plugged it in to garageband on the mac. I did however go and buy an Orange 15 practice amp a couple of days ago and although not a soundhead I am VERY happy with the quality of depth and tone. I've read much about people changing the p'ups but I don't really see the need.
I've had an Ibanez Artscore and a Strat (american'80) through a Blue Beetle valve amp and if anything this is as good if not better.

I know how to set up guitars but I haven't touched it in that respect. Out of the box was fine, which is bizarre 'cause I love to tinker.

I don't play live at the moment, but wouldn't hesitate using it and moving it. It looks and feels so sturdy.

No need as yet tho reading other comments they seem fantastic.

I bought this because I thought I was going to live on a boat and wanted something compact. The boat didn't happen, but that's ok.
The G3T is a weird looking guitar but that's maybe why I like it. I've been playing off and on for 30 years and have worked as a roadie so I have seen and owned a few (see above) but this I love. For the price, fantastic.

I'm Happy...

I bought this in late 1999, so it was probably made sometime around then. Features pretty much as described by other reviewers, except I changed the pickups to real EMGs in the S/S/H configuration.

This is my travel guitar - looks like a case of tennis rackets when carried on, and fits into a suitcase (diagonally) if necessary. With a Korg Pandora PX3/4/5 and headphones, this is my music machine when I am away.

The original "Select EMG" pickups were kind of weak, and sounded patchy. After changing to real EMGs - SA/SA/81 combination - this machine sings!

I lost the push/pull vintage knob capability with this change, but there's plenty of sound options with the tone knob and three on/off switches.

I like to use the G3T when playing fusion/jazz.

Factory setup leaves much to be desired ... the guitar was playable, but needed to have neck straightened, action set, etc. Fretwork was not even and the strings "buzzed" on certain frets. Eventually fixed with a fret job.

This thing is built like a tank ... well almost. Almost 9 years now, and looks like it will last another 90 maybe.

N/A

Reasonable value for money ex-factory, but needed some work.

However with some setup work and the real EMG pickups, this has become a killer machine. All of these changes added much to my acquisition costs. Still costs less than some of the travel guitars on the market today, and arguably I have a better machine now than the real Steinberger.

My other guitars include a bunch of Strats, Gibson 335, Gibson LP, Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion, Ovation acoustic, etc.

If I lost it, I would look for another G3T etc. and make the changes again.

(Just looked up Musicyo which has two versions of the "broom" - Steinberger GT-PRO (made in Korea) will cost about US$320 but is out of stock. The Steinberger USA GLB-2S Electric Guitar made in Nashville, TN with real EMGs for US$999.99 but that is not available either.)

Get any sound you want with this guitar!
These are much better than the Steinberger Spirit, I bought a Steinberger Spirit and sent it back very fast The Hohner is better made, better customer support

The sound quality is very good, yes the pickups are not the best, but with all the quality effects around and a bigger volume control on your amp and you will have no problem!

You can take the action down to a really good level, in general this guitar is solid in all ways. It does take a bit of time getting use to the guitar but I would not use anything else now, I have had Strats Tele's and a Gibson Les Paul.

All Great, very dependable guitar.

As I bought mine second hand I had no paperwork with it, I contacted Hohner in Germany and they sent all the stuff I needed within a week. Very pleased!

I have been playing live for well over 30 years, as I have said take time with this guitar as it does take a bit of getting use to. I also bought a string adapter from the states approx ??20.00 well worth investing in, saves getting ripped off with double ball end strings.

This is the broomstick style headless guitar, a copy of the Steinberger headless designs. It has one EMG passive humbucking pickup in the bridge position and two EMG passive single coil pickups, one in the middle position and one in the neck position. It has the Steinberger trem, which works ok if you're into trem. The trem locks, which I like, so it stays in tune. The tuning knobs are a bit small and a little bit fiddling compared to standard tuners, but they work fine once you get used to them. A little lube on the threads was required to smooth them out. The lap rest works great! You'll probably want to add strap locks. Mine came with a soft case.

As mentioned, the pickups are W.E.A.K. but neutral in sound. Right from when I first played it, I knew the pups would need to be replaced. Cranking up a preamp to get the level up to something usable can cause noise to increase. But the sound is good in quality otherwise. Classic rock, country, and blues all sound good. With the switch setup, you can have any combination of pups on at any time, so you have a full variety of sounds to choose from. Sustain is ok, but not extraordinary. Even though the trem locks, a fixed bridge would help sustain a lot. Better pickups would help sustain also. Once it was properly set up, intonation all the way up the fretboard is excellent. Bar chords on the upper frets are in tune, and open chords are surprisingly in tune.

Overall the action, fit, and finish are excellent. Yet, I have to rate it poorly for two reasons. First and most important, the edge of the fretboard is poorly finished. There are some machine marks in the wood where it wasn't properly sanded smooth. It doesn't affect playability, and you have to look pretty closely to see it, but even cheap imports don't have this kind of flaw. Secondly, the setup was horrible. Not even close to playable or intonated. This guitar was drop shipped from the manufacturer, so it was a factory setup and not a store setup. Yes, I expect to have to tweak a setup on a new guitar, but it shouldn't be mandatory. The setup couldn't have been worse.

Otherwise, the finish is superb. The paint is flawless. All the hardware is properly installed. The neck and frets are excellent with no high or rough frets.

This guitar seems very durable. I do gig with it without a backup. No worries about the reliability or durability.

Never dealt with customer support.

I've been playing 30+ years, and this is now my favorite electric guitar! The only complaint is the weak pickups. Hohner should have put on better units, like DiMarzio or Seymour-Duncan. They could have skipped the trem bridge and used a fixed Steinberger bridge, applying the cost savings to buy better pickups. It is just wrong to have to replace pickups on a new guitar out of the box. The strings stay in tune better than a standard guitar, and the ball ends make it very easy to change strings. All guitars should come with double ball strings! The position of the volume knob is a bit frustrating at first, but you learn to work around it. A smaller knob might solve the problem. There just isn't space to put the knob anywhere else. I'd replace this guitar if it was lost/stolen.

Im wrting this review to demonstrate ease of transport using commercial airlines. Basically, this is a very,VERY sweet guitar. My job requires that I travel all over the world, so I needed a compact travel guitar. This one is PERFECT! No one went into detail about flying with one of these when i was looking in to it, so to follow is a thorough description of airline policies and personal experiences.
I have flown with this guitar as a carry on piece in addition to my laptop backpack to with several national US flights, never a problem. For the UK: you are allowed to carry this as a SECOND piece of hand luggage. Yes thats right, the one piece of carry on luggage does not apply to a musical instrument, it the only exception to the rule. I have flown through Heathrow several times in the last few months, never a problem (you do get hateful stares from other travelers for being allowed to carry two huge pieces of hand luggage! lol) If flying from the US through the UK to anther destination, the US wont check you all the way to the final destination if you intend to carry this in as a second piece. Easy solution: Check in to the UK (the US will allow you to carry it then) and then, just check in for the rest of the flight in the UK (bit of a hassle to recheck checked baggage, but its worth it if it means carrying your guitar with you). Fits VERY easily in overhead compartments of commercial size flights (not propeller planes!) If you want to avoid hassles from stupid air hostesses, get a soft Hohner carry vase for it, buy a hoodie jersey and "dress" your guitar in the hoodie. It looks like your carrying a jersey and not a hoodie! :) Hope this helps other a bit! To keep things travel smart, I use a Zoom G2.1u...it plugs into my laptop when I want to or can be used on its own with headphones. Brilliant little multi effects pedal for this purpose (fits in laptop backpack) and its pretty light! Its even USB powered so you can practice anywhere!

Pickups are high quality, middle of the road (i.e all music genre, that means non high output so the metal riffs sound a tad bit weak)

Very Nice

Tough as nails...Ive hauled this thing with me in choppers to rigs, where it got tossed in the baggage compartment, it has traveled over 4 continents and hasn't even sustained a single dent.

See other reviews

Brilliant travel guitar for practice.

Features where mentioned below. I bought it new a few months ago. Dont know when it was made. It takes some time to get used to the Pickup-selector-switches. Stock PUs are EMG Selects. Bought it, because my Godin XT-SA is not good for my back anymore.

I play drum n bass/house/techno. An unusual setting for guitar. You can guess it is sometimes heavily effected. I play Boss GT-8 with a Hughes & Kettner 20th Anniversary Edition. The sound is, as already mentioned, neutral. The PUs could use more Power. I like the Humbucker, but I will change the single coils. Noisy when you combine single coils with the Humbucker. Good sound in a Band context but the PUs should be hotter. A little bit of work and I think I can get it to sound the way I like.

The factory setup was OK, but of course I set it up to suit my playing. The cutout for the big screw on the top of the guitar was flawed, but you have to look close to see it.

I took it immediately on tour. It is one of the most comfortable guitars I played. Seems very reliable. Contrary to other comments it does not stay in tune. If the tremolo is used, it will get slightly out of tune, like most guitars I played.

I asked Hohner for the String adapter, it took a few days, but they answered very nicely. (No, they dont have any ;))

I've been playing for 20 years. I have a Godin XT-SA (awsome but too heavy), H & K 20th Anniversary Amp, roland Jazz Chorus, Boss GT-8, Digitech Synth-Wah. I love the comfort and playability of this guitar. Althought I am not totally happy with its sound it is my favourite guitar now. It is a love/hate guitar. When I went on tour, one of the crew members asked "will you be playing this the whole tour?". It is worth the price. If it was stolen I'd buy it again.

You can look up the specs of this guitar or read other reviews.

Overall the features make this guitar a great value.

One thing I really like is the ability to mix and match pickups with the switches and \ volume knobs.

I find the EMG's sound very neutral but not bad at all. Many people seem to find this a shortcoming on this guitar. I don't. Plus if you don't like them you can easily swap them out.

With the EMG's this guitar is very neutral sounding. Not a bad thing. I guess it depends what each player is looking for. I have other guitars with various pickups so I like the change in tone on this one. I won't be swapping my PU's out!

Very nice sustain and tone overall.

I have played this through my Vox, Carvin Legacy, Crate and a Clarus 2 R amp. It sounds great thru anything. ( probably because it's a neutral sounding guitar ? )

WOW. Wow.

I own other electrics : Ernie Ball EVH and a John Petrucci, 2 Ibanez Jems, and 2 Ibanez Universe's among other's.

Point: This guitar plays just as nice. Period. Yes, it feels different, but I can shred on this just like my others! The neck is a bit thicker than my usual tastes, but feels solid.

It makes me wonder why we all seek 1000 dollar plus guitars?

It's simply a very solid guitar.

The guitar will last. It's built very well. Feels very solid. The trem is out of this world. Again, I own other trem systems on other guitars and this one is just as good. It stays in tune and is simply rock solid.
My only issue is it's a bit stiff but not a big deal.

I would suggest getting strap locks for this guitar...

I would certainly use this guitar live without a backup.

The Hohner support team is THE BEST support I have ever had. Here is why:

I bought my original g3t from Ed Roman. ( BIG, HUGE mistake. I should have known better reading all the negativity surrounding his name. But I thought this is not an Ed guitar so there shouldn't be ANY issues. ) Never buy from this guy. I should have know better. My guitar came WITHOUT A LAP REST! ( Ed put a piece of foam there instead and called it a custom job!) It was also missing the button straps. ( I'm guessing he needed these parts for his other 'custom' guitars )

So, I called Hohner without hesitation, they sent me a lap rest!

After a month or so I noticed there was an issue with the guitar. I think it needed some neck work but wasn't sure. I sent it in. These guys were super at keeping me in the loop on what was happening to my guitar.

It ends up that it needed some fretwork and that they didn't have time to work on it so...THEY SENT ME A NEW ONE!!!

This new one has no issues at all. It plays and sounds fantastic.

I would give them a 20 for support. Simply honest, great communication.

I have been playing guitar for over 20 years. I have played and owned many guitars.

After playing my buddy's G3T I went out that evening to order mine. That's how amazing this guitar is for the money. Really.

Overall this makes a great addition to anyone's collection. I would almost say a "must have" for the money...

Bought it with two original single coils and some Bill Lawrence humbucker, which I did not like. So I replaced all pickups with an EMG SA/SA/85 active set. Exceptionally comfortable guitar in terms of balance and weight. Small single switches for the pickups give a lot of possible combinations, but are not for fast changing of sounds on stage. I mounted push-pulls to get my favourite sounds. Steinberger bridge stays very good in tune.

