Steinberger Spirit GT Pro

The specs on this guitar have been already given by numerous reviewers.

As many other reviewers have commented, the "Designed by EMG" Select pickups are pretty lame. However, considering that a set of high-quality p.u.'s would cost more than the entire guitar, it's hard to be too critical. There is a fairly decent variety of sounds in the five pickup options though I find the neck only and bridge only positions to be the ones I like best. The volume control, on this particular guitar, while operating cleanly (no scratching, etc.)its not smooth in terms of range. It is quite difficult to make subtle changes in volume and it seems to offer little more than on all the way or off.

Unbelievable that a $250 guitar has this level of quality. Setup was remarkably good, fit and finish seem well above the price. Slight action adjustment and intonation were the only adjustments required.
The routed cavity on the back was very intersting. Screws very tight and true; cavity very clean. Wiring shielded. Sheilding tape on back of cavity cover. Helps to explain why guitar is so quiet.

The overall guitar seems to be well built and seems like it would last. Since I've only had it a couple of weeks time will tell. The strap buttons, while solid, should probably be replaced with locking ones. The body of the guitar does some weird things when you stand with it, and it would take little to make a strap come undone. Seated, with the leg brace open, the guitar is as solid as a rock.

No need for customer support yet. The ordering process was as easy as could be (via Internet @ www.musicyo.com. Since this guitar cost only $250 and I have some fairly competent setup and repair skills, I'll probably fix any problems myself.

I've been playing for about 30 years. Guitars (in addition to Steinberger): 1972 Martin D-18; 70s-era metal Dobro; 70s-era Fender Musicmaster; 90s-era Fender Strat Plus. Amp: Silverface Fender Reverb. I also have a small home studio (minidisk). I bought the Steinberger sight unseen (and unplayed) primarly for use as an office/travel guitar and for the infrequent free improvisation gig but its great tremolo and cool looks are causing me to rethink that decision. I'll probably leave it at work during the week but take it home on weekends. If it were stolen or lost, I'd get another in a minute. I love the Steinberger looks, the tremolo, the price. I don't like the pickups (which few who buy this guitar seem to like). I've always wanted a Steinberger but really couldn't justify the (up until recently) huge expense. I would have to agree with most of the other reviewers here -- if this guitar seems to be what you want, it's hard to go wrong. There's even a 30-day return policy. If the "boat oar" shape doesn't appeal to you, I'd take a good look at the other Spirit models. I wouldn't be suprized if the price goes up on these bargain instruments.

Since this guitar hs several reviews, I thought it would be more useful to provide a direct comparison to this guitars expensive counterpart, the all carbon graphite blend, Steinberger GL.

As an owner of three graphite GL's, and previous uneducated snob about the Spirit series of guitars, I can honestly tell you now, that the low cost wooden Spirit series feels and sounds much better than their graphite cousins. While graphite is a good material for building basses, (I own two XL's which I love), graphite is lousy for solid body guitars. Wood is much more resonant than graphite and allows the entire frequency spectrum to resonate throughout the guitar body as it's being played. Graphite only resonates with the lower frequencies, ommiting the nuances of individual notes and technique.
Steinberger (Gibson) tries to compensate for the lousy tonal characteristics of graphite by using active EMG pickups. This helps a little, but IMHO, active EMGs have no character or tone. Very boring pickups.

There is still quite a buzz about the TransTrem transposing tremelo. I personally prefer the R-Trem on the Spirit models. Here's why...The TransTrem (TT) is a sustain killer. There are too many moving parts for the string vibrations to transmit through. Add this to the poor resonance of graphite and you've got a guitar with not much sustain. While transposing is a cool idea, it's pretty useless unless your whole band transposes with you. Also, the loose string tension leaves the guitar pretty unplayable except for sloppy strumming (and grunge is dead! Thank God!) The TT locks in place, but can accidently be knock out of the locked position. The R-Trem can't. The TT can not be used as a standard tremelo. It does not accurately return to picth. The R-Trem works perfectly. It's a vast improvement over the TTrem.
One thing that's better about the GL is the original gig bag. It's much better than the cheapo they ship with the Spirit line. You can order an original GL gig bag at most Gibson dealers.

Bought used on ebay for $200.

Year made: Don't know.

Where made: Korea.

