Product: Steinberger GP4T
Price Paid: US $1200 used
Submitted
11/30/2005
at
03:35pm
by
Phil
Features
:
10
1986 ish Newburgh NY made. N3513. 24 frets. Graphite neck, maple body. 1 tone, 1 volume, 5 way switch. Active S/S/H EMGs. Transtrem. Black gloss finish with laminated pickguard.Tatty gigbag.
Sound
:
10
I play rock. Rush, Zeppelin type stuff and for this it is awesome. I also have a 75 Les Paul custom which is good for this stuff, but the Steinberger is better. A Strat it is not, but it does have a decent single coil tone and as such I will use it as a replacement for both Gibson and Fender. It suits my old Vox V15 very well which warms up the tone a treat. The body is almost totally hollow under the big pickguard and it has great sustain. The EMGs are bright, quiet and have a great range of tones. Awesome straight into the Vox for lead distortion .I gotta give it a 10
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
10
I got it off eBay and it was filthy and looked neglected. The strings were red rusty. It played well enough though and was reasonably set up. I tweaked the pups and action to my liking in no time. After a few hours polishing and cleaning it came up remarkably well. It is clearly a high quality instrument to restore so well after such neglect. The neck has no truss rod and is perfect. There is minor fret wear but nothing that is a problem. It is only fair to rate it after It had been sorted out so it gets a 10 - It would have been a 6 as it arrived from eBay.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
It has survived a hard life so far by the look of it when I got it. It will last. Ill keep the Gibson as a back up.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Dont know.
Overall Rating
:
10
I have played for 30 years. Have a Black 75 Les Paul Custom, Mex strat, Ovation, etc, etc. Vox amp,
The GP is excellent. The transtrem is brilliant. It does all I want. I bought it because I tried a Spirit and that impressed me apart from the tone.
There is nothing I dont like.
If you see one, try it. You wont be disappointed.
Product: Steinberger GP4T
Price Paid: US $750 used
Submitted
02/26/2005
at
08:54am
by
christopher trull
Features
:
10
it was made in the USA, at the Newburgh factory (pre-Gibson). the serial # is N4513. it has 24 frets, a five way pickup selector,, one volume knob, and one tone knob. the pickups (S/S/H) are active EMG's with a passive EQ. it had a black maple body (the mini V style) and a graphite neck. it has the TransTrem bridge, and it uses the calibrated double ball end strings. the neck is slightly narrow and the medium frets are still perfect.
Sound
:
6
this is actually my least favorite part of this guitar. i have a hard time adjusting to the sound of these EMG's (all my other guitars are dual passive humbucker guitars). it usually takes a bit of tweaking for me to be happy with the sound, but once i get it all dialed in, it sounds good. it excels at retaining note definition in higher gain sounds...i find it a bit thin and nasally sounding clean.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
9
this guitar plays better than any other guitar i've ever owned. i think i like it so much because i acan do things on it that i can't do on other guitars. i got it used, so there were a few scratches on the body, but nothing that bothered me.
Reliability/Durability
:
9
this guitar is very durable. one of the (plastic) strap buttons broke, but i replaced it with a standard metal one, and it should last forever.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
i've never dealt with the company (technically the company that made this no longer exists- it's now owned by gibson), but i have nothing bu trespect for Ned
Overall Rating
:
8
i have been playing for thirteen years. i have owned many guitars by all the big names (gibson, fender, gretsch) and some small names (travis bean, kay). this guitar is unique and wonderful. i love the transtrem and the incredible playability of the guitar. i wish it had less sterile sounding pickups in it. i doubt i would get another exactly like it if it were lost or stolen...but i would try to find another unique guitar to fill the void.
