Steinberger GL2T

Mine is a GL2T-GR. To be fair, I'm evaluating the features as it it were only a GL2T. To me, the number of features is less important than how well they work and are integrated into the instrument.The transtrem is flat out the absolute best trem system in existence - makes others feel cheap and mass produced - electronics precisely what's needed and no more. Would be a "10" except it has the original transtrem - works flawless but is a pain to set up - has the strings where one end is actually threaded and must be screwed in with a precise setting to kep the trem in tune.

My reason for writing this review was stumbling on the site and reading some players say these sound awful and thin. Flabbergasting. I played all strats and teles for years before buying the steinberger - believe me, I'm sensitive to mosquito tone and hate it! I've played it for 20 years with tons 'o' gear (Peavey, Pearce, Boogie, Marshall, Matchless, Fender, Lexicon, bone dry, tons of effects, everything in between, etcetc) and will absoutely never sell it. It sounds extremely smooth, rich and full, NOT biting or trebly at all. It does not have a wide variety of sounds, but is quite and very consistent. It does NOT however come close to my 335 - not inferior, just different. Less peaky at different freqs. I've used this with all styles of music I play, even country! (Transtrem keeping it in tune while moving, plus vol pedal plus some delay = damn convincing pedal steel sound!).

Sorry to rant, I've played 30+ years, worked in all facets of the industry, dealt with a bazillion guitars - this hands down was and is the most solid ax I've ever owned. When I took it out of the bag at the store for the first time, it was perfectly in tune! This thing was clearly not built by businesmen risking capital to make a profit but by people who burned to create something wonderful and unique. It shows.

Like I said, 20 years gigging, recording, abusing. I came home once to find my 7 year-old playing with it - vigorously - as a gun! Left a couple of scratches but didn't even go out of tune. Solid. The tone pot has become scratchy and the the pickup selector makes a click but everything (including al synth controller stuff) works like the day I got it. The neck has _never_ moved or changed. I told my former wife when I bought this that it would be one of my few "lifetime" guitars. She's long gone, it's still here being played almost daily.

I f I lost this I doubt I'd find another but I'd definitly haunt ebay for a GL2T. Been playing 33 years, most everything. List of gear too ridiculous to print, gear slut suffering from GAS (Gear Aquisition Syndrome) since 14. Stacks and racks of racks and stacks.

I love how incredibly solid it is, how I know before htting a note exactly what it will sound like (you know how your tone changes in every different place you play? - not with this). I love the trem with no play or looseness whatsoever. I love people asking how the %$@# I do something when it's just a trem that stays in tune while it moves.

I compared it to a Modulus Graphite Blacknife (Stat body, graphite nec midi controller). Glad I chose the Steinberger.

1990 GL2T 24 frets Square body, all graphite, EMG pickups. Black color, Trans trem tremelo, lap rest, Steinberger strap, gig bag.

Sounds like bird shit. I was going frantic with my EQ trying to dial in a tone that wouldn't shatter glass or tear my cabinet speakers in half from all the midrange and treble. What kind of sounds can this guitar make? Souns that are capable of attracting the neihborhood dogs and cats. Man, I really shucked out the lute for this pricey instrument. I showed up at rehersal ready to impress. Joke was on me, fellas. Guess it doen't help matters any that the guitar has EMGs in it. Awful, awful sound.

All was good with the finish. Neck is straight, tremelo works excellent. Stays in tune very well. Very rugged guitar. The volume and tone controls are cheesey looking. Aside from a cool shape, nothing grand to look at. Black neck, black body, black hardware. Perfect for playing at a funeral. Oh yeah, the neck is friggin tine. My fingers explosed trying to get them into the frets.

I guess it would hold up. I didn't have mine for long. I ditched it in favor of a Jackson Solist.

I've been playing for 23 years. This was an impulse purchase. I wanted the Jackson, but got this at the last minute. Bad move. After the appeal of the body style wears off, you're left with a guitar that sounds like something from Walmart. Fortunately, I sold mine and got a bundle for it. I had enough to buy another guitar and an 8 track recorder. God bless all you Steinberger fans.

Hmm, not sure of the year. It's the Gibson era. Black "boat oar" body with 1 EMG hum in bridge and two EMG singles. Push button operation for selecting pickups. Graphite neck and phenolic fretboard. Trans Trem tremelo. 24 frets, ect.....