With this set of pickups, not noisy at all. Still somehow neutral sound; played alone, it doesn??t have a noticeable character. I play blues, jazz and fusion. Tone is not spectacular, but very functional within a band.
I am using it with either a Jim Kelley FACS or a Seymour Duncan 8450. Not much addtional effects, just a delay and chorus sometimes.

After some adjustments the action is just perfect. The neck is quite thick but good to play.

When I bought it, it was intensively played over 15 years. Frets are quite down, but still usable after some polishing. Had to change the output plug. Bridge was worn out and touched the wood when moving. Asked Hohner if I could buy a new one. They send me a new one without charging, even paid the transport. This is incredible. All that was normal wear. Now it is fixed up and will last another 15 years.

Exceptionally.Contacted Hohner in Germany and they send me a complete new brigde without charging for it, and were anwering all my questions very friendly and competent.

I am playing semi-prof since 30 years. Have had a large guitar colletion and still have several treasures (??63 strat, ??59 tele, ??61 ES 355, ??61 LP Special and some goodies more). Bought that guitar for travelling. Now, after a year playing on it, it turns out to be my favourite guitar on stage. I am really in love with that little thing. It is good for my old back, and plays extremely well. Yes, it doesn??t have the tone of my old strat, but it is a working tool which could??t be better built. If you buy one, take some time for getting used to it. If you are, you don??t want to play something else any more. If it were lost, I would definitely get another one.

With 40:1 tuning ratio this guitar has the most accurate tuning ever. Most people complain that the tuning on theses are stiff but its not. lubeing up the thread on the bridge can damage it. Also it stays in tune for a long time!! Unlike other guitars that, when you pick them up you have to turn them in again, you can play this guitar for months before having to even think of tuning it again. The bridges on these guitars are the best in my Opinion. The rest of the features are standard that you can find on most guitars.

This guitar has neutral tone. It don't favor a single style of music unlike other brands. The pickups are a problem. Quiet for passive pickups but active pickups will always beat them. The first thing i did was change them to active pickups. This suits my music style, but for a standard guitar for a beginner the pickups are good. Not band for a guitar as cheap as this.

Dose anybody ever play a guitar that was set up in the factory??? I never do.. Actually i think that setting up the guitar in the factory is a waste of time. I always set up my guitars when i get them myself.

The finish on these guitars can vary alot. Most guitars nowadays are made "fresh" thats is they haven't stood in a wearhouse years and they are made to order but sometimes "old stock" thats being hanging around for years are sold. Luckly mine was new so the quality of the finish was execlent. That is there was no visable chips or dents or other types of damage. (Also factory seconds are being sold) So be wary of the true age of your guitar.

Thsi guitar is "soild". It does not break at all. This guitar will last forever if looked after. There is one flaw.. The volume Knob. Who ever put it there???? It's in the bloody way espically if palm muting. Good soild construction. Going to Lst forever. But saying that it reilable. Want break down for no appreant reason.

haven't had to deal with them.

Good soild guitar. My main one at the moment. Small, light. Alot of good points. What a shame about the falw in the design, but this flaw is also on the spirit of steinberger designs. Thsi guitar is good for beginners and pros. Good for the price.
this is a good price for a headless guitar. For people who have looked on the steinberger website there guitars are expansive and the spirit of steinberger guitars (even though cheaper)would be too expansive to import in to britian.(dam import duity)
just one last point::
Just be wary about the true age of the guitar. Just because it's new dosen't means it's new.

Satin black, paddle or broom shaped, steinberger licenced trem and tuners. Vol, tone, off/on for neck, off/on for center and off/single/dual for the bridge humbucker. Passive S/S/H
No push pull pots on this one.

I also bought the adaptor that sits on the end of the neck and allows you to use regular guitar strings. A very elegant solution to allow using all string types and brands.

The neck is not too small and the finish was very good. On some guitars the fret ends will actually cut and hack up your hand, not this one, the feel is quite good.

The trem seems quite good although I seldom use it. It has a very good locking mechanism for keeping it in tune when you can't be bothered with the trem and it's effects.

The advertising I've seen says that it fits in the overhead compartments of an airplane. That's true but you won't get it anywhere near the overhead compartment because it is longer than the current regulations for hand carry on luggage. You do have to check this guitar in. The Hohner hard case doesn't have locks on the latches so that sucks and the handle of the hard case is in the center, which is not the center of the weight of this guitar. So all the issues I have are with the case for this thing, isn't that weird?

I like rock, blues, EVH to Jimi to Clapton. And I'm trying to play the new stuff so I expect the guitar to be neutral. I can add the effects with my fingers or little boxes.
This guitar is, to me, neutral. Maybe that is because of it's shape/size or maybe by design but it doesn't seem to favor any sound category. I can't make it sound jangly like a telecaster so far but everything else is doable.
It is not noisy.
I will probably change the neck pickup to a 'blade' type as I find that I can really bend the strings on this guitar.

I didn't like the setup and I don't hold that against the guitar. The string height is a preference, I like mine high enough that the strings never buzz and it just took a quarter turn on the saddle set screws to adjust that. The intonation was way off and when I switch to my regular brand of strings I assume the intonation will have to be set again.
It's a shiney piano black and looks all business and cool.
There is a place to the side of the control cavity cover on the back that looks bad. Like the router chattered on the wood and they just kept on with the manufacturing so that now it is a very shiney piano black 'dent' or depression. I expect to inflict much greater wounds.
I would prefer the jack to not be were it is on the bottom, I may just remove the tone control and put the jack there. I'll have to see if I get used to it or not. (for sure the tone control never gets used on any of my guitars anyways.)

I bet that except for the 'ears' on the side of the pickups, I could run over this guitar with my truck and pick it up and keep playing with no other damage.
I've never had a guitar just stop working on me and so I don't expect this one to either. The trem locks so that should prevent any catastrophe if a string breaks.
My only worry;
I have a feeling that over time the strings will slide sideways on the zeroth fret while bending strings. I can make up a 'nut' to prevent this if it bothers me too much.
The tuning, as someone else pointed out can be quite stiff. The small knobs don't provide alot of leverage. I'm going to lube the threads up with so anti-seize the next string change to help out in that department.

The center pickup didn't work. They say they are sending me a replacement for free. I didn't even bother plugging it into an amp in the store so it was my own fault I suppose.
I'll write another review if they don't come through with the pickup like they say.

I bought this guitar to take when we go camping in a small pick-up truck camper. My other guitars were getting damaged when they wern't just getting in the way. When the other guitars were catching string ends on bedding and pillows and body parts (there is very little space in a 7.5 foot camper) this one doesn't. It even fits in the cupboard that only normally fits shirts, about 34 inches tall. It stays in tune, period.
It is quickly becoming my favorite guitar. For lugging it around for hours on end it is perfect it's so light. You can sling it around to your back and make yourself a sandwich whithout it getting in the way. It is, to me, a medium quality guitar, much better than a beginners guitar and much cheaper than a real steinberger while having all of the same attributes.
Better than a standard strat because the neck is not bolted on and not as good as a lespaul because the neck is not bound.
I would buy this again in a heartbeat, unless I could come up with the price of a steinberger and that's not gonna happen any time soon.
My preference would be a dual humbucker version because I seldomly use the center pickup.
After having this guitar for a short while I couldn't figure out why we aren't all playing something in this configuration. Why do we still buy guitars that look like teles and strats and lespauls. It has really changed my perception of what a guitar needs to be or to have. Every guitarist should live with one of these things for awhile and see if they don't get a great big grin on their face because of it.

You know the features if your reading this. The 40:1 tuners made me thing they would glide effortlessly but not the case. They can be kind of stiff. But I will get some teflon oil in there and that should do the trick. The bridge seems very dry right now. I'm not sure how old mine is and how long it's been in a warehouse as these seem to have taken a back seat to the Spirit models. I think it was money well spend (or it will be once I make the payments)and I'll get lots of use out of it.

I play rock/metal Lynch/EVH like stuff. I'm using this with a PODxt. Bought from Musicians Friend on a price match. Music Yo keeps running out of these. It's very quiet. It has a nice even balanced tone. I like the pickups and they will stay! I think this guitar can make most any sound. But it you like a very stong pick attack like hitting a metal tool shed in a gym with a 2x4 sound, this won't do that. I have my Srat with ceramic HB for that sound. Overall the sound is very nice. I can see why studio eng. like these guitars. The Swiss Army Knife of tones. Being an old school Floyd on a Strat with a humbucker guy I'm shocked I like this guitar as much as I do. I bought it to travel with, due to all the new airline stuff plus it's size.

All guitars need to be setup to your liking. How anyone can gripe about a new guitars set is beyond me. If your a guitar player and don't know how to do a set up that's like driving a car and not knowing how to put gas in it. An hour or two and I had it set up to where I like it. NOTE THE WRENCH FOR THE SADDLE HEIGHT IS THE WRONG SIZE FOR THE SADDLE LOCK SET SCREW!! It will work but not well and it will strip out!

No flaws, frets were in very good shape very level no buzz. Neck relief set to no clearance and all notes ring true. Did have some trouble intonating the D string for what ever reason? Anf the 24th fret notes did not intonate well either. I set mine at the 12 then spot check in the lower reg. and balance between them. But no biggy.
Tried to see it I have a coil tap on the tone know and pulled the tone knob off. Not sure if it's there or not. Was having too much fun playing it to care.

I really wish this had a 1-11/16 wide neck and some med-jumbo frets. IMO 1-11/16 should be standard width. 1-5/8 is the new narrow. Fret are med. IMO. No one else seems to have an issue with neck width.

I first descibe this guitar both sound and ergonomic as "transparent" it was funny only today to see Ned himself say the same thing on his website. This guitar does not get in your way. You don't feel like you fight with it. This is a Zen guitar, it flows well.

If they make a new Synapse with a trem I may have to pick one up. The Synapse I think has the wider neck. Again never in 100 years would I have saw myself playing one of these but this is starting to sell me. I think Ned was a bit ahead of his time but now times are changing.

This thing is a friggin' maple baseball bat. You could slay dragons with it and it would still play in tune. I think it will hold up well. NOTE: I play hard and wear frets out like no tomorrow. I opted to use some nickel wound GHS strings (google them up) instead of the La Bella or Steiny Stainless strings. I'm hard enough on frets as is I don't need more help destroying them. I bought this to take on biz trips but it is also becoming my main guitar for backing track do to it's quick detunes and even clear string response, it sounds great in tracks as heavy as Korn or Dime stuff. I still like my Floyd Strat though for solos and the obnoxious pick attack LOL. Being able to keep up my studies while travling was my main concern.

Not yet.

Been playing too long!

I'll assume you already know the specs - there's plenty of info about if you don't... Suffice to say its totally feature-packed.

I've actually got 4 of these guitars (& one of the fretless bass models) & after reading some of the unfounded negative remarks made about them by some other reviewers, the main purpose of my input is to just try & set anyone's mind at ease if they're thinking of buying one... & no i DO NOT work for Hohner, i simply know & appreciate a great guitar when i see one!
The EMG select pickups don't have what i would call a very 'distinctive' sound - i have modded 3 of my G3Ts with various Dimarzios which really bring them up to my tastes. However, the stock EMGs are definately decent pickups & they definatly DO have a wide range of very versatile sound options available to them (with the coil tapping, there are LOADS of variations). They are particularly well suited to use with lots of effects as the are very clear & won't mask or colour the effects you might be using. Hence the EMGs are actualy pretty good for studio use if you need to cover lots of styles & sounds. Even without any pickup modifications these are very versatile guitars & can be used for ANY kind of music.

People have mentioned set up not being up to much from the factory sometimes - Jeez, does ANYONE who knows what the hell they're doing with a guitar not tweak it themselves anyway when they get a new instrument?!? These are so easy to set up, & whenever i get any new guitar i always set it up to my liking - surely its all about personal preference! Setting setting up a new guitar to your own liking is part of the fun!!? Anyway, every example of these i've seen has always had a consistent finish - its just a shiny black slab; what more do you need to know?! They always play great with a low action (after a couple of mins tweaking!) & the hardware has always been immaculate & functional on mine. The neck on these is quite fat & solid but very very playable & the tiny body dimensions make it extremely comfortable in use (to those that said its an awkward shape - just play the damn thing for a couple of hours & you'll soon get used to it - i HATE playing big bulky traditional electrics nowadays after using my g3ts!)