Body:
Solid, maple, white satin finish. Paddle shape. R-Trem bridge (don't over-tighten the saddle set screws or the stainless steel screw will strip the threads from the aluminium bridge).

Controls: One volume, one tone, five-way pickup selector.

Pickups: H-S-H
I replaced the original Selects with EMG-89 (bridge) EMG SA, and EMG-85 (neck). The passive Selects are fine provided their output is run through an onboard preamp; however my GU Select has this installation and I wanted something different on the GT Pro. The active EMGs turned the GT Pro into a fully acceptable professional quality guitar. Ensure the electronics are well grounded or the volume pot generates a scratchy noise when turned. Also, the cavity is very tight and only just allows for the installation of the battery required for the pickups with a little bulge in the cavity cover.

As modified this guitar is good for hard rock, fusion and jazz. The guitar is used with a Crate VC5310 tube amp and a Lab L-5. It sounds much better through the Crate than the Lab, though the latter needs some work anyway. No noise from active EMG pickups. I spent about $240 and one day on the pickup replacement.

Guitar was very well finished; no flaws worth mentioning. Composite fretboard on maple neck.

Guitar is very well constructed, but unlike its fully composite relatives, cannot be used as a baseball ball more than once.

Not relevant.

I would replace this guitar if lost, though probably with a graphite model as I have not played around with one of those yet. The GT Pro is an excellent guitar, particularly if you are willing to either add an onboard preamp for the Selects, or replace the Selects with more powerful pickups. The Selects have good tone but not enough output for me.

I am happy to answer questions to aspects of this guitar not addressed in this review.

This is the $249 special from MusicYo. The other reviews list the features. I bought the guitar to keep in the car for quick practice sessions and as a travel guitar. Came with an adequate gig bag and is small enough to stuff in an overhead bin on an airplane.

The guitar sound pretty good when playing high gain music but less so for jazz oriented stuff. I'm used to the sound of an archtop so my review is perhaps unfair. Frankly, I don't care all that much about its since this guitar is a convenience item for me rather than a main axe. It certainly sounds good enough to practice with in a hotel room.

I have to tell you that I'm amazed at the overall quality of this piece. I expected to be dissapointed in the guitar since I bought it without ever having played one. I figured it was cheap and I could unload it if I didn't like it. It looked to be a much better solution to my problem than the "travel guitars" I'd seen.

It needed to be set up and the neck is chunkier than I like (think old Gibson 175), but after spending some time with the bridge and truss rod, it plays quite nicely. It has no flaws that I can find, is finished very nicely, the frets don't need attention, and everything works. There's nothing about this guitar that says "cheap" to me. It seems nicely made and plays well.

Jeez... It's a big, solid, piece of wood. It's a great travel guitar because it plays decently and is sturdy enough to use as a defensive weapon in the seedier areas of some towns I travel to. Other than electronics problems, I can't imagine having a problem with it but since I've only had it for about 4 months, who knows?

I use it as my backup guitar in case my archtop dies. I can just imagine playing Stella on this thing...

I have no clue.

I primarily play jazz. Obviously, it's not designed as a jazz axe but as a travel guitar for a jazz player, I think it ranks pretty high. The only major complaint I have about it is the shape of the body. Since there is no upper bout, there's no place for me to rest my right forearm and this can get a little uncomfortable. While the fold out knee support works very well, I keep a strap permanently attached to it and that minimizes the problem somewhat. It might be worthwhile to check out the other Steinberger model that MusicYo sells that has a fuller body. It might be less travel ready, but it might also be more comfortable. I'm thinking of making some kind of "bout extension" that attaches with Velcro and fits into the gig bag. The guitar is very useable the way it is so I'm in no huge hurry.

It works very nicely as a travel guitar - no worries about protecting a delicate archtop, no hassles about bringing it on board and no hauling a full size guitar around in addition to one's luggage. It also plays fine, sounds acceptable and is cheap.

I find myself pulling it out periodically just to play it because it's such a cool, funky little guitar. It makes me smile whenever I open the bag.

For the price, I think this thing is a great value.

Bought new in July of 2000. This is the boat paddle model. Nice big frets, whammy bridge, fold-away leg rest. No point in going into the material specs....just read the other submissions. Mine is black, bridge humbucker, middle single coil, neck humbucker. To me the neck shape is very similar to a Strat (one of seven) I once owned that had a very round back. I really prefer this neck shape on all my guitars.

