Steinberger Spirit GT Pro

2000, Korean made, Black, HSH, Left Handed, EMG Select Passive Pickups. 24 Frets, thru body maple neck painted the same color as the body. R- Trem equipped, can be locked on the fly for tuning stability. Uses double ball strings. Came with gig bag, tools and instructions.

I am basically a metal player, but play blues when the mood hits me. This guitar is well suited for anything. The EMG Select pickups are very quiet. Tons of sustain. I use a Marshall TSL 122 with a Boss Metal Zone and Morley Bad Horsey Wah Pedal. sounds outstanding. Very compact design, very portable. Very easy to play for long periods of time.

After a little bit of tuining this unit was ready to go. Played very well right out of the box. Finish was flawless. Flawless fretwork. Came with 9's installed on it, they need to be intonated slightly, otherwise perfect.

Tihs guitar could really take a beating. Would prbably be one of the only things around after nuclear war. I can only imagine how tough the Steinies were with the graphite composite body and neck. I initally bought this thing as a backup to a couple of my other guitars, now they are the backups.

Bought form Music YO, excellent Customer Service and they repond to e-mail questions within a day. They are great to work with. I will be a lifelong customer.

Have been playing off and on for 7 yrs. I own a lefty Strat, Tele, Carvin CM 140, Ibanez RG470 and Kramer Striker I recently bought from Music YO. I paly these through a Marshall TSL 122 and Marshall JCM 212. I bought this guitar because I have had this facination with the Steinberger product, but the original Steinies were out of reach cost wise.You can't buy anything that sounds better than this guitar for the money. You could spend three times as much on somthing else and still come up short. Outstanding value!

Black, H-S-H EMG select passive pickups, tremelo, with locking trem, 5 position switch, volume & tone knob. Tremelo handle just slides in easlily, not like old Strats where you have to spin it around forever to get it in. Maple neck, 24 wonderful precision frets. Thick neck, big frets, like a Gibson, but easy to play. This is a great travel axe and primary playing axe as well. It suites many of my needs. It is very light. Why carry more guitar than you have to?

Unbelievable for $250. Nice ring to the bridge pickup, great for rock. Incredible sustain. Neck pickup has great tone for jazz. This is a very versitle guitar. Rock, jazz, country, blues. This may not be the axe if you were a professional artist and need a vintage sound, but is good all around jam guitar. This is a better quality instrument than some of the $500 and up guitars I have owned or played. The spirit GT pro will become my primary guitar. The pickups sound fantastic, but the only thing I wish is that the "out of phase" positions were a little more twangy like a Strat, but I'm not complaining for $250. I love the pickups. No hum, nice and quiet. I play in a church with a large congregation, and the first time I used the guitar, 20 people came up and asked about it. Several people played it and were very impressed. I guarantee www.musicyo.com will get some orders from around here.

When I first took it out of the box, and strummed it once, I knew this not going to be a disappoinment, and it wasn't. The workmanship on the neck is outstanding. Perfectly in tune all the way up the neck. Very precision instrument. Knobs feel good. The workmanship is better than many instruments of higher price. Good quality.

Since I just got it, I don't know how reliable it will be, but it feels like a quality axe.

N/A

I have been playing 25 years off and on. I mostly play contemporary praise music in church, but I like to rock out some, and love jazz. I had a Gibson nighthwawk which I sold. The Steinberger neck reminds me of the Nighthawk neck. I currently play a Mexican Strat with vintage noiseless pickups. The Steinberger will replace the Strat. For effects I have a Boss GT-5 which is OK, just OK. I love the small size of the Steinberger. It is convenient to play anywhere, in bed, in a rocking chair, couch, where ever. Very comfortable. And just flip out the leg on the bottom to hold it on your lap. I also got a Korg Pandora Box PX3(better sounding than the GT-5)(PX3 will become primary effects unit). I just plug it up to the PX3 with head phones, set the drum machine on, and just wail away lying in bed. I work full time, am on the go, and don't enjoy lugging around alot of equipment, plugging in this and that, etc. The Steinberger is a convenient travel guitar with great quality, is very versitle, and sounds good enough to be a primary axe. So I ask you: why carry around more guitar than you have to?