I've used these for years & always had my first one right since about 1988 & i still use it now. The G3Ts are so solid, & i think part of this is due to the small size - there's not too much extraneous wood to bang about on the small body. The trems & other hardware have never given me any problems either. Always gig with at least one of these in a set, & they've proven to be THE MOST reliable guitars i've owned. Also, if you do happen to break a string you can just lock the trem & carry on (try doing that with a floyd rose!).

Never needed them.

I've been playing for around 25/26 years. I LOVE these guitars. Perfect for home studio use (my studio is TINY & these are the BEST for using in that space), & always create a great buzz from the crowd at a gig. They're small, cool, play great, stay in tune better than anything else i've used, are VERY quick for string changes. They seem to have gone up in price again in recent years, but even at $500 are still a bargain for all the design & innovation that's in them. Everything on them is so well thought out - oh' & to the guy who said the volume knob is in a stupid place - I think its in the perfect place, & that reviewer needs to tighten his technique up if he's knocking the volume knob all the time, eh! I've had so many different guiatrs over the years & still do have quite a collection, but the G3Ts (admittedly the ones i've modded with Dimarzio pickups primarily) are the guitars i seem to come back to again & again because the small body design is so comfortable & makes them such a joy to play for long periods.
This is the best guitar for the open minded players out there - don't be put off by those who say its 'uncomfortable' or 'just ok for travel', etc. Those players are missing the joys of these fantastic little guitars - leave them to their overpriced Les Pauls & Strats, while if you open your mind & soul to the potential & benefits of the G3T i'm sure you'll dome to love it just as much as i do.

Some information regarding build quality of the G3T vs. the Steinberger Spirit GT-PRO. If you are like me wondering which of the two to buy, you've probably read through all of the reviews of both guitars. The consensus seems to be that the
Hohner is a better quality guitar. Also, since the Steinberger is perpetually back-ordered, you might wonder if you should take the plunge on the Hohner which has been showing up in
various places at a 'closeout' price. Since many of the reviews are old I wanted to settle this for myself - I ordered one of each a few weeks weeks ago. Based on the samples that I
got, I'd say that in terms of build quality they are equal, or equally bad depending on how much you can tolerate:

Fretwork - Ok in each case, no problems with level. On the Steinberger whoever or whatever hammered the frets in also hammered the fretboard, there were hammer-head-sized dents in various spots on the low-E side.

Setup - No setup on either. Strings were dead loose, trem not set, bridge saddles all in a stock position with no intonation adjustment. Playable after this was taken care of.

Paint/finish - Each had some missing paint spots and scratches on the body. The Hohner fretboard was covered in some kind of residue, maybe polish. It wouldn't come off easily. Each guitar had some paint spill on the fretboard.

Other - In the locked position the bridge on the Hohner vibrated and rattled. The Steinberger did not do this. Neither guitar shows any of the tuning stablility reported here and elsewhere. Could be the stock strings, I did not change them out to try others.

I used to expect that a $3-400 import would be flawless but having bought a half-dozen imports from various brand names I've given that up. (The only exception being a Breedlove Atlas series acoustic which is way above my expectations.) So its a toss up on the G3t vs. the Spirit GT-PRO. Once you get past the build issues at the end of the day they're usable guitars, but I would not call one better
than the other.

I bought this new in March, 1994, from Jim's House of Music in Irvine, CA. I think that was right after they were introduced. It has the same features as mentioned in all these reviews, with one exception. The push/pull tone knob isn't the coil splitter that the newer ones have. It's some sort of passive filter. There was a hang-tag on it when I bought it that said 'Hohner Vintage Tone' or something like that. It basicaly cuts the highs and boots midrange a bit, and operates on all three pickups.

It came with a not too well padded gig bag.

I replaced the neck pickup with a Fender Lace right after I got it, because there was almost no difference in sound between the stock neck and middle pickups. The Lace really improved the sound, and I mostly use it alone or with the bridge pickup. I like the three toggle switch layout, and with the 'Vintage Tone' pulled out you get even more sounds. Very versatile.

I don't remember how it was set up, but I usually do my own setups anyway, and this guitar is pretty simple to adjust. Everything locks down with allen wrenches and I've never had to re-adjust it.

It stays in tune VERY well. I don't use the whammy bar much, but I don't lock it down because you can actually grab or palm the end of the bridge and get some cool vibrato. But even with some severe whammy bar stuff, it stays is tune really well.

I've have buzzing problems with the input jack for a while. It's an odd piece you won't find at Radio Shack. If I use an angle plug and hook it under the strap it's fine.

There was a little rubber strap to hold the strings down at the nut. It dried out and broke off in less than a year, but I never missed it. I had forgotten about it until I saw a photo today.

The whammy bar is has no threads. It just drops in the hole, and the hole is just a micron or so too big. I'll have to try that Locktite some other reviewer mentioned. I don't know if they still use that design. There are two holes for the whammy, and one is on top, like SRV's strat.

Did I mention this guitar STAYS IN TUNE!

Never delt with them

Overall I would give this guitar very high marks. I've had it going on 16 years, although it never left my house for about 10 of those years.

I first bought this because I was playing keyboards and some occasional guitar. I was use to big bodied 335's and 175's, but I couldn't get my arms around them to do the keyboard parts. With the G3T, I could sling it behind my back while I played keys, whip it around for a guitar part, and still get my hands around for more keys.
Perfect!

For the last few years I've been playing guitar in several Reggae bands, and the G3T is perfect for skanking. And I play keyboards in another band, and they want me to throw in some guitar parts, so it looks like more work for my trusty G3T.

The G3T is often my main guitar when I'm doing a rhythm gig, but it's usually a backup guitar when I'm doing a lot of soloing. Full 24 fret access is great for soloing up high, but I still like it more for chording and rhythm.

I also have a Hohner 'Jack' headless bass which gets high marks. I've been playing since about 1966 and I usually prefer fat jazz guitars, but I've come to really enjoy this little G3T.

One reviewer mentions the placement of the volume knob as a 'fatal flaw'. Well, yeah, it could have been moved south a bit, but you can get used to it. If I don't play it for a while, the knob gets in my way, but after a few gigs I don't even notice it.

I run it, my keys, and my bass though the same rig - a tube preamp into an multi effects box into a GK bass head and a very old Bassman cab with 2 12's. Warm and Fat.

I've had this pup for 16 years and I still love playing it.

Known

My G3T has Fender Lace sensors and a German handwound HB instead of the original pick ups.

OK; but will tremolo studs always start leaning towards neck after some years?
(See customer support)

I would like to mention that service at Hohner in Germany is great;
I bought my G3T (more than)second hand. It is from '89 (first 2 digits of serial number).
The former owner never used the tremolo. I found out why: it was impossible without heavy detuning.
First (after mailing Peter Storz of Hohner)I sent 20 euros to get a new top part of the tremolo-system including the tuners(as well as many free spare parts, including 2 tremolo arms because mine was missing); as I found out later the tremolo studs of the fixed (bottom)part were leaning in the direction of the neck. When I mentioned this to the service department they sent me this part without any charge!
So now I have a completely new tremolo system on my G3T; it works perfect by the way, no dive-bomb detuning whatsoever.
I got all the directions I could dream of and more, they even sent me back the stamps I had included for postage!
This Peter Storz in Trossingen is one of a kind!

I've bought new on E-bay in late 2004, it get a Steinberger licensed hardware, 24 frets, locking tremolo system, rosewood fingerboard neck-thru-body, EMG Select passive pickups, double ball strings and a fold out leg rest. It's so easy to carry and to change strings. You cannot expect a great sound from those 3 S/S/H passive Select by EMG pickups, but for the price they do an acceptable performance. It's like an headless alien compared to other guitar traditional design, but the restyling of this Steinberger model is quite soft and nice, isn't so kitch compared to other variations. It's perfect for sofa playing... At the first time it's not easy to find a confortable position for right arm. Also tone knob and the 3 switches should be placed more close to the bottom.

I don't play in a band, i play at home using some effects, like Pandora PX4 or Zoom 504II and i record music in a Zoom PS4 or in my computer. I like both clean and distorted sound, i'm quite satisfied about distortion but the clean sound is quite poor, of course.
At this price the pickups are quite good, but in fact i've been attracted by EMG SA/SA/85 active, so i bought them on e-bay (second hand, total about 110$), i followed the wiring diagrams on EMG web site and now this little alien play loud, clean and with a really good and rich sound.

Maybe it's necessary to play more, i'm not a daily player, but the frets, action and finish are fine. Also the setup was good, but after pickup changing i've done everything by myself, i'm absolutely not abn expert, but it's quite easy to do it. I don't like so much to use a tremolo, i didn't try it, so i cannot say if it works well.

It seems reliable, with good finish, of course everything related to his price range, but at the top of that range.

I've never contacted Hohner, but I did have some good experience with EMG when I had some difficulty wiring the pickups.

With his original pickups it's a quite good guitar if you don't pay more than i've paid. If you change the pickups with active EMG SA/SA/85 or something similar (SA/SA/81 or SA/SA/60...)you can be very satisfied with your black or grey alien on your legs.
I haven't ever loved this kind of headless guitar, but now i like it, i like this Hohner, it's also a nice little instruments and now his sound is very good. Maybe i don't like his a bit heavy weight, but, you know, i get another electric guitar, the beloved and quite old Peavey 60T and compared to that truck (so heavy!! the heaviest guitar on earth) this Hohner is like a bycicle, but a super bycicle...

See the other reviews for the basic features.
I've replaced the pickups with a DiMarzio PAF and Carvin singlecoils, the stock EMGs were uninspiring. Although, the stock EMG single coils by themselve were pretty weak, but could hollow out the PAF harmonics in ways that I now miss...but not enough to put them back in.
The R-Trem is great for pushing into the body with the heel of the hand, it has large smooth areas other trems don't.
The volume knob, whatever one other reviewer said, is where it should be on a modern guitar, under the treble pickup for quick volume knob effects and adjustments. Yup, it's a complicated bit of real estate on any strat or strat influenced guitar that everybody needs to come to terms with, usually by letting a lot of fingers hang over the other side of the bar (having your right hand in a fist isn't usually going to do it, try and see Jeff Beck (the "Red, White & Blues" DVD is recommended, though not fully representative)).
The zero nut develops grooves under the strings, resulting in "pings" when you bend a string and the string pops out.

I've had this guitar many, many years and I'm still thinking about it; as my playing changes, new aspects become apparent. I've started putting corners on my nails and playing with the sides of the fingers, the result on this guitar is remarkably clear and in tune (maybe I'm wrong, but to my ears the harder you pick the sharper the pitch, especially on light guages, although a floating trem will help compensate). The fundamental sonic character has always seemed to come from the all maple neck through body terminating in a high mass two fulcrum compression spring vibrato. It has alot of the attack and presence of a tele and the resonance of a Les Paul, despite having extreme vibrato capabilities. The resonance, I am pretty sure, makes it completely different sonicly from earlier graphite Steinbergers (which I've never had the pleasure of trying). Check out the "Ask Ned" columns at steinbergerworld.com; in one of them he indirectly suggests that the R-Trem is his best sounding trem due to how it connects string vibration to body resonance. The sound is subject to degradation when the R-Trem falls out of spec; especially, the two fulcrum posts have a tendency to develop a lean, main symptom being the trem rubbing against the front of the trem cavity. Recent disassembly showed this to be due to deterioration of threads in the trem base. My suggested maintenance is, remove the trem base from the guitar, unscrew the posts, put some low strength loctite (blue generic in my case) on the post threads, screw the posts back in but each in the other hole, make sure they aren't leaning, given them time to dry, reinstall. Unrecommended: putting a shim in front of the base, while that would eliminate the trem rubbing against the front of the trem cavity, there will remain mechanical conflicts between the trem and the trem base that limit upward bending substantially and further, the string balls will show excessively, etc., etc. It's a worthwhile exercise to see how the bridge and base fit together outside of the guitar when fully depressed (!!!but leave the spring out obviously!!!).

Frets are fine, action is fine. Everything works the way it's supposed to. One other reviewed correctly noted the loose trem arm. The trem arm retainer on these guitars are a joke, a futile half executed vestigal gesture of a mechanism. That's not really a fit and finish issue, that's a design issue. My trem arm is held in place by red generic loctite, its almost welded to the trem (movable and removable with some care and effort). On the plus side, its a wonderfully thick, tough, unspringy arm. One of the great things about keeping it in a gigbag, I don't have to take the arm off ever.