I play blues and a certain amount of blues-based oldie rock. This giutar can do any job I ask of it. I know people that think EMG Selects are lousey. I don't understand it. They produce a very true sound with plenty of power. Like other guitarists of my generation, I have tried all but a couple of the aftermarket pickups out there and these rank well with the best out there. Sure they're cheap.....lucky us! Another reviewer said the guitar sounds sort of like a Strat. He's right, it's real close, but these pickups are so good you miss out on the strange harmonics and "gurgle" you get out of cheap Fender pickups, if that's important to you (and for God's sake don't waste your money on "Texas Specials". The Mexican Strat pickups are more like old Fender pickups than anything else they sell. True!)

These Koreans! What great finishes they are capable of applying. Fit and finish of this guitar is excellent...of course ther is no inlay or binding, just black paint. The Whammy bridge may just be the very best you can have, at ANY price. I have never had a better one. The fact that it locks puts it way ahead of Floyd's. There is no fret buzzing, but I play 10's and that makes a difference. My only complaint is the location of the 5-way switch. I try to stay away from pickup changes during a song because I just can't flip the thing there between the volume and tome knobs. Just can't get to it quick enough.

Seems bullet-proof.

No need for customer support on this one. Maybe some day I'll need them.

$249 to my door, and it got here three days before I expected it! I have a Les Paul (my third), an ESP pre-lawsuit Vintage '65 (strat style), Gibson Victory (great neck, crappy Kahler), and I honestly don't see how they can sell this Stenberger for this low price. It's unbelievable the quality you're getting (they raised the price on 10/2/2000 to $259)for the money. I bought a Floyd Rose tailpiece when they first came out and paid $219 just for a tailpiece. Think about it! This is the perfect travel guitar for a person who plays the 25 1/2" scale. It says in tune and sounds vey good. Consider all the garbage guitars available out there in the $250 range. It's just NO CONTEST.

5 way strat style pickup switching, EMG Select HSH configuration. Proprietary R-Trem bridge which is super cool. The guitar uses double ball strings. People freak out when they see this guitar. It looks like a little spaceship. It's a tiny little rectangle with no headstock. Black finish & hardware. Maple body/neck, rosewood fingerboard. The neck is pretty fast, I find it very comfortable.

The guitar sounds okay acoustically. It's not an extremely full sound, but it's not anemic either. The EMGs sound fine, for a lot of people they'll be great. I prefer more of an organic sound, I've got Duncan pickups on the way to replace them. The bridge position has a lot of chunk, for those huge distorted metal riffs. The neck position is a balanced, broad spectrum kind of sound. When clean, it almost jazzy sounding as far as harmonic content, except there's not really any natural compression so it ends up a little brittle to my ears. With a lot of gain, Santanaish sounds can be gotten. The middle 3 positions are nearly useless to me. They really lack presence and have a noticable drop in ouput when switch from the bridge or neck alone.

The guitar was set up pretty well. It came strung with 9s which really detracts from the sound. I recommend using 11s, or at least 10s. There was a slight amount of fret buzz at a few different places on the neck. A truss rod adjustment helped out, but there's still a little buzz. It's not bad enough to warrant a fret dressing ($) though. The finish is great, the general workmanship is absolutely outstanding for an instrument this price.

It seems to be reliable. I've jammed/brought it to practice a few times and it's been fine. This guitar holds it's tuning better than any guitar I have EVER played. If for some reason I needed to gig without a backup, I would feel comfortable doing it (after I install the new pickups anyway). Break a string and you can have a new one on and tuned up in less than 2 minutes. I won't give it higher than an 8 since I haven't really abused it (yet).

Gibson? You can forget about it.

Been playing about seven years. Currently have an Ampeg SuperJet-50t, Line 6 POD, a couple of project electric guitars, Fender 12 string acoustic, old Kay nylon string, and plenty of junk. In the past have owned Gibson, peavey & fender amps

For the money, I give this guitar a 10. Unbelievable value. But compared to high end instruments (think PRS, custom shop Gibson & Fender, etc) I would give it a 6 (which is a good rating even though people throw around perfect 10s like crazy here). Upgrade the pickups and it's a 7.

The main feature that sold me on this guitar was the compact design. I wanted a traveling guitar that I could carry on planes and easily hide in my car if I made any stops on a way to a practice jam. It has a maple body, rosewood fretboard, DH/S/DH that sound good and of course the patented R-trem roller tremolo.