I play a wide variety of music. I teach guitar as well. Everyday i'm doing something different. I'm an 80's child, so I like to rock it out with all the bands that were big in that era. In addition, I like the acoustic rock movement such as Dave Matthews and John Mayer. I've been known to perform in jazz bands and even some blues occassionaly. This guitar covered all those styles but did none of them well, sad to report. There's so much to like about this instrument: The size: The looks: The incredible Trans-Trem: and attention to detail and complex engineering that I couldn't possibly understand. All these details made me want to love this guitar but tone is tone and if the guitar doesn't have it, then what can you do? Change the pickups? No, I'm not into hacking up expensive instruments and lowering their retail value. Everything sounded tinny and trebly on this guitar. There's absolutely no way around it. Listen to artists that record with this guitar and there's no mistaken it. I kept it around for two years but found myself using it less and less. The sound just wasn't there. I won't rate this a 1, it deserves better than that, but can't go any higher than a 4.

The construction of the instrument was flawless. Don't let the Gibson name scare you off. Straight neck, perfectly crowned frets, great action, flawless finish. It had it all. I can't complain about the craftsmanship. 10 all the way.

Very, very durable. We all heard the stories. If you're the kind of person who likes to leave your guitar leaning up against something or laying on the floor, than this guitar is for you. You can drop it, kick it, punch it, and possibly torch it, and it will still perform.

N/A

I've been playing for 19 years and teach as well. Everything about this guitar is remarkable and unique. However, there is no warmth to the tone whatsoever. It was heartbreaking to part with this guitar but I had to come to grips with it. I currently play a Parker Fly and I'm very impressed it. Can't say enough about that company. If you like the sound of wood, then the Steinberger may not be for you. The GM series have wood bodies, but they are hard maple (which may as well be graphite) Buy it for looks, buy it for life, but don't buy it for tone. I still give it a good rating becuase I admire Ned's design ambition.

This is an "Elite" model, whatever that means. Made in 1991 in Newburgh, NY. I know this because it came with a cute little certificate signed by Ned himself.

24-fret, rectangular body, HH EMG 85, 3-way switch, Trans-Trem. The faceplate is designed to be easily swapped--ingenious. There's a lap rest that swings out on the bottom for playing while sitting--another thoughtful feature.

The neck is, for me, the ultimate shape. I compare all other guitar necks to this one. It's substantial like a Les Paul, but easier to play.

What makes this guitar great is the Trans-Trem. Once you get it set up right, you can drop up and down and lock into tunings. You can dive-bomb chords and all the strings move relatively (?). It's an amazing thing. NOTE: The Trans-Trem calibration instructions that came with my Steinberger were incorrect. A friend told me the right way to do it. I set it up right 10 years ago, and it's stayed pefect ever since!

OTHER NOTE: The Trans-Trem will only stay in tune with LaBella calibrated strings. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

I play many musical styles, and I hate to say it, but this guitar is limited. You can't expect to get a rich, deep, woody sound out of a teeny little piece of graphite resin. No matter how you process it, it still sounds a little thin.

That being said, the limitations are not as great as I expected when I bought it. For hard rock and metal, and with the right amp (high-gain tube), this thing is scary. I recorded with a Rivera combo and the sound was full and heavy.

It's a very quiet guitar with a consistent output, thanks to the EMGs. No dead spots, no surprises--the sound is as solid as the material the guitar is made of.

Action was set up nicely. Intonation in the locked position was fine, but the Trans-Trem needed to be re-calibrated.

There were no flaws on this guitar. It'd take a chisel to flaw this mofo.

I have seriously abused this guitar. I used it for 9 years in a heavy experimental rock band. I would slam it on the ground, use it as a bludgeon, and cause general mayhem with it and it NEVER EVEN WENT OUT OF TUNE.

The gig bag it came with long ago bit the big one. I had Mooradian bags make me a new one.

I recently painted the face of the guitar and nothing melted. Cool.

I e-mailed Ned Steinberger himself a few times to ask him about Trans-Trem setup. He responded quickly and politely. Mine is not a Gibson model, thank god, but I suspect that Ned would answer Gibson owners as well.

I've been playing for 22 years and have owned and played many guitars. I bought the Steinberger to have one guitar that I knew would outlast me and that I could pass on to my children.

If this guitar were lost or stolen, I would not buy another. I am more picky about sound these days. Maybe if Ned were still building them...

I love its near-indestructability, I really love the Trans-Trem. The neck shape is perfect.

I don't totally love the thinness of the sound.

Since I got this guitar, I've bought others. Even though my Music Man and my G&L have godlike tone, I still whip out the Steinberger every now and then and am always pleasantly surprised at the sound and feel.