Overall very durable, but the metal in the trem is softer at some critical points than it should be, and parts of the trem will get loose or rattle, so I've started using various grades of generic loctite at various points, like, the lock lever for the bridge? It used to flop around and get in the way or I wouldn't know where it was until I put a little blue on the hinge. Otherwise it's tough like a baseball bat.

I called Hohner years about the trem rubbing the cavity and the tech mailed me a new base with spring for free! (Never used it, thought it was a good idea to fix the old one if I could, and I think I finally have.) He said "guess I won't be needing it anymore", and these reviews do suggest that these went out of production for awhile. I'm unclear on whether the ones Musician's Friend is/was selling are/were new production or old stock.

This design is pretty close to perfect as a musical instrument, except the small body means you can't hug the body means the guitar is more likely to sway as you play. On the other hand, if you need to hug the guitar body to keep it still, your technique could probably be better (you shouldn't be fighting yourself like that). A 22 fret version with a larger body would probably be a nice tweak.
It is useless as rock star bling bling.
Remember Les Paul's "log"? He ended up putting the sides of a f holed jazz guitar on it because audiences had certain expectations where a guitar is involved. They still do, and guitarists should be glad audiences like to see a pretty guitar, but this guitar gets a surprising amount of immediate instinctive respect from all types of musicians (probably because it's basic but heavy duty looking, precisely made, piano black and the designer's name starts with "Stein"). Having dragged it out of the bag and tweaked it, it's suprising me all over again. Once out, it tends to stay out, not the least reasons being, it's small, and like a flying v, you can just lean it against the wall without a guitar stand.

24 frets, locking tremelo system, all Steinberger licensed hardware, rosewood fingerboard neck-thru-body, emg pickups, double ball system, and a fold out leg rest. With the Steiberger locking tremelo, you can keep you guitar in tune if you dont want to use the tremelo, and just unlock it and use the master tuning knob to get the springs adjusted so the tremelo stays in tune with the guitar in locked position. It's incredible.

Curently, I'm just doing a bunch of covers with my band, we're doing everything from the 50's to today. We're playing some funk, some rock, some surf, this guitar covers it all. It has 3 toggle switches to access each pick-up, all the pick ups sound great, not muddy at all. I do plan to change one of them out though, just for experimenting, probably the neck pickup, but for stock pickups, these are great.

This guitar came to me in great condition, not one knick or scratch anywhere on it. The action was set perfectly, although, it can still be lower, but for my personal preference, it's at a great setting. One problem i did run into though, was when i was first playing it when i got it, it was hard to play on. It was like soot was all over the fretboard, after playing for about 2 days, it had all come off on my fingers, I'm guessing it was just manufacturing crap on it from the warehouse, but before you play, you might wanna clean it. I was a little dissappointed in that. There was also a sticker on the guitar, telling how to use the locking tremelo, but, they also gave me instructions in the box, so i spent about an hour pealing it off and then using 409 to clean off all the sticky crap.

So far, this guitar seems to be pretty durable. One problem I've found is the input is kind of weird. You can't push a guitar cable in all the way, so you have to know about where to push it, because if it goes to far it won't work, and if it's not in all the way, it won't work, but there's nothing wrong with it, just something to get used to. For every practice ive had with my band I've only brought this guitar, we have a gig coming up and i plan on bringing this, as my main guitar, and another guitar only in case i should pop a string. The string can be replaced in under a minute with the double ball system. I am not in the least bit worried of this guitar failing me.

I bought mine from Musician's Friend. They have always been great to deal with, when i ordered this guitar, I also ordered 2 sets of strings and a case (yes there is a hard case that Hohner makes for this guitar, just search Hohner in MF's database and you'll find it, it's only $60). Well, I got the strings and the guitar exactly when they said they would arrive, the case was on back order for another week. Well, when I decided my case should be in already, i called up and asked, and they changed the back order date to a month later. I was pretty mad about that, seeing as when I bought it, it said i would have the case at an earlier date. Other than that, they have always been helpful and reasonable. So, I'm giving them a nine because of my case.

I've been playing guitar for about 3 1/2 years now. The stuff I'm usually playing outside of my band is Satriani, Zeppelin, and a little bit of Vai. My main guitar before I bought this was a Yamaha SBG500, although I also own a Gibson 2500 (doubleneck) and an Agile LP500 (a knock around guitar). My acoustic is an old Alvarez. I'm playing through some old Yamaha amps, both are pretty big, 12 inch speakers in them. This guitar is now my main guitar, I haven't touched any of my other electrics since I got this (note, they all are pretty nice, just this is way better). The guitar is light and small. I love how 23 of the frets are clear of the body. The tremelo does stay in tune, unless you go a little crazy and you stretch the strings, but thats not the tremelo's fault. I'm not too crazy about the double ball system, I understand that they need it.. but the strings are double what I used to pay, but I rarely pop strings so it's not that big of a problem. The tremelo bar is a little lose, im not too familiar with tremelo's though, so maybe there's a way to adjust it that i don't know about. Also, if you lose your tremelo bar, good luck finding a replacement, I looked for one just in case I would need it, and I was unsuccessful. I love this guitar. It's 99% perfect, if someone stole it, I would definitely buy a new one. I plan on getting another soon if my band makes it semi-big. If you want an affordable guitar that is decked out with tons of feature, this is the one to get, it's as good as a really expensive guitar, if not better. Feel free to ask me questions.

made in 2003/4, volume + tone knobs three selectro switches. maple body and rosewood fretboard- blah blah its a hohner g3t check out the product specs cant be bothered to write it all down. but there is something important about this guitar that everyone should know.
beware of the fatal design flaw!!!

its sounds quality - clean tone good for use with effects...good if you like playing ambient sounds rather than rampant distortion or whatever. bright sound... it can be noisy when used with reverb it hisses...pickups are a good standard bu im sure if they were upgraded with something better this guitar would be a lot better. but listen the pickups arent really a problem they are ok - not the best but pretty good. this guitar is nice in every way excep one-- read on to find out more about the fatal flaw!!!

set up - sweet, anyone would be happy with this ...low action good for finger tapping...quality. for me this guitar is perfect in many ways. I wanted a guitar that was like a chapman stick in shape- (ie basically bodiless ) so i could hold it upright for fingertapping but switch back to normal guitar stance for picking. its ok for this. fingertappers this is a good guitar for you - but beware of the fatal flaw.
everything was set up just fine no flaws worth mentioning.

yeah - this is a tough guitar solid body thru neck its tough, small, reasonably light, plays nice quiet or smacking up the strings whatever... hardware will last ...finish is fine ..strap buttons are proper solid i would gig without backup. oh yes.but be warned within there lies a fatal flaw.

havent dealt with the customer support people. but i should tell them this guitar has a fatal flaw.

yes this guitar is great in every way except for one major flaw!!. this is the only reason i bothered to write this review because there is one thing that people should know. WHY OH WHY did they put the volume knob in such a FU*KIN STUPID place!!!!! its setup so that the volume knob is blatantly in your way when your muting the high strings. its very annoying because apart from this one problem the guitar is near perfect for me. i mean, when you try muting the high e-string the volume knob is so much in your way that you cant really do it effectively. the only other thing wrong with it is it could do with some real nice expensive pickups. but thats the same with lot of guitars....if it were'nt for hohner's foolish volume knob design flaw i would definitely give this guitar a near ten for the price (or even in general) - steinberger hardware is NICE!!! finish is nice, functional shape is nice, action - nice , everything is nice apart from that stupid flaw!!! its such a blatant design flaw how could they overlook it!!!! why did i not think of this when i bought the guitar--- they should have put the knobs in the top like on the guitaround travel guitars...i d say overall 7 but only because the volume knob thing is worth knocking off three whole points....(bastards) 'why i oughta.....'

Not sure what year it was made, or country (think they might b Chinese or Korean - but whatever, its VERY well put together), 24 frets - 23 of these CLEAR of the body (fantastic high-fret access!),hum-sing-hum (passive) pickup configuration (EMG select pickups - these seem like great stock pickups to me - real nice tone to em) and these can all b on at once or individually - really much more versatile than any other geetar ive come across (plus its got coil taps too, so sonic possabilities are limitless!!), tiny (& really cool lookin!) black body & v comfortable neck (better than steinberger spirit models), and has that superb licensed Steiny trem. This is the absolute best f*&^ing trem i've EVER used! Its SO easy & quick to change yr strings & this DOESNT EVER GO OUT OF TUNE even with tons of hammer. It might not b the trans trem but it sure is FAR better than any other trem system i've ever had - floyd, wilkinson, wotever, this 1 is the best! Mine came with a nice hohner padded gig bag which is LOADS better than the one u get with a steinberger 'spirit', its a lot stronger and not made out of poxy nylon and this 1 offers good proper protection. I had a go on a mates steinberger spirit a several months ago and thought it was pretty good (thats what first got me interested) but the Hohner g3ts are loads better and im glad i went with the g3t. they seem much better made and the pickup switching is far superior (on the spirits u cant have the individual control over ALL the pickups like u can on the hohner, which makes the hohner loads more versatile). this has more features than guitars costing 5 times as much, seriously.

im in a crossover band (very much in the style of 'mr bungle') so need to have a guitar that can adapt to tons of different styles of playing and need sounds from ultra clean to mega heavy and this g3t quite hionestly is just miles better than anything else ive ever used for that. it does it ALL and in such a tiny black package. i mite change the pickups at some point (stick some dimarzios in it or somethin) but the emg ones are probably the best stock pickups ive ever heard and this geetar really does cover all bases. wish id got 1 years ago if id hav know about em...!

got it from shop in manchester and it was set up perfect. action is perfect, really really low, and body paintwork etc is great. wot can i say, its just a black oblong, and it looks as cool as f^&k!

i got this mostly cos i thought it looked really cool and different (and every1 i see thinks its the business!) but i now realise that its just the best thing to use live or in the studio cos its so small and light AND its very well made. i now use this live all the time cos its so versatile and wont break your back and it has taken loads of knocks but never goes out of tune and i dont think it would break if i clocked the drummer over the head with it!basically its really sturdy and a pleasure to use.

never had to deal with the company and it had 1 yr warranty with it from the shop which ive never had to use either.

been playing for about 13 years and been through tons of different gear but i can honestly say this is easy the best guitar ive got or ever had. i've had it about 8 months now and this is the 1 i use all the time now cos its small, light, and sounds ace for any style of music. that trem is just the best ever and its just a f$%king bargain for the money! who wants to lug a 25pound chunk of back breaking gibson around and b worried about breaking it and having to change guitars for different songs when this does it all in 1 tiny package. it always gets a great response from every 1 who sees it cos it looks so cool and i easily think it could cost twice as much and still be totally well worth the money. if it got stolen id be completely gutted and id get another in the blink of an eye! this guitar is a complete bargain for 350 quid and is total quality! Much better made than the steinberger spirit version and its got much more versatile switching for the pickups. Every1 should get 1 of these, it was a complete revelation to me and i think theyre the total dogs b$#%^cks!

I've got 2 of these G3Ts & i totally adore them! 1 i've had for 8 years, the other for about 2. Would buy more but they now seem quite hard to get hold of... They have a fantastic feature-set - extremely versatile pickup arrangement/combinations available (all 3 pups at same time OR any combo of them independently, PLUS coil-tapping options), & has THE BEST trem system in the world for the price (absolutely solid as a rock, mine stay in tune for months on end despite extensive & heavy trem usage). Also, the headless system is extremely quick & easy for string changes - changing strings can be done & re-tuned in literally in 2 mins.
I am a massive fan of the tiny body - its SO comfortable to hold & play, & is nice & light - since having these i cant bear to play big bulky traditional electrics anymore, they're just so cumbersome compared to these lil' crackers!! People say they're hard to get used to but i think that's nonsense - just spend a short while with one & its BLATANTLY such a triumph of ergonomics, & incredibly well-balanced. Neck is quite chunky but strangely comfortable & both my G3Ts have VERY low actions (although i know some folks cant seem to get very low action on theirs).
Gig bag?? supplied ones tend to be V flimsy but Ritter do a really great headless guitar bag that's both cool & sturdy. PS, these guitars are a joy to carry/travel with as they're so small & light (i travel with mine with a miniature battery amp in the gig bag & its the PERFECT compact companion! and this surprising littel setup always amazes & impresses friends!).