The GT Pro has a good clean sound. I like to play blues/rock stuff and the sound leans more towards rock. The range of sounds that I can get from this is about 75% of what I can get out of my strat(the strat costs 3 times as much). It doesn't howl as easily and there are certain nuances that aren't there, nor did I expect them to be. Overall the sound greatly exceeded my expectations. It gets a 10 for that reason.

The guitar is clean and workmanship seems excellent. Except for correcting a minor buzzing on the low E, the setup was excellent. Everything seemed clean and intelligently designed. The action is low and very easy to play.

This feels solid and well built. I don't forsee any durability problems.

Bought it through musicyo.com and they have responsed quickly to the questions I have had.

I've been playing about a 1 1/2 years. I've had 2 electric guitars and this is my third. My main guitar is a Fender Lonestar Strat which is awesome. This GT Pro is an awesome guitar as well, not on par with my Lonestar, but still awesome. I like the balanced feel, the ease of playing it, from the moment I put it on it felt and played great. For what it is and the reason for buying it, the GT Pro gets a no brainer 10. I may get another one, in case I lose it.

Bought this 2000 model from Musicyo.com. I've read most of the reviews up here and wanted to add a few "items" that I didn't see posted by anyone else. Fisrt, I agree with everyone on the quality of the instrument. I have been playing for 13 years and have owned many guitars including Fender Strats, Gibson LP's, Carvins, Ibanez and others too numerous to list. For the money you simply can not beat the quality of this instrument. With that said, please allow me to get picky on a few items (see below).

The EMG Select Pickups are a little thin and weak sounding, however noise is very low (even with my Metal Zone equipped Boss ME-X cranked all of the way up). I understand the middle single coil comes from the factory in an "out of phase" configuration. This was a nice touch....at least for me, because I always change the phasing of middle pickup of any guitar I buy, so that it is out of phase (lends to a quackier sound in second and fourth positions).

The R-Trem bridge is a great concept, but simply put, it is a sustain killer. Use the Wammy and lose mucho sustain. True it stays in tune, but your string sustain disappears......ya just cant beat a good ol "knife edge" trem system for sustain. Also, with the trem setup from the factory there is very little upward play (unlike a floyd) which means you won't be able to bend the trem back for upward pitch inflection. Also, I'm no Luthier.....but what's up with the "double ball" string system? Yes I understand it helps with tuning stability, however why not incorporate a lock similar to the Floyd Rose system so you can use regular strings on the guitar? The double ball strings are not easy to find in many music stores, so if you take this baby on the road you had better bring along a good supply of strings. This would also allow the manufacture to do away with the flimsy rubber skirting that is supposed to hold the strings in place when you are yanking on the whammy bar. Only problem I see here is that the flimsy rubber skirt (not much different than a rubber band) is going to rot and break in a few years. Then you have a chance of the string falling right out of the head stock when using the whammy. C'mon Gibson....you can't seriously expect that little piece of rubber to last more than three or four years, do you? One last item. Who the heck test drove this thing before it went into production? The volume pot is right smack in the way when you play the guitar. This is my biggest issue with this guitar, as my pinky ends up moving the volume pot half the distance of it's play within 3 or 4 minutes of playing.

Gig bag was a bit on the flimsy side....but hey, what ya want for "free"??!! I wouldn't say the phrase "tune it up once and forget it until you change strings" as is advertised on the MusicYo site is completely accurate, however, tuning was fairly stable, even when yanking on the whammy bar. The trem can also be locked into place.....a nice touch for an axe so cheap.

Never dealt with them.....but suspect I will when that head skirting breaks. I had a real positive experience with the distributor www.musicyo.com and would recommend them to anyone who is in the market for music gear.

OK....gripe session over (I feel better now). Seriously, overall it's probably one of the best deals out there. Like some of the other reviewers I purchased this little axe as a backup, and in many gigs I now use it as my primary guitar.

I was wondering what happened to Steinberger after they ostensibly went belly up. I was suspicious when I saw the Ad go by. What can you possibly get for US$250.00? But I was looking for something small to carry around at the pool and on vacations so I decided to take a chance. I had a ?real? composite Steinberger in the past so I?m in a reasonably good position to compare the two. Naturally, to avoid instant divorce action, I have to store it with the other products of GAS in my office.