I bought this guitar in Las Vegas in 1994 on my second trip to the
USA .On my first trip I searched almost all the guitar shops in Florida but no luck.On my second trip landed in San Francisco and
searched all the shops between there and Las Vegas where I got lucky.
Made a deal with the shop owner to swop the standard pick-ups for
3 SeymoreDuncan's (PearlyGates in neck/SS1 middle/JeffBeck bridge)
he allowed me the use of his workshop to remove the EMG's.
I fitted the new pick-ups on returning home to UK.
This involved cutting the top to fit the single coil in the middle position.I rewired to two three-way mini toggle switches and one
volume with pull switch.This allows me to get all combinations of
the pick-ups but I only use two i.e. one coil of the neck p/u
with the middle and the bridge full hummbucking on it's own.
The rest of the guitar is standard and is set up for near perfect
Transtrem use (but never is).The finish is very durable and the guitar
still looks like new after six years of regular use. When gigging I
never take anything other than spare strings and I have never had to
change a string at a gig. Rating of 9 due to EMG p/u's.

I use the GL2t for local dance/cabaret work in a live with backing track duo doing top 20 chart covers from 60's to now. It does all asked of it which is mainly strat type rhythm and hummbucker overdriven lead sounds with a little clean country style double string lead sounds. The only complaint is that on the clean lead/
rhythm sounds it can be a little sterile sounding.After recently
seeing Ed Romans web page I am considering making a wooden front
cover to try and get a more organic feel.In a recording situation
at home all is fine. The guitar has been used live thro' a Boss
ME-10 direct to PA but I recently bought A Digitec Rp2000 but
it's too soon to make a judgment on that.( I'll let you know)

I set up the guitar after the p/u replacement (I do guitar-tek work for a local music shop),and the guitar adjusted perfectly to my requirements ever since. All parts are as new and there are no signs
of crrosion on any of the metal components.The guitar gets regular
but not over fussy cleaning.

The action is low and easy ,the trem system
stays in tune after moderate use,the overall tuning can go with
no adjustment for up to 3 weeks(5-6 gigs) The tone seems to stay in the strings for a long time and I have had only three sets on it
in 6 years.Nothing has changed on the guitar from it's first set up
even inntonation setting is not altered.

I have had no reason to seek customer support.
I have had trouble finding out where I could buy another.

I have been playing for 32 years and over this period I have collected
the following:
Gibson SG junior 1963 bought in 1971
Fender Strat (Jap) bought in Florida 1992
Guild D45 acoustic 1985
Gordon Smith(uk) 2p/u solid 1982
Hofner Galaxie 1968
Hohner Steinberger bass copy 1989
If my GL2T was lost I would have to replace it. It does all I
all I need and is so easy to carry to gigs.

Made circa 1990's in Nashville at Gibson/Steinberger plant. 24 frets plus zero fret (no nut). One-piece polymer graphite epoxy resin composite material body/neck construction. Bolt-on composite face plate (holds pickups and controls). Phenolic 25 fingerboard. Gloss black gel coat finish.

One volume, one tone, one three position pickup selector. Two EMG-85 active humbucking pickups (require 9 volt battery). Passive electronics (no HAZ labs active board - this was an option).

TransTrem transposing vibrato. Steinberger double-ball micrometer tuning system.

Neck scale = 25.5 inches. Exact same scale as a Gibson Les Paul including overall scale and neck width.

Gig bag, cable, strap, and TransTrem allen wrench included.

Phenomenal instrument of essentially limitless potential. Perfect for all of the music I play (rock, fusion, soundtrack, etc.).

I've used this guitar with Lab L5's, Fender Twins, Mesa 50 calibers, Hartley Thompson's, Pearce's, Line 6 POD's and Yamaha amps. Works perfectly with all of them. Almost no noise to speak of... the EMG's take care of that.

Guitar has a very linear output characteristic. Extremely controllable with a simple set of controls. Bright and sharp to deep and booming. Perfect for recording.

Being that the unit is hollow, it takes on the characteristics of an ES-335 at times. The unit really sings and resonates as you might not think it would.

I always set the guitars up myself. I've never bought a guitar that was properly setup at the factory.

Fit and finish are good, but this unit is essentially a screwdriver. Utility is everything; finish takes a back seat.

Guitar is like a little tank. But, unlike some people seem to think, they are not indestructable. The fingerboard can be marred by abuse. Bodies can crack if dropped too hard. Trem hardware should be wiped down periodically - especially if you're in a damp climate.

Overall, unit is very, very dependable. I have gigged without a backup many times.

Non-existent.