I play anything & everything, requiring tones from death metal to jazz & funk. The EMGs supplied are great basic pickups because they are really clean & transparrent, making them very versatile & extremely welcoming to lots of effects & processing (as the pickups themselves won't colour the sound of the effects you're using). However, they were a little 'tame' for my tastes so i whipped 'em out on both my G3Ts & they now have Dimarzio's in them. Now, for me, the G3T will (& often does) blow ANY other guitar i've EVER PLAYED out of the water. The switching system & pickup selection capabilities of this guitar make it the most versatile iv'e ever used. Whatever you want, this can do it in a flash.

All were fine for me. Action on most guitars needs tweaking to personal taste, but the fit & finish on mine were great - those modern-looking black beauties look as cool as can be in my book! No fancy figured maple, but, ahhh, who needs it - its a 200-odd quid cricket bat for god's sake!!

These are totally S O L I D !!! You can drop 'em, mash 'em, crash 'em, etc... they wont break!

Never had to use them - gotta be a good sign, right?!

In my 20 years of playing experience i've had MANY guitars. Ibanez, Fender, Gibson, Yamaha, etc, etc, etc, you name it, i'll have bought in the search for my perfect axe. I even had a Music Man Van Halen signature model for about 11 years which was my absolute pride & joy, but last year i did the unthinkable & sold it. 'WHY?!' u might shout, but it was simply because i never played it any more. Its that simple - i was playing my little Hohner G3T all the time - even more than my 2-&-a-half grand's worth of Music Man! That's how good i think these guitars are - i think my last one i bought for around #200 second hand off ebay. Its now got #150 worth of Dimarzio pickups in it & i've sanded the neck to give it a natural finish. So, for around #350 & half an hour's sanding i've got what i consider to be the best guitar i've ever used & one that can hold its head up right next to anything else out there - perfect action, FANTASTIC trem/tuning method, incrediably versatile pickup switching, & an extremely small/light/comfortable guitar. Critics say these are ugly - if they weren't so f**king narrow minded they would see that they are NOT - this design is the ultimate expression of function over form - every part of this guitar is there only for a purpose, & as a result the purity of this design makes it incredibly beautiful & brilliant.

I bought this new, made in Korea. They seem to have stopped making them (again!) and there were very few to choose from. 24 frets (23 clear of the body!). I bought it in shiny black, which looks a lot more classy than the other options methinks. Usual three pickup configuration (S/S/H) by EMG. Passive volume and tone pot with three individual pickup switches (the Humbucker has a coil tap position). Steinberger licensed tremolo bridge. Nightmare trying to get hold of a gig bag (not supplied) but by chance it fitted perfectly in my tenor sax bag for starters!

I play a whole range of styles from jazz to funk to world music to pop and rock sounds and it handles them all well. I use a Roland GL100 Guitar Driver (twin channel amp simulator) with an SE50 rack Effects Processor going direct to the PA desk in stereo. I use the monitor feed to run a 100W Fender powered floor wedge on stage (i.e. no guitar amp). That covers pretty much all bases for sound options. The GT3 surprised me, being a bit bright/toppy for the settings I use on my other guitars but with a couple of hours tweaking my settings I just loved it - all the way from flat single coil to full distortion HB. Having said that, the pickups felt a little underpowered at first and the middle one is now redundant for me (it sounds muddy and distant the way I'm set up but the combination of the other two more than make up).

Great set up, straight out of the box, fast fluid and funky. No complaints (improved my playing within hours). Don't know why people complain about the bridge, solid as a rock tuning from one day to the next. The tuners are a little tough to turn in small doses but with practice, no complaints. Looks great of course, although the tremelo adjustment warning sticker offends the eye from a playing point of view and is stuck on with some kind of superglue! It's fab though and gets all the right reactions from friends and fans alike.

So far so good. Seems really solid and well constructed. No worries about gigging without a backup (and let's face it, who'd want to lug anything else around after buying something that small!). Could use a larger strap button on the neck heel though (I'd buy one of those strap locks for peace of mind).

n/a

I've played for 25 years on a range of instruments but ration my gigging to carrying one acoustic and one solid body. I use an Ovation Celebrity Deluxe on the acoustic stuff but the GT3 has definitely taken the solid spot - no contest (better than many guitars at 4 or 5 times the price). The carry factor is a huge bonus and I bought it as a backup originally but it's now my main instrument. Amazing value overall.

Ok, you know this guitar because everybody described it: very very little, it's like the original Steinberger L series but it's not a fully graphite instrument but a wood one, beautiful neck throught construction. The neck is a D one, very little and almost perfect. Low action. I bought it used and I need to adjust frets (no change, just polish). This guitar is about 10 years old, now Hohner still produce it but I didn't see a new one. Mine is black, I saw there are white or black old production models and silver or black new production models. It has a very good Steinberger licensed simple trem (it's a solid one, I don't know if nowdays production is still so strong). Configuration: HSS, The humbucker is splittable. One volume control (pull up for split hum), one tone control, three 2 position switches, you can turn on and off every single pickup. I noted that if you turn off all pickup and you split the hummy, you can ear sound, i don't know if it is a defect.... So you have a lot of possible configurations. There is a leg rest, licensed by Steinberger too, and it's very comfortable to play staying on a chair. The guitar is lightweight, you can carry it without problems. I suggest to buy strings 009-042 because if you use a bigger ones the thin neck will bend. It's a limit, I just found La Bella and D'Addario Strings. I prefer La Bella because they are 009-042 (D'addario are 009-046).
The neck is fast, even if it's painted. I prefer satin necks, but this is good.

Very good sound, a full sound. I think you can play everything with this guitar. Mine is little noisy with some effects, I think because of a not so good electric shield. I'm using a Laney TFX1, a Zoom 9150 and a Zoom PS02. I'm searching for a Roland GP18/16 because I had a GP8 a they sound very well (great distorsions). Great with the PS02, I dislike 9150 in some patches because it sounds artificial, but it's a 9150 problem.

I bought it used and I changed strings immediately and adjusted action. Without effort it has now a very low action, just need to finish some frets (they were never changed) near 18, and it will be almost perfect. It's a solid black one, there is not a lot to say about finish or beautifulness of wood. Bridge is perfect and so are the pickups, but I think that the foam rubber under pickup is not a goood choice. Now I substituted the rubber under the middle pickup because it was finished, and I placed two pen springs :-). Now it's fine. Some screw are placed in the limit of the wood, or they are crooked (is it correct.. crooked ?).... I think Hohner should pay more attention in placing screws. But there are no compromised functionality. You can gig with it withiut problems.

As I said I think you can gig with it. The Steinberger Trem is a rock, controls are solid, there aren't unuseful parts. Everything is solid. After years mine some painting was removed from the back (it was the pants belt) and some from the top corner, where you can stand your right arm. Yes, you can depend on it.

I contacted Hohner in Germany by email because I want to buy some replacement parts such as bridge main spring and a new jack. They recalled me by phone some times and they gived me a lot of support. Infact now I have the replacement part, some other replacement parts whithout paying them (some parts of the bridge, springs, screws, etc.). But I'm still using original parts. I would like to change main spring because I were using non correct strings (010-046??), now I'm fine going with 009-042 and the original spring.

I love it. I've got it since 5/2003 but it seems it was with me since 93. For the price you pay (you can buy it new for about 3/400$) it a fantastic value.

on off pick up switches for all pickups- can have all 3 on at once if desired, 24 frets, thru nech maple(?) neck and body, emg passiveselect pups h/s/s,1 tone 1 volume knob, rosewood finger board, fold out leg support, lockable bridge (steinburger licenced), decent gig bag included, the size is a great advantage too, much better features than on many #2000 guitars

this is an excellent guitar, the tuning is very stable thanks to the locking bridge which does work, and gives the option to use the whammy. the bridge isnt as sensitive as a real floyd rose, you cant pull off the whammy bar flutters but ive only been able to do this on real floyd rose bridges anyway, still its stability of tuning is better than all other tremolo bridges. you can downtune all the strings at once using the big screw which changes the whammy spring tension but it doesnt give a even pitch change and you still have to tune with the normal rear tuning screws anyway to get it all tuned properly but overall even though its not accurate using the bigscrew to change tunings it is quicker than just using the tuning screws as on other guitars. sustain is good- better than most guitars. pick ups are either on or off and this gives a good blend of sound. access to all 24 frets is virtually entirely unobstructed- the best access to all frets on any guitar i have ever owned including some that are worth thousands of pounds. you must replace the pickups though, the emgs are ok but nothing like as good as proper pickups, i went for the excellent mastertone spa in the bridge, duncan hotrails mid position and shadow twin rails in the neck which is actually very good not cheap sounding at all, the only one i regret is the duncan hotrails which is mushy and unclear sounding and too expensive. ive changed the wiring too so the volume is the back knob and the tone the front this is because i use the volume more often than tone and one of the bad design feature of this guitar is the knob under the bridge pickup gets in the way so i also took the actual knob itself off that knob to leave the bit of metal underneath which now doesnt get in the way at all. soundwise i believe that this comes 95% from the pick ups not the guitar itself anyway thats why i went for the mastertone spa as its high output which would cover any thin sound from lack of body material which when you play with distortion isnt noticable. the sound with the mastertone spa is excellent and a very good match for this (and other guitars) guitar if you like to play heavier stuff.

one great thing about the bridge is you can replace the knife edges (as the screw in) for the tremolo for a few pounds so the bridge will never wear out, that gave me alot of piece of mind.
the neck is quite thick like a lp but i got use it it quickly.
not the best action in the world this is probably the down point of the guitar, but once set up right is pretty ok, i still cant get a really low action between the strings and frets though.
some frets dont ring out as clearly as others, but the advantages of this guitar (thru neck, sustain, bridge, pickup configuration, size) outweigh the negative factors by along way.
its well balanced when standing up and strings have a long life - a great deal longer than on regular floyd rose guitars, ive had the same strings on for 6 months without one breaking and i play for about 1 hour or more a day.

very strong and stablely tuned, big strap bottons no probs with hardware at all and at this price its expendable as long as u keep the pups. would use without a backup.

uk distributer was good, (some place in swansea or something) they took some knife edges off another guitar and sold them to me for a few pounds, excellent.

ive been playing 10 years and owned much more expensive guitars (#2000+) and this is the one i always play now. under distortion the size of body giving a thin tone is a nonissue but ive never tested it clean- i really dont think its much different to a full bodied guitar ive youve got a good pup in it. once youve change the pups (i cant reccommend the master tone spa highly enough for heavy music), set the action up right and taken off that annoying knob under the strings that gets in the way this is pretty much as good a guitar as you can get.
i could have any guitar i want but after having and trying many others the g3t is my choice, u dont have to spend loads to get a good guitar just as long as it stay in tune well. plays well and you have good pickups and the g3t forfills all of those and with loads of other features too, plus you wont be worried about scratching the paintwork or anything at the price it sells for.

Como yo no tengo ni puta idea de ingles lo cuento en spanish...

Nueva. Cuerpo y mastil que atraviesa el cuerpo de arce. tiene 3 pastillas, 2 simples y una doble EMG select(barata pero suenan bastante bien). No tiene pala y el cuerpo es peque?o, ideal para viajes o llevartela a donde sea para practicar (cuando digo donde sea es donde sea.. ya me entiendes). tiene 3 interruptores encendido y apagado, uno para cada pastilla. no tiene push/pull en el control de tono. las de ahora tienen el selector de pastilla simple para la humbucker del puente el el interruptor con tres posiciones: incendio apagado y simple.
el puente es licencia Steinberger y no puede ser mejor... puedes ponerlo bloqueado o como si fuera uno flotante con solo mover una palanquita (de puta madre). y la afinacion de la guitarra es perfecta.
diapason palorrosa con 24 trastes.
hecha en Korea.

Es abrumadora la cantidad de posibilidades de eleccion de pastilla y sonidos que puede sacar la guitarra. que mas se puede pedir.

el ajuste(set-up) no estaba bien de fabrica y los manuales son 2 hojas en ingles sin una buena explicacion. Busque en internet para arreglar el ajuste del puente y encontre esta pagina web:

http://www.steinbergerworld.com/Gbridges.htm

la ajuste y ahora esta perfecta.

llevo con ella 2 semanas.... pero parece buena.
ya os contare...

nada que decir...
la pagina web de hohner un puta mierda

DE PUTA MADRE TIO !!!! ...

si me la roban, mato al tio cabron que me la quite... y por supuesto me compro otra.