3 Piece headless maple neck through maple wings, 24 fret rosewood fingerboard, 3 pickups (EMG Select) dual/single/dual coil, volume, tone, 5 way selector switch (similar to a Strat), Patented Roller Trem bridge (that you can lock in place for non-tremelo use), double ball end strings, mini leg rest that folds down when not using a strap.

I find the sound to be excellent & versital. I play every kind of music imaginable & the GT-Pro seems to work well for everything. I especially like the mix of a humbucker & single coil pickup. Since the body is maple the tone has a tight sound - much like a Carvin I owned back in the late 70's.

Overall the setup was good - I had to adjust the intonation & the overall tremelo tuning (so it will stay in tune whether you have the bridge locked or not) but that only took a few minutes with the supplied allen wrench and my tuner. The guitar has a solid feel & overall quality that I am glad it does (buying things from the internet has been a very positive experience for me). There were a couple of finish bubbles on the side of the rosewood fingerboard, but that is pretty picky of me to even mention them.

This looks & feels like it will be a dependable guitar. I plan to use it most of the time because of its size (I can carry it onboard a plance) and the fact that it sounds very good.

I bought it online & the company was responsive when I had a couple of questions. I've yet to need repair so don't know about that.

I have been playing since 1973 (when I was in highschool). I have at times played professionally, I have owned a recording studio, produced & played on 3 albums, and now enjoy doing background tracks for a Christian Vocal group in my spare time. I have owned Fenders, Gibsons, Carvins, Ibanez', no-names, etc.. I have always wanted a Steinberger guitar (I own a Hohner Steinberger bass copy) so I bought one - I am very satisfied. One feature that would be nice would be split coils on the humbuckers.

This is the classic Steinberger shape guitar (headless, mini-vee), only made in Korea ... 24 frets, maple through-body neck w/rosewood fretboard, solid maple body. I bought it new, so I assume it was mfg'd in late 1999 or early 2000. 5-way selector switch for the 3 passive EMG Select pickups, configured as H-S-H.
The finish is black high gloss ... looks to be nitro. Comes also in white. The neck has the feel of a Les Paul, but a bit thicker. You have to get used to playing a guitar without the headstock ... I find perspective is a little bit off ... you think you're playing the first fret but your actually playing the third. No "nut" ... uses a zero fret and a sort of "bridge" at the end of the neck for the neck-end balls on the strings. No need for a lock/clamp and thus no pinch points.
Includes the Steinberger R-Trem bridge ... locking tremolo. Uses double ball strings. Absolutely, positively stays in tune no matter what you do to it and the tremolo lock with master tuning knob is awesome. It takes some getting used to the tuners at the bridge and they're packed pretty close together, but work great, fine adjustment and pretty easy to get into tune. Takes some additional time to "balance" so it is in tune whether the tremolo is locked or not, but since no tools are required, a lot faster than a floyd-rose locking type setup.
The double ball strings and Steinberger R-Trem bridge make string changes incredibly easy. Not to mention that you can remove and return the same strings without any difficulty (great for adjustments or cleaning/oiling the fretboard). You just drop one string end ball into the head end, drop the other into the bridge, and tune up ... you can change a whole set of strings in less than 5 minutes and no need for wire clippers.
Another nice feature is the lap rest for playing while sitting down. This little "lever" folds out and helps you to perfectly balance the guitar on your lap while sitting.
The whole setup came with gig bag, all the necessary allen wrenches, and an instrument cable. The setup out of the box was almost perfect ... the action was a bit low (some string buzz) and had .010s (I prefer .009s). A quick swap of strings, a quick adjustment to the bridge heights and we're rockin'.
Only two complaints (hense the "9"). (1)is the position of the instrument cable jack ... it's on the bottom of the guitar and with a straight 1/4" connector, it tends to poke you in the thigh or elsewhere (helping you hit those high vocal notes). With a right angle plug, there's no easy way to loop the cable through the strap to relieve some of the strain on the plug. So, I made a small loop with a velcro wire tie, hooked it onto the bottom strap peg and that seems to help a bit. (2) is a standard complaint to all guitar manufacturers ... why not just provide strap locks as standard equipment? Mine are on order and I'll be putting them on as soon as they show up.