It's the boat oar Steinberger redux, one piece wood with 24 rosewood frets. I don?t use a trem and the action seems to lock securely without it. There is a little flap of plastic that retracts under the instrument to stabilize it while playing on your lap. It works surprisingly well for as hokey as it looks. Balance with a standard strap is OK but the neck strap fitting twists in an awkward fashion.. The neck feels like a baseball bat but is otherwise comfortable, wide and flat. The instrument ?sits? up against the amp solidly and does not require a stand. The gig bag is sturdy.

I play it in my office through a ?64 Vox AC10, with a Big Muff pedal. Nearby office dwellers pound the wall with equal indignity as with my previous Strat, suggesting it?s plenty loud enough. The passive EMG pickups sound great to my ear. The tone knob takes a little of the edge off but otherwise doesn?t do much. I like the action fairly low and I found it a bit difficult as each string must be adjusted separately. The ?instructions? on how to do anything were composed by drunken infants and impossible to figure out. Trial and error is the rule.

The paint and trim are immaculate. All the hardware is stamped ?licensed by Steinberger? and appears to be superficially identical to the old Trans-Trem, but I believe the original H-s-H configuration EMG pickups have been scaled back to cut cost (passive rather than active). The old Steinie fretboard was ebony.This one is rosewood with a neck rod adj on the tip of the headstock. The action hardware appears to fit well but subjectively not as ?solid? as the original. They might be creatively pressed Russian beer cans and I wouldn't be able to tell. Time will tell if they start to bend or warp.

It seems solid enough to me and may be a very worthwhile backup of your main axe is eaten by horny barflies in the middle of your stirring solo.

Yo-Music did what they said what they were going to do with no hassle. Otherwise I have had no interaction with them

I am pleased with the tone, balance and feel for the money. However, it is unlikely that it will find a big use as a main gigging instrument. Barflies are attracted to big massive things, not things with no head. It is, however, very well suited for practicing and playing along to CDs in more or less confined spaces. Fits well in overhead compartments and doesn?t have too much sticking out in harms way. I don?t think I have seen anything in it?s league (quality-wise) for the money.

I guess this guitar is a 2000 model, it's got 24 medium (I think) frets, Master volume and tone controls, a 5-way switch, maple body with a gloss black finish, 3 EMG select pickups, 1 single coil squeezed between 2 humbuckers which are supposed to be able to be split for single coil sounds. There could be alot of interesting pickup combinations in this guitar.

I'm a bluesy kind of player, meaning no matter what style I play, it has a blues tint to it. Out of the box I found the 5 pickup combinations to be OK at best. The 1st position was fine, neck pickup only, the 2nd position was for me totally unusable, too mumbled with no string definition and no strat quack what so ever. The 3rd position was OK for me, the typical middle single coil sound. The 4th was OK too, typical 4th position strat with a fair amount of quack with good string definition, and the 5th position was also good, bridge humbucker. I did some homework and switched 2 wires on the 5-way switch, the middle and bridge pickups and this replaced the 2nd position combination to neck and bridge humbuckers. So now we have 1st, neck alone, 2nd neck and bridge humbuckers, 3rd bridge alone, 4th, bridge and middle and 5th middle alone. What a difference, it seemed to brighten up the whole guitar, gives good middle and bass and 5 very usable combinations. I give it a 5 before and a 9 after the
change.

Fairly good out of the box, I tuned it up and fooled with the trem
system a little and away I went. I knew I was going to put 10,s on it
soon, so I didn't really do a major set up on it then. The 10's and a
setup made a real difference in the feel of the guitar. The neck even
feel better, especially now that the strings don't mush under my
fingers. The black finisk is real thin around the trem system, actually down to bare wood.

Seems pretty tough, finish and hardware seem good enough. Stap
buttons seem adequate, I don't throw my guitars around alot, so I've
never needed strap locks. With my luck, I never use anything without
a backup.

Don't know, musicyo has a 30 day satisfaction clause, but no mfgr
warranty was implied.

I've been playing for about 35 years, had Gibsons, Fenders, Epi's and
some no name others, and this guitar rates with the best I've owned.
The neck is perfect for me, slightly round and chunky with a flat
fretboard. Electronics sound really good now, it has a nice balanced
feel to it, and is a great bang for your buck. This is my second spirit, I also have a GU deluxe. I gig solely with these two guitars and am thoroughly pleased.