It was made in Taiwan and I had it specially ordered into the country. It features two excellent sounding single coil EMGs and a Humbucking EMG. This thing has no head on top because it uses the steinberger system. It is the most amazing system I've ever used or seen. The tremolo wouldn't kick out of tune if I used it as a trampoline all day.

Gives a very good sound. Like mentioned above, it is very good for bar heavy people which is a very good effect in rock guitar solos.

It takes a little getting used to with this weird body shape but it only takes a week or two and it will be your #1 guitar. Even if you already have a $4000 guitar. I think my neck might be a little off but not too noticeable.

I would never take a back-up with me if this was my first axe on a gig. It is extremely solid and everything is mounted with such strength on the body. A broken string is extremely rare on this guitar unlike my previous guitar where I would break a string every 10 days.

It took a little long for my guitar to come (3 months) , but then again, I had it specially ordered right off the production line from Taiwan.

If this thing got stolen, I would beat the guy that stole it off me and get it back. Otherwise I would get a new one.

Dunna when made. Its 24 frets, neck thru, mahogany body, rosewood fretboard, black finish. 1 vol, 1 tone with push pull function. 3 on/off switches for ur passive pickups. There a tiny electronic unit called "vintage tone" inside the electronics cavity. Got numerous wires going from and to it. It's activated by the push pull pot, wich also switches the bridge humbucker to single coil. When activated i can't really turn off the elements, somehow their signal leakes to the output. But phaps that was the meaning of the cirquit. Got a steinberger licensed tremblock with lock. 2 ball ended system. Switch a string in 20 secs. Came with the original case.

Fits my style just perfectly. I play all kinds a stuff. mostly with a choir. I find the humbucker a little weak for metal. Not noisy at all. Very strat sound. Can sound pretty bright. Very much variety. I really liked the sound. But am not over enthousiastic bout the humbucker. Phaps i'll put in a EMG SA/SA/89 set in it. If i can find room for a battery. Overall, i'm still amazed.

I cant set the action really low, but i'm not really good with setting action. Tho, it's a breeze adjusting all things on this unit. Very accessable. is looking very good. Plays really well in standing position. Perfect balance. U can make any angle u like with this paddle. At ur lap it aint such a queen to caress, seems to make u sit in very strange and tensionable position. Great access to the highest frets.

well, its second hand. so it got some dents, but evrything still works perfect i thing. So i'll be using this without backup. There hard to find anyway.

never tried them.

Well, this is quite something. I must travel a lot and this is a so very easy to take along. This is heaven for me.

Korea made copy of the 80's cricket bat guitar, 24Frets. Neck thru design / rosewood fretboard, One tone, one volume control, H/S/S pickup configuration
Came with passive EMG Select pickups (Branded "Hohner" but are EMG), individual selector switches which is a pretty cool function allowing non traditional pickup combinations. Humbucker coil tap via a push pull tone pot.

Steinberger "R Trem" bridge which can lock. AMAZINGLY stable!!!. I never need to retune my guitar. I tune it once and it stays in tune nearly always. After a few weeks of hammering on the guitar i check the tuning its just a puny little bit off the scale, nearly indetectable change in pitch. Also i hate floyd rose so much that i had to go on a trek around the whole of my city for a decent guitar. but the whole of hong kong is dominated by floyd rose tremolo guitars, and i don't like hard tail strats either. The tuning system designed by steinberger solved all the tuning problems... and also looks cool

I bought the guitar in Hong Kong, it didn't come with a gig bag. I went on a huge adventure around the whole of Hong Kong to find a bag. I actually went to all the music shops, sport shops for suitable bags, even went to chinese musical intrument shops. Yet still couldn't find anything. Even the air-gun shops didn't sell a bag that fits the guitar properly. Luckily just before i decided to order a bag of the internet, i stubled across a "Rockbag" bag at a local music shop, it was probably the last and only one in HK, and made in china, but was extremely extremely good despite it costing me only US$8. They should sell the guitar along with the bag because its such a hassle to get one, and bags are necessities anyway.

The strap buttons became a problem for me. The fact that the guitar is so small created that problem that the guitar strap kept on scraping against my nipple ring (which obviously hurt). So i decided to move one of the buttons from behind the bridge to the side of the guitar. So the strap wasn't hanging from teh back of the guitar anymore, this resolved the problem of the strap scraping against my nipple. but then the centre of gravity of the guitar was messed up. in the end i used the strap button on the back of the guitar but decided to change my posture. This was a bit annoying because it made me less mobile. I don't blame steinberger or hohner. its really my fault for having body piercings to begin with

The guitar also came with the crappiest lead i've ever seen in my life. I now use it to tie things together The manual was brief with interesting typos.

Overall a steinberger guitar has always been my dream guitar. it came with everything that i expected...except the bag, which gave me lots of trouble so i'd give it a 9

I play everything from classical stuff to extreme stuff. now focusing more on black metal and experimental electronic rock

The EMG select pickups were rather weak and muddy. the humbucker was louder than the single coils that it wasn't sensible to change between them during a song. In the end i changed the humbucker to a Dimarzio Super Distortion, everything was solved, the tone improved. But it meant that the volume difference between the single coils and the humbucker became greater. So i now never use the Singles. But overall the stock pickups are not bad for its price. i now rewired the unused humbucker to make weird homemade instruments

For playing live i keep eveything simple and only use a DOD deathmetal distortion. With my humbucker i get a nice warm clean tone and also get mentally agressive distortion from this thing.
At home and in studios i use a Korg AX1000, really the guitar does make a difference, i also have several other crappier guitars and man does everything sound better with the steinberger. I also tried the same setup with an ibanez 470, it sounded like shit. so for sound i'd give it a 10, but only a 7 if i didn't change the pickups

action was perfect. i am fussy about action and i alway fuss about the action on my friend's guitars. strangely enough the guitar was set perfectly when i bought it

I needed to treak with the intonation though, but that was simple

i like the thinner frets on this guitar. i don't really like jumbo frets, it makes guitar playing rather clumsy for me

The paint finishing was well done, i didn't see any problems

overall there were no problems

Don't look at it thinking that it will break in no time. its damn sturdy. maybe i can even play cricket with it. i can play live with it wihtout worrying about it messing up. the tuning is so stable that i sometimes enter a show without tuning the damn thing. I just need to worry about buying strings, but now Daddario manufacture strings, so it has solved the problem. Broken strings are replaced pretty easily

I use the cheap dunlop straplocks that go on top of the strap buttons, so i think i won't encounter any problems

The hardware looks like it will last. Nothing seems to be exposed so i doubt would rust easily

never contacted the company

really i am a drummer, and drummed for many bands
but i also play guitar, bass keyboards and i am also into mixing electronic music. I have played guitar for around 6 or 7 years now
I own a whole bunch of crappy cheap guitars, but i am familar with guitar overall because i borrow guitars a lot before

If it were stolen id get one immediately
my favourite feature is the R Trem, its so stable. also the cool shape

It looks like i'm now a hardcore steinberger fan. i think for the rest of my life i'll only buy steinberger type instruments. my next plan is to but a doubleneck steinberger, or a steinberger bass

when buying this guitar i compared it with everything else in the shops, but still decided this was the best.

All my guitarist friends now envy me, they had bought guitars of higher price, and now they discover that mine is better. (too late for them because i bought the last one available in HK)

I think steinberger should expand their product range. Since nowdays we only get crappy products. And steinberger seems to have the best innovative, practical quality instruments

This is an outstanding guitar. Black headless steinberger copy with H/S/S configuration. Made in Korea.

The Transtrem tremolo is beyond belief. I can't understand why people dig Floyd Rose types. The must be completely ignorant about Transtrem tremolos. I make divebombs such that the strings lie flat on the fretboard and they come back in tune!!! The Transtrem tremolo makes it possible to tune the complete guitar down to A in 2 or 3 seconds! Changing a string takes at most 30 seconds and the whole tremolo unit can be locked when not in use.
Tuners are excellent.

The stock pickups are a little bit weak. I replaced them for a used set Tom Anderson passive pickups I happen to find and that really made a difference. So a 10 out 10 for now. A 5 out 10 for the stock pickups, though the stock pickups have many usefull combinations.

I bought the guitar used and the set-up was completely ruined when I changed the strings since the previous owner didn't locked the saddles (with the small bold on one side of the tremolo unit). As a consequence I had to intonate the the guitar again. But the guitar is very well-thought designed and adjusting action and intonation is a piece of cake with this guitar.

Finish holds equal par with my american strat.

This guitar is build to last. High quality components. I certainly would gig with it (especially since strings can be changed easily and very quick).

I am not sure (never tried contacting Hohner) but I suspect it almost next to useless. There is hardly information on the internet about this guitar. I wouldn't even know who to turn to in my country. Sofar customer support wasn't necessary anyway.

This is my 8th electric guitar I own or have owned and played many more guitars as well. Play for 15 years. I wish however that I had started with this guitar. It has a very comfortable (Gibson-like) neck. Very fast too. My main guitar is a Fender Paisley Telecaster. I prefer it slightly over the G3T because it has more soul. This guitar however is the ideal backup and/or travel guitar. I use it very often in my homestudio too where I have limited space. Very handy. Don't let the uncool and 'nerd'ish look of the guitar turn you away. After I changed the pickups I have a better guitar than my MIA Fender strat with stock pu's for less money. Some more colours to choose from would be nice though. In short: this is an excellent designed and build guitar.
I 've played many guitars and never thought I would find a guitar that I like almost as good as my thrustworthy telecaster. This guitar however completely turned me on. It is probably the last one I would expect to end up with.

Bought this guitar two years ago. as a standard G3T. with all the standard features. Came with a gig-bag - fine for the back of the car, but not for the hold of a plane - since had a proper flight case made for it.

Sound is okay as a standard guitar - pickups are a bit weak, BUT - and this is pretty important - i added a Roland GK2a pickup to go with my VG88 and this guitar is just a dream for it. In conjunction with the VG88, it becomes the ultimate travel guitar - why? Cos ican take this guitar, the VG88 and a pair of multimedia speakers and get any (and I mean any) sound, from thrash metal to beautiful acoustic sounds.

Guitar build quality was fine - no complaints considering the price. Only thing I dont like is the trem and that's cos my idea of a trem is one that can be dive bombed seriously and let go - this makes one hell of a clank and then goes out of tune - oops!

Guitar is really very well made and i cant fault it overall. Strap wouldn't come off even if a freight train tried to pull it off.

Never dealt with customer support

Played for 34 years, own a Jackson RR1, Line 6 combo, VG88 and lots of other musical gadgets. If this guitar was nicked - I'd first of all killthe thief and then replace it - possibly with a real Steinberger - I am so impressed with the shape - it's so comfortable to play, standing, sitting and most importantly slouching!

The 80s favourite headless Steinberger cricket bat design, manufactured in Korea (guitar snobs can stop reading now). Maple neck thru design with rosewood fretboard, 24 frets, One tone, one volume control, H/S/S pickup configuration, passive EMG Select pickups, individual selector switches for switching on each pickup allowing for a greater variety of combinations than a standard 5 way selector switch would allow. The humbucker pickup switch is now a 3 way so as well as the on off position, you also have a coil tap position. This must be a recent change as the humbucker used to be tapped via a push pull pot on the tone control. Licensed Steinberger "R Trem" bridge which can lock and so also double as a fixed bridge. Not sold with gig bag or case so I added a gig bag to the order at #19.99. The gig bag isn't great but it keeps the dust off and that's all I was interested in. 2 strap buttons behind the bridge which is handy for standing it up against an amp, but also makes this a truly ambidextrous guitar as the bridge also has a hole for the trem are on both sides making it fine for left handed use. Also supplied with a crappy lead for some reason, which is unlikely to ever get plugged into an amp by me. Didn't come with too much information about setup etc, in fact the manual consisted of two single pages but it didn't take long to work things out. All in all, this guitar has every feature I would want hence the high score.

Hmmm, pretty much undecided on this one at present. My setup consists of either a Zoom GFX4 or a Digitech RP2000, and then into a Marshall AVT150 or a Peavey Bandit depending on where I'm using it, and at first (using the RP2000 and Bandit) I thought that sound was pretty awful. The lead tone from the bridge pickup was great, but I couldn't get a less harsh tone from either the neck or middle pickups in any combination. Anyway, after some fiddling with the amp tone controls and my effects processors I managed to get the sounds I was looking for. I play everything from older rock, through to more modern soft rock and metal (no, not Nu Metal) and although the pickups still aren't exactly perfect, I at least have found usable settings. The unfortunate thing is that all my other guitars have very similar amp and effect settings to get the sounds I want and this will be the odd man out forcing me to tweak. No big deal I suppose as I can store individual patches specific for this guitar in my processors and the amp settings aren't exactly rocket science to alter quickly once you know exactly what you want, but still it's messing about that I would have preferred to avoid. I think that a pickup upgrade will be on the cards at sometime in the future, but not to EMG actives as seems to be popular with this style of guitar as I find them too limiting. I think a Dimarzio Tone Zone in the bridge would be very nice to beef up the sound a bit coupled with a pair of new single coils, the type of which I am currently undecided on.