Awesome sound. Kind of halfway between a strat and a les paul. The H-S-H and 5-pos switch provide a lot of options. There's a noticeable drop off in volume when using the single coil, but that's to be expected.
I run it through a Hughes & Kettner Cream Machine preamp and into either my Peavey Classic VT (for practice) or into the mixing board. I also have a bank of Boss effects. There's absolutely no noise or buzz at all, even with the single coil.
I really enjoy this guitar!!

Beautifully done out of the box. Inonation was perfect, the action was a bit low so there was some string buzz (-1 point).

Kind of early to know for sure, but it feels and plays solid. I wish it came with strap locks ... I'm always afraid of the neck end strap popping off and snapping the neck (not good for a neck-through guitar!!!). -1 for not providing strap locks.

Don't know.

For the price, how can you go wrong. It competes for my playing time with my '73 Strat and my '74 Les Paul Custom. Sounds almost as good as those more expensive and traditional guitars.
The smaller body and headless neck take some getting used to, but overall, a really easy guitar to play. The only "feature" I don't care as much for (other than the cable jack mentioned above) is that the tremolo is pretty harsh and abrupt. Not much room for fine pitch waivers ... it's kind of all or nothing.

"Classic" Steinberger shape. No headstock. "R-Trem" bridge and tuning system (uses Double Ball strings), locking tremolo. 3 pickup configuration ... passive EMG Select H-S-H, with a 5-pos strat style knife switch. One volume knob, one tone knob. Body and neck are both maple, thru-body neck design. Strap pegs on each "wing" end, so the guitar is easily convertible to righty or lefty. Uses a "zero" fret. The neck is comparable to a Les Paul in size and feel. Mine is a black high-gloss finish. Fold out leg rest for playing while sitting down.
Comes with a nice gig bag (looks like a rifle case, so be careful where you take it!), a set of allen wrenches for adjusting truss rod and bridge, and a 6-foot instrument cable.
Simple on the electronics, but the headless look, R-Trem bridge, locking trem and fold out leg rest make it a 10.

For such a small guitar, it has incredible sustain and solid rich bottom. There's a noticeable drop in volume level when using the single coil middle pickup alone or paired with one of the HBs, but not devastating.
I play classic rock for fun and contemporary Christian music for church services. I run it through a series of Boss effect pedals (phase, chorus, sustain, delay) and into a Hughes and Kettner preamp rig (Cream Machine or Metal Shredder) and, using cabinet emulation, to the mixing board.
The tone control provides a much broader range of control than the tone controls on my Strat and my Les Paul.
Absolulely silent ... no single coil hum at all. Overall, the sound is somewhere between a Strat and a Les Paul, with several different variations given which of the 5 pickup configurations you select with the 5-way and how you set the on-board tone.
I subtract a point for the volume drop between the single-coil and the HBs. I know one should suspect that, but it still happens. Otherwise, an outstanding sounding guitar.

While ordered from MusicYo.com in California, it's shipped from Nashville. Came extremely well packed and was in perfect condition out of the box. Equipped with .010s from the factory. Mine was nearly in tune and all I had to do was to attach the neck-end strap button (button goes on the back of the guitar below the neck "joint").
The action was a little low and produced some fret buzz at the first fret, but with 60-sec worth of adjustment, it was just fine.
Absolutely in perfect condition.