I have four GL2T's. (Two with built in Roland synth guts.) I've had the two GL2TGR's for a long time - and was looking for two more GL's to work with. Now that I have them, I'm getting rid of almost all of my other electric guitars.

This guitar has everything I need in an instrument. They are incredible.

This GL-2T is one of the first "real" transtrem Steinbergers. It is solid graphite.Square body, hollow boat style. The original EMG"s had to go immediately!!!!! Replaced with Ultrasonics handwound by their inventor, "Bill Laurence". Any good passive pickup makes these guitars come alive. This guitar has one volume with integrated series-parallel push-pull switch, and an EMG-EXG active loudness control, or midrange cut, in placo of the standard tone control. The transtrem is great, but has to be tweaked with every string change. That is because of poor quality control by string manufacturers. Each double-ball string should be an exact length as required by Steinberger. D'Addario comes closest to that standard.Transtrem allows guitar to stay in tune throughout tremolo travel, with the bonus of locking into transposed keys instantly. You can also lock into standard for better double string bending. You can change strings and be playing in 3 minutes flat.

I think this guitar suites all styles. I even play classical on it. It truly is the most ergonomic design ever. Easy to play in all positions, on strap or with leg rest built in. I have owned almost every other guitar, including an old Les Paul 1958, which was not as great as people think. Always requiring neck heatpress to remove a bow. The Graphite is always consistent with the Steinberger. You never have to adjust the neck, it never changes.This guitar gives you the pure string sound, uncolored and consistent on every note. All notes sustain equally well. As Holdsworth put it, "I have more control than I've ever had with the little Steinberger." But as we all know, he changes guitars all the time. Yet the steinberger has stayed longer than any other in the various forms he owns. A "wood Man" actually singing praises of graphite. If you want to hear this guitar, just listen to Holdsworth's "Secrets" CD. I use some of the same etuff that he uses. Well, A Boogie DC-3 etc.

The action is great, was great, and will always be great.My only complaint is that the finish could use another clear, gell coat. In other words, the finish could be better for a 2400.00 guitar.

This is the most durable, reliable guitar made. You could run over it and it would still be in tune, suffering only cosmetic damage. My son knocked it over several times without a scratch. Van Halen always has one at gigs in case of other guitars failing. I've seen him grab the Steinberger when his other breaks a string, or when he wants to fly around the stage. This guitar will last forever barring a direct Nuke hit.

Debbie is very helpful, at Steinberger, That is when Gibson isn't moving them from facility to facility. STEINBERGER IS NOT GONE, THEY ARE SIMPLY RETOOLING FROM THE MOST RECENT GIBSON MOVE!!!!!!!.

30 YEARS!!!!! I own lots of other gear. I would buy another one, but it took 2 years to find this one at an affordable price.

Made in New York in the 80's, this one is made before Gibson bought the company. This is the small, canoe paddle looking plastic Steinberger, not the bolt-on neck one. This one has the ultra-cool 'TransTrem' which can transpose the tuning up & down. This one has 2 EMG 85 pickups. Most of the other parts are proprietary Steinberger parts. 25.5 scale, 6105 frets. A totally unique guitar with unique features.

Well, it takes a while to get a decent sound from these, because of the construction and active pickups. All I can say that it's DIFFERENT, almost like a wah stuck on using the lead pickup. The neck pickup is OK, but lacks the dynamics of passive pickups. After using it for a while, I have decided to take the active pickups out, and try Duncan AH1B's, like what Allan Holdsworth used during his Steinberger days. The jury is still out on this one...

Looks well made, in fact when Steinbergers were initially realeased at their first NAMM show, they dropped them on the floor repeatedly as a demonstration of durability and tuning stability. Good fretwork, too. Plays really good. Finish (gel coat?) is rock hard.

See above. Always have a backup axe.

Gibson shut down Steinberger, so there is no customer support.

Been playing almost 20 years. I have 2 Steinbergers, so if one gets ripped off, I have a spare! I dig the transtrem, and the compact size is nice for traveling. The only really bad thing is that you are forced to use an angled plug cord, or else it will poke in your gut. The tone is different than most guitars, let's say non-traditional. It's not bad, just different & unique. It doesn't sound like a LP or a Strat. EMG's are a love/hate deal, I dislike them, so I'm putting Duncans in it. I suppose the only guitar you could compare it to is a Parker, because of its total non-traditional approach, though it is vastly different. A lot of people make fun of Steinbergers, but then again, people made fun of the Broadcaster back in the early '50's. It isn't a guitar for everybody, that's for sure. If you want to be different than the crowd, this might be the way to go.