The action was high when I bought this and intonation was off. The Steinberger R Trem makes light work of these issues though and everything was setup how I like it within 20 minutes. The finish is perfect and I could find no flaws or unfinished areas at all. The neck feels very much like a Les Paul to me and the rosewood fingerboard is very well finished. Hardware seems excellent (although the selector switches for the pickups seem a little fragile to me and will no doubt be the first things to go). The routing for the pickups and bridge have been very well finished and everything seems clean and tidy.

The G3T is definitely built to last. Everything from the hardware to the finish gives me confidence in the reliability and durability of this guitar (except the pickup switches) and I would have no qualms whatsoever playing this live which is exactly what I intend to do. Strap buttons aren't oversized but with a good strap I still have no worries as the guitar is very light and so isn't putting too much of a strain on the strap. I have fitted Schaller Strap Loks to all of my other guitars but I just don't feel the need with this (famous last words maybe). I would never gig without a backup, but I certainly would feel happier doing so with a guitar with a Steinberger trem rather than a Floyd Rose, but more on that later.

Can't really comments as I wouldn't even no how to contact Hohner in the UK as their web presence is very limited and I can't find any information on this guitar on any of their global web sites. If I have any problems I'll get support off the dealer I suppose.

With the exception of the average pickups I think that this guitar is virtually prefect. It is small and light, easy to play with unobstructed access to the higher frets. The R Trem is simply the best bridge I have ever used without exception. I've been playing now for 20 years and my other guitars are a Gibson Les Paul Standard, an Ibanez RG770FM (new Japanese model), a Jackson PS4, a 7 string Epiphone Les Paul heavily modified & with Dimarzio pickups and a Natural Neck Thru BC Rich Mockingbird all of which are superb guitars - and I've been through many others that didn't quite make the grade. I liked the Jackson bridge which was better than many others I'd used, but that was completely surpassed by the RG770 when I got it which has a Lo Pro Edge bridge which I thought would be impossible to beat. I was wrong. The Steinberger trem is absolutely brilliant and leaves the rest behind, even the most aggressive dive bombs will return to perfect pitch every time which I found quite amazing. The fact that it can also lock to a fixed position makes the guitar much more versatile (I normally retrofit Tremstops to my FR equipped guitars anyway but don?t need to with this - good job because there's no room to put one!). String breakages aren?t as much of a worry because the lock can keep things in tune. The double ball end strings make changes a breeze and all these features in a guitar that you could quite easily travel with (assuming the carry one luggage laws don?t change in the near future). Yes I am so happy with this guitar that the pickup change seems like a small price to pay and I have no doubt that when I have done the modifications, it will be my most used guitar. Don?t get me wrong, my other guitars are great and every one of them has certain advantages over the others but the convenience of this guitar and it?s great features will make it as much an important part of my collection as any of the others. I have a number of quality guitars which may seem socially acceptable to a number of narrow minded people out there ? and also possibly a couple that wouldn?t seem acceptable, but I refuse to ignore a guitar based solely on it?s country of manufacture and this was a timely reminder to me as to why I will always keep that approach. If stolen I would immediately place an order for another without question.

In spite of its minimalist (cricket bat) shape and size my Hohner G3T is packed full of great features. The steinberger licensed tremelo is beyond belief and coupled to the headless double ball end design keeps everything in tune even after repeatedly pushing the arm right down to the wood. Another wonderful but less often discussed feature of this system is that in addition to the provision of tuners for each string as one would expect there is an additional tuner which, although designed to set the balance between string tension and tremelo return spring can additionally be used to raise or lower the pitch of all six strings together. This extra tuner makes it possible to quickly tune in to other peoples' CDs which are not always tuned to the same pitch as each other. This is great when jamming along to one's CD collection. Another great feature is the folding leg rest that allows the instrument to be played whilst sitting down; this is very well positioned for balancing the guitar and its non-slip. I purchased mine second-hand so I'm not sure of its history, but the frets are ground flat like on my Les Paul Custom. I like the comfort this provides when sliding up and down the neck, but this may have been done by a previous owner. The only real problem I have had with the features is the lack of a facility to alter individual string lengths. The top E was miles out on mine, but an engineering friend made me a customised bridge block for that string with the bridge much nearer to the fretboard; problem solved.

I like to play heavy metal, but the band I'm in (www.whitefuneraltea.org) play less heavy rock music. I find the G3T great for both styles especially for home recording when the many variations of sounds available from its two single coil and bridge humbucker, all with coil tapping, are really useful. It has very long sustain (not as long as the gibson but still longer than many more expensive guitars I have played)although I wouldn't describe the natural sound as full. I rely heavily on a korg multi-effect pedal to get a full heavy rock sound, but this may partly be due to my very clean sounding Intermusic 120watt 2x12 combo - a strange choice perhaps but I like it. I intend to change the humbucker for one of emg's better models soon after reading another reviewer's comments on this site. That said I am impressed with the standard emg select pickups at the price.

Having purchased mine second-hand and being uncertain of its history I cannot comment on the ex-factory set up, but the finish and routing look superb. Everything seems to work well, and the knobs are good quality robust bits of kit - certainly stronger than my knuckles OUCH!

This guitar seems very robust in general and the hardware and finish both seem strong. I did break the black elastic band that covers the strings near the headless end some years ago but have not noticed any side effects of this; in fact I used to find it annoying when changing strings. Strap buttons are the best I have ever used (much more secure than the gibson which came off its strap the second week causing heart breaking damage to the wood and totally destroying my mate's mum's best crockery which thankfully cushioned its dramatic fall to the floor). The thoughtfull addition of an extra one allows the instrument to be leaned aginst a wall or amp securely. I have used it on a gig without back up and loads of people wanted to talk about it and praised the variety of sounds I produced with it.

It's never gone wrong

I love this guitar. It is always an utter joy to play. It feels as light as a feather (good news for my aging back), and plays like a dream. My other solid guitar is the afore-mentioned Gibson Les Paul Custom '79 in Tobacco Sunburst, but I play the Hohner much more often. I've been playing since I was nine (thirty five years ago), but most of that time was spent on Bass. I have never enjoyed playing a guitar as much as I enjoy playing this one. As soon as I played it in the shop I knew it was the one main guitar for me; it really was that dramatic. With the exception of the pick-ups, I find it difficult to believe that guitars can get any better than this. I also keep saying that I'll buy a matching bass one day! I would hate to be without it now. What else do I wish it had? - It would look bloody great with good quality gold plated fittings against its black body.

I have no idea what year this is, its an old version, im guessing mid to late 80's. Although there are no dints or scratches, its obviously seen a fair amount of use.

The usual 3 switches, pickup select. Push pull coil tap control, or whatever its for ( only seems to have a slight effect on mine )

I really love the neck of this guitar, mine is particularly smooth after being worn. All in all the guitar has kept its finish well, strange i notice some rust under the pickups, maybe the previous owner liked playing in the rain, maybe its just sweat, i have no idea.
The best feature of this guitar, except its design and shape, is the leg rest feature.

favourite sound is with just the humbucker switched on, all other pickups off, the guitar has a meaner, crunchier feel.

Its possible to get some strange effects just using the trem etc, so far the only pedal i have used with it is the EHX BiggMuff.

Somehow i have got a kink in the top string so somewhere around the 18 th fret it vibrates. It came with another two sets of new strings so no problem.

On my guitar the push/pull switch seems to have little effect, maybe its broke...

When I first recieved the guitar, it always stayed in tune. Since then someone has messed with it, but that is not the fault of the hardware. The bridge sits lower than it did, which explains why there isnt much backwards flex.
Some of the switches were loose when i got it, i just tightened them up a little, as far as i know the guitar is completely orginal.

It seems to be very reliable, a good combination of endurance and innovation. I have not had the guitar for very long so I cant say much...

Never contacted Hohner..

I bought this guitar for #175 (inc postage, guitar alone was #149)
Its black in colour, with veneered neck ( which is cracking due to heavy abuse) the guitar sounds great, nice warm tone. Very fast neck, at first i was disconcerted because the guitar had a little wear and tear, but after playing it I can say that this adds to its character and it feels nice and loose while playing. Also it was cheap.

I think the bridge on my hohner may be slightly defective ( where it says STEINBERGER SYSTEM), there is hardly any backwards movement with the trem, but its fine fowards. It was not like this when i first got it, but im taking it to get serviced soon so they can take a look at it then. I think a drunken friend stood on it or something.
Usually the guitar holds tune very well, but if you particularly abuse the trem, as to make the strings slack, then the guitar loses tune more easily. Tuning is a little fiddly, you have to be careful not to retune the strings you have already done accidentally, as the knobs are very close together. I have thin long fingers and its fine for me, but people with thicker fingers mat find this a problem ( a friend of mine).
I like the fold down leg rest the most, its the best feature ( apart from the headless design ) it looks like something designed for a sub machine gun!

Lightweight guitar, great design and fantastic playability. Equipped with Select EMG PU in H/S/S configuration. Steinberger bridge R-TREM. Very fast neck ( 'C' profile Gibson like ) with 24 frets. Three microswitches for 8 PU on/off combinations ! ( OK, 7 if you want to hear something from your amp :) ) plus a push/pull switch on the tone control to switch the humbucker to single coil.

Not bad at all. I like very much the humbucker that is very hot and bright, but i'm not totally satisfied by the single coils that are a little lifeless. Good sustain, not a Les Paul
but far superior to my Ibanez ( '87 RG-560 with Floyd Rose bridge ).
I play my new G3T thru a Boss GT-3 preamp, a Marshall 8004 power amp and a Marshall 1922 (2x12) cab. The Boss unit do a great job and help a lot the rebirth of some 'lost frequencies' of the single coils. ( So the sound value is increased from 7 to 9 !!!)

I purchased (used) this guitar in perfect conditions, only the action was a little too high for my taste. I have lowered it in a few minutes, working on the R-TREM and the truss rod tension. Now I've a low,low action without any buzz. The finish is perfect. Made in Korea ? Yes, and I'm happy; high standards, good materials, LOW PRICES !!! THIS IS NOT A POOR COPY OF STEINBERGER !

I have purchased this guitar 1 week ago so I hope ......

I have visited the hohner internet site (www.hohnerusa.com) but ..... no G3T found ! :(

Great guitar, great look. I've been playing for 25 years now ( 40 years young !!! ), and I've owned a lot of guitars from my first Cimar ('77 SG cheap copy ) to Gibson Les Paul Custom (my main guitar), thru various Fender Stratocaster (American, Japanese and Mexican), Ibanez and now this new baby.
Hohner has surprised me, G3T is a GOOD choice for all guitar players and who, like me, play in a rock cover band and need a large palette of sounds, an easy and fast neck, light weight and an affordable price. I've purchased it as backup but I suppose it will became my first guitar because of sound and weight.

Brand new Hohner G3T. Smallbody Steinberger design made of Rock Maple instead of the composite material Steinbergers are made from. 24 frets, EMG Select pickups in a H/S/S configuration, single volume, single tone, independant pickup switching (one small toggle for each pickup). Steinberger licensed standard bridge with a black whammy bar that does not screw into the bridge. Adjustment for bar tension is with a small allen screw next to the hole in the bridge. I bought my guitar through Ed Roman guitars, and it was shipping directly to him from the factory just days before it was shipped to me.. I got a little checklist with the guitar from Ed Roman, listing the Quality Control things that they did.. so I can't really comment on the setup direct from the factory, as mine was tweaked by one of the best. The guitar comes with a standard amount of features, but tons possibilities are increased with the three independant switches, as opposed to a five-way selector (as on the Steinberger Spirit GT3). An added note: I also bought a Steinberger Spirit to customize myself, and to compare with the Hohner (and I have a review of the spirit on Harmony Central as well).