Kind of early to tell, but it appears to be solid and durable. Finish seems robust enough. I'll be replacing the strap buttons with Dunlop strap locks, but I do that as standard first setup on any guitar I have ... I'm waiting for the black locks to arrive and haven't had any indications of strap buttons being weak.
I've used it for a full weekend of church services (6 in all and a few hours of "live" rehearsal - as opposed to dead rehearsal) and practiced at home with it quite a bit and it'll be fine. I do use it without a backup.
9 'cause all guitars should have straplocks as standard equipment.

Ordered online using secure form. Arrived 3 days later. 30-day, no question asked return. For $260, I'm not sweating it. 10 on order processing, can't say on other customer support features.

I've been playing since I was 12 (42 now). I checked out the others who posted reviews via eMAIL and liked what I heard, so I took the chance. I don't regret it at all ... for $260, you get an awesome guitar that sounds great and looks cool. I love the tuners and the ease of string change (I changed the full set in about 5 minutes without any tools or wire cutters). It's a nice complement to my Les Paul Custom and my Stratocaster. The only thing I wish was better was that the tremolo is rather abrupt and harsher (less fine-tune pitch control) than on my Strat, but it never goes out of tune.

This guitar is well detailed in previous reviews, so, look there. For the size of this package, you can't fit much more in there.

My stein works well for my style, which is punk/ska and mettalica. I currently use a Crate GFX15 amp, which works well, there are no overpowering notes on this guitar, everything is smooth. The EMG select pickups are real quiet, and can drive my amp, which I love. Like others have said, I can't seem to make this beast sound thin in any way, which could easily be good or bad.

It came in the mail with a passable set-up. It only took 20 minutes to set it up, and I've only set up one other guitar before in my life (which was a complete pain), but my stein was actually fun. The pickups were a bit low, but easily remedied. No easily visible flaws, anywhere.

This guitar should withstand live playing, and it will, without a backup. The hardware should last, but some paint is already coming off of the bridge, and I've only had it for a month. The finish seems like it's a half inch thick, so little wear will show. I immediately replaced the strap buttons with strap-loks, but I fear that there are some crazy stresses going on with the rear strap buttons, I'm kinda nervous as to wether that was a good idea.

I've never dealt with gibson, and by the looks of this, never will. I think the warranty already ran out, 30 days you see.

I've been playing for about one and a half years, and own two other guitars of marginal quality at best. I am totally satisfied with this guitar, and would buy another in a second, as soon as I had the money. I absolutely could not live without the bridge, it's the best ever, and the folding leg rest, very comfortable. I was seriously amazed at the shear weight it, it looks so light, but is far from it. If you replace the strap buttons with anything that locks, make sure they are short and stay close to the body, because the back strap buttons pokes me in the gut, now that I have strap-loks anyway. If you do buy a steinberger of any kind, this has to be the one, because I get nothing but good comments about it. EVERYONE, and I mean everyone, will stare. Final advice, glue on the selector switch knob, I lost mine the first day. I wasn't in search of a good sound, just a mean looking guitar that played well, and it fits it. If I was, I'd rate it much lower.

EMG "select" H/S/H pickup config. I'd lump EMG "select" with Duncan "designed" :-) Pickups work, and since they have smooth covers they are pretty solid with less chance of microphonics. The pickups are the least attractive feature of this guitar. I bought it to use as a travel guitar with a full scale neck and decent action. I was expecting mediocre tone from the EMG selects and that's what I got. The most attractive feature (other than the price) is the whammy, pretty darn good for a simple design. You can lock it to disable it, it tunes exclusively from the back. You just have to remember when you tune up do it in "locked" mode and when finished, unlock the trem adjust the big tuning wheel so the pitch is the same in both modes (otherwise you will have a quartertone transtrem effect)! I'm evaluating this as a travel guitar and not a pro/main ax. Which reminds me, it has a little bracket that serves as a knee rest. Would be nice to use these on flying V's as well.

Pickups sound flat with no character, they are also way too loud. Now thinking about it, I'll try lowering them and report back if the tone becomes usable. I plan on using it with a Korg pandora on business trips so it doesn't matter. If I started to travel alot, I might consider replacing with used humbuckers and get a pod.

Action is fine, frets are a little iffy. They work, they don't buzz or anything, but are not highly polished. High gloss black finish looks nice. Again, action was fine right out of the box.

Just guessing here, but I think it will hold up. There's not much to break except the trem or the vol pots. Time will tell.

Never owned a Gibson guitar in 22 years of playing! I use 80's Hamer's and Dean's to tickle my 2HB fancy. My first good guitar was a 60's strat before it was considered vintage. If I cut my teeth on a Paul, I'm sure I'd be a Gibson fanatic, it just worked out the other way. I imagine it would be hard to get support because this is an overseas product and is only superficially like an original steinberger. You'd probably get better support going through MusicYo, the distributor.

Oh yeah, you can get strings from juststrings.com they have everything even balalika strings :-) Surprisingly the original set is just fine, they probably don't make cheapo double-ball-ends. Juststrings has LaBella's and D'Addarios I think. This is a fine travel guitar, I think it would blow away "The Traveller" from what I've heard about the action. Also, I never had a floyd rose type trem so this guitar is there if I need to get whammy sounds. It sure beats the crap out of my previous travel guitar, the Chaquita. I give it a 7 as an instrument, and a 10 as a travel guitar/practice tool.

Yet another MusicYo purchaser report. Korean-made instrument w/ tiny maple body, 3-piece maple thru-neck w/ 24 fret rosewood board, 2 EMG select HBs, 1 EMG Select SC in HSH config, 5 way selector, one tone, one volume, patented leg rest and, best of all, the locking Steinberger R-Trem. Comes with necessary Allen wrenches, cheap cord and lightly padded gig bag.
It would be hard--but possible--to stuff more features into an instrument this small, eg. active EMGs, splittable HBs, individual pickup toggles, transtrems yadda yadda yadda, but this would pull the rug out from under the suckers inhabiting the >$1500 US-made Steinberger market.

Nice touch: a zero fret, which makes open strings sound like fretted notes. EMG Selects produce a balanced clean tone that can best be described as bland (but very clean!). As previous reviewers have said, its better to put these things through some effects. The HS and SH settings on the 5-way selector IMO soun somewhat hollow. My advice: keep to the single pickup settings, run them through some effects, and leave the tone control alone!

Setup out of the box was terrible, as was expected. Fortunately, both the neck and the bridge are *much* easier to set up on the Spirit than on a conventional guitar; all adjustments can be done at pitch, the tremelo doesn't need to be blocked for restringing (it has a built-in lever that performs this function) and the strings don't get in the way of the truss rod or any saddle screws.
The black finish is flawless, and the neck generally is well done--straight neck, no sharp frets or unfilled kerfs, reasonably clean inlays, but some minor overpainting at the end of the fingerboard. I don't keep the action that low, so fret buzz isn't a problem.
Two playability quibbles: 1) the volume knob is right below the bridge humbucker and can be inadvertently turned during play; 2) the 24 fret board and HSH don't leave much room beneath the strings for heavy picking. If you play like SRV, prepare to modify your technique or scratch your pickup covers to shreds. Also, if you prefer a neck like, say, an Ibanez Wizard, stay away. This thing is chunky!

See above regarding playability issues. The guitar is well put-together, and the R-Trem capably addresses any fears regarding string breakage. Since this is a passive instrument, dead batteries aren't a worry. If any neck problems develop, however, the instrument may have to be junked.

Excellent customer service for an internet only company. Very fast email responses.

Forget Fender/Squier; as far as bargain-basement planks-o-wood are concerned, the only guitars which beat this are the Kramers also available at Musicyo. This is a great choice for a travel guitar; and could also serve admirably as a gigging guitar, if the misplaced volume knob and pinched pickup arrangement don't bother you.

The GT Pro is the all wood version of Steinbergers top of the range GL7S