Knowing full well that EMG Select pickups sound like shit, I upgraded the pickups to an EMG 85 in the bridge and two EMG SA single coils. I can't really say what the Selects would have sounded like in the Hohner, but since I bought a Spirit GT3 as well I've got a good comparison instrument. Quite simply, the Hohner G3T with -real- EMGs is the best sounding guitar I've ever played (and without going into major details, that's saying something). Completely quiet, great picking response, great harmonics, -incredible- sustain, and an excellent tone. My philosophy with guitars is to get a pure sound from the instrument, and let my amplification do the work with tone.. this guitar is perfect for that. If you're hoping for a Strat or Les Paul sound by plugging this directly into an amp, you're not going to get it.. but if you know what you're doing with an amp or rack setup, you can not only get both of those sounds, you can get just about anything else you want from it as well. I had planned to install an internal synth pickup in this guitar, and use the Spirit as a "high gain, rock only" guitar.. but I'm so impressed with the Hohner, I can't bring myself to take a router to it. I'll be happy to rout out the Spirit though. I played this guitar through my rig (Rocktron Chameleon preamp, Alesis Quadraverb effects, and an Alesis MEQ-230 eq), and my studio partner's rig (Rocktron Pro GAP preamp, Digitech DSP-128 effects, Digitech DSP-256 effects, Roland SD3030 reverb, Peavey 500 watt power amp, Marshall 412 cabinet).

For action and fit, I'm going to have to disqualify my guitar because it was setup by an expert (but on that note, if you decide to buy one of these, get one from Ed Roman, and ensure that the setup is the best it can be). As far as the guitar design, there are no flaws whatsoever in the finish, routing, or hardware.

These guitars are built like rocks. I've been playing a Hohner B2A bass for 11 years now. Up until three months ago, it was the only instrument I owned, because it did everything I needed, and never had a single problem with it. It's been beat up at gigs, travelled across the country, and it still plays like the day I bought it. I have no doubt in my mind that the guitar will perform in the same manner. I will be gigging with this guitar, but I will have the Spirit as a backup, mainly because the Spirit will have the guitar synth pickup.

I have never dealt with Hohner as a company. I've been using their products for over 12 years without a single problem, so I can't really rate their customer support.

I'm a bass player who picked up drums, guitar and vocals over the years. I've been playing for 13 or 14 years now, and my first real instrument was a Hohner PJ Bass that I got about 12 years ago. I played that up until I got the Steinberger style Hohner B2A a year later, and sold the PJ as I loved the shit out of my new bass. I played the Hohner exclusively up until three months ago, when I bought an Ibanez EDA-905 5-string bass. That bass is -very- difficult for me to play slap-style on, so I still use my Hohner about 40-50% of the time, and I'm still looking for a used Hohner 5-string to convert to a fretless. My plan with my guitar rig was a large but simple concept. A guitar Roland synth pickup running into a preamp, effects unit on one side, and the Roland synth on the other. Both of these will be mixed by a four channel mixer, then into a power amp, and into a pair of 2x10 cabs running stereo. This evolved into needing two guitars; one as the main guitar with EMGs, the other as a high gain guitar with DiMarzios. I got a Hohner from www.edromanguitars.com for a total of $733 (with EMG pickups, and a Roland synth pickup), and a Spirit from www.musicyo.com for $330 (with some minor extra accessories). I have absolutely -no- complaints about my Hohner, but read my Steinberger Spirit review for some dirt on that one.

This is one of the recent reissue Hohner Pro Steinberger spinoffs. I had at one time owned both an older Hohner Steinberger and a real L series Steinberger...and by far this one is far more memorable. It has the SSH EMG Selects but I put a DiMarzio Virtual Vintage Blues in the mid position and a new volume pot and what a difference. The guitar sings now. In tandem with the 3 on off switches and the push pull pot...the versatility of this guitar is outstanding.

I have been playing for over 35 years, having cut my teeth back in the late 1960's...and I have played professionally, semi-pro and as a demo player, as I write songs, too. I find this guitar with its neck thru body is a winner. The guitar resonates even when it is unplugged. I have had a few neck thrus before but this one is superb.
With the added DiMarzio you get mellow tones, bluesy tones and strat like bite. I play less rock and more roots stuff such as blues, country and all with a jazzy tinged approach. I favor cleaner sounds over super crunch but I do like a warm edge...and this guitar gets them all.

This is so much better than the recent Steinberger Spirits. I had the op to play one and found the necks horrible. This neck is a bit wider and chunkier, more Gibson-like and I prefer it. It is heads above the Spirit models.

I don't really use trem much...and this guitar seems very dependable on that basis. Great feel, great sound and very comfortable to hold.

N/A

I bought this from Ed and found him to be a gentleman. In fact, his assistant Alan is a very nice guy, too. Other dealers are selling the Hohner Steinbergers for over $500. I got mine with a nice Warwick gig bag...very padded and pro feeling. I have had all of the great guitars in my day. But this axe doesen't make me miss any of them...aside from the fact that if I owned one or all of them...I could sell them for a nice buck and buy a couple more of these Hohners....
Vince DeLucia

The Hohner G3T is a copy of the famous Steinberger 'Stick' guitars.

My G3T is one of the reissues from 1999. I'm not sure of the differences from the originals as I've never seen one, but I've read that there were several improvements made. The guitar is manufactured in Korea in the same factory as the Steinberger Spirit series (as sold by Musicyo.com) but from what I've seen (and read) the Hohners are better quality guitars.

The original Steinbergers were of a carbon-graphite construction, but the Hohners are solid wood. There are 3 EMG Select pickups (HSS with the humbucker at the bridge) and each pickup has its own on/off switch . There is a volume and a tone control and the tone control is push/pull which acts as a coil-tap for the humbucker. It also has an effect on the single coils as well, making them sound more delicate and thinner but I'm not sure exactly what causes this.

There is a 24 fret neck and, as you can imagine with no body, access to the top frets is incredible. It has a rosewood fingerboard and Steinberger licensed nut. The bridge is also a copy of the Steinberger bridge with built-in tuners and is one of the best designs I've come across. You can literally depress the tremolo arm until the strings are flapping on the pickups and it comes straight back into tune. I've never played a guitar that has more stable tuning - and that includes models with locking nuts, locking machine heads, etc.

I bought the guitar second-hand, so I'm not sure exactly what is meant to come with it. I got a gig bag with it.

I'm always pleasantly surprised by the tone I get from this guitar. I play all sorts of music from country to electronica to prog rock and I can always get a suitable tone from it. I mostly use it with a POD and together they make the perfect travelling guitar set-up.

The combination of the HSS pick-up arrangement is a versatile set-up, but by the time you combine this with the coil-tap (which also seems to work on the single coils although I don't know why) the number of tones available is quite considerable. Then consider the fact that it has an individual switch for each pickup and the range of possibilities are quite staggering. I'm always using the neck and bridge pickups in combination as it gives a unique sound that I find both unusual and versatile.

It does a passable imitation of most 'classic' guitar sounds and has some tones all of its own too. Damn impressive.

Since I bought this guitar second hand I don't know how well set-up it was when it left the factory, but by the time I got my hands on it the set-up was excellent. I haven't noticed any problems with any of the components and they all look like they'll last the lifetime of the guitar. For a Korean made guitar I think the quality is exemplary.

I haven't gigged with this guitar yet, but I'd certainly have no hesitation about doing so. I'd take my Strat along as a back-up in case of breaking a string, but otherwise it seems fine.

The finish is solid and robust. I haven't managed to knock any chunks out of it yet (which is more that I can say for my Strat). I replaced the strap buttons with strap-locks and they work a treat.

I haven't had the need yet.

I have long been an admirer of Steinberger guitars and have wanted one since I first saw them on Top of the Pops back in the 80s. I'd heard mixed reports about them from various people and I wasn't sure how I'd take to it when I finally bought one, but I have to say I have nothing but praise for Ned Steinberger's design and Hohner's production quality. This guitar has been a revelation to me. Here's why:

1) It's tiny and is therefore easily portable
2) Access to the top registers is totally unobstructed
3) The variety of tones is unparalleled for a guitar of its price
4) The quality of tone is excellent
5) Changing strings is a joy and takes no time at all
6) The tuning stability is rock-solid
7) The bridge can be locked so it stays in tune if you break a string
8) The tremolo is the best I've ever used on any guitar of any price
9) The leg rest makes it more stable than a Strat when seated
10) Its symmetrical body means it won't fall over when you lean it against your amp or a table.

I will never be without my G3T. If it's lost or nicked I'll be onto Hohner immediately to get a replacement. It's such a great design at an unbelievable price that I'll be buying myself a Hohner 'Stick' bass at some point too.

Do yourself a favour - try one of these guitars out.

This guitar is a very nice and light weight copy of a Steinberger. I bought mine sveral years ago and this is my second one. I sold the first one and bought a Std Strat. I missed the Hohner and grabbed this one used with the soft shell case. It was in mint condition! It plays great due to the 24 fret neck. No buzzing. The ball-end strings were hard to find but now that Hohner is making the instrument again it should be easier. The fit and finish were much better than I expected. THe tuners are small but relatively easy to adjust, i.e, no winder needed! The trem system works great and this baby stays in tune. The treble knob pulls out for a brighter sound and my first one for some reason did not have this feature. Hard case is preferred if you gig alot. Soft case is fine for at home storage.

The sound is just what you would think, somewhere between a strat and a gibson. It can come fairly close to immidating either guitar and it is wonderfully light weight on stage. My guess is that replacing the pickups with expensive ones would truly make this guitar sound great!

Mine was used but the fit, finish, and set-up were perfect. No complaints!

Both of the ones I owned looked like they would last forever. Very dependable gig guitar and I did break a string once and locked the trem and popped in a new string while still in the same song! Not Bad!

Don't know, never needed it!

Don't forget to read the Steinberger-reviews as well!

So, I'll try to follow the recommended list: It's very similar to the Steinberger Spirit GT, with few differences (SSH vs HSH and different switches). Made in Korea, but very WELL made, so don't worry about the distant origin!

It has 24 frets, solid body, nice rosewood fingerboard, easy to play. Pickups are S/S/H EMG Select. And the headless Steinberger mechanics, which was one of the reasons falling in love at first sight. The other benefits are the attractive design and the really small size, which has a drawback as well: if you play sitting, and you are used to place it on your left leg and playing closer to the bridge, you might accidentally push the bridge without noticing it, which will have the same effect as using the vibrato lever, but few hours of practice, and you get used to hold your hand properly (and your guitar teacher at the conservatory will look much happier too!).

It has three swithes, one for every pickup, a volume and a tone knob, wich has a push-pull capability, and this function is labeled as "Vintage" sound.

The Steinberger mechanics are incredibly good! You just see it, and you know it's THE gear. And it really is. I've never seen something alike before!

It comes with a cable and the tools necesary for adjustement.

The singles are just as singles usual, and of course not as powerful as the humbucker. They are having the sound you might expect from the EMG. As I mentioned above, you have the standard features for shaping the tone, but nowdays it's mostly made by the effects (I use now the Korg Pandora 3, just a bit larger than a cigaret box, but good as hell!). The only disturbing moment is, that while you're not touching the string, it has some noise (therefore the 9). Anyway, it won't happen while playing.
The humbucker has especially a nice, fat sound, with a lot of harmonics.

The outlooks and the workmanship is as good as expected. No complaints. Factory setup is correct, sounds balanced, and the pitch at the 24. fret is accurate on every string (the Pandora shows it all!).
My only real complaint is the poor manual (therefore a 9), actually a few sheets of paper, without any picture. For tuning you don't need more, but the setup features of the Steinberger mechanics need some better explanations.
I noticed a small gap under the frets closer to the head too (further -1, that makes 8). The frets themselves are actually radial as those on the bridge-side, but the wood there is radial as well. But on the head-side the wood is flat, so the bent frets are producing some gap in their middle. Maybe it's a part of the design, and it's good that way. Anyway, the frets are firmly planted into the neck, and the sound transfer is OK.

It's one of the best features. The solid metal knobs, the bridge, the solid body - they seem to last forever. You'll need a backup just for the case you break a string, but for me - the backup will be an other G3T.

It comes with one year warranty, but the guy in the shop told me "He thought it will never arrive, because Hohner delivers very inaccurate." It was supposed to arrive Please-allow-us-60-days-for-delivery, but luckily, it arrived in 30 days!

Completely statisfied! Very well worth the price, and if stolen or lost I'll buy it again, and again, and again... Maybe it should be made in more pickup configurations. If interested be sure look at the Steinbergers too (www.musicyo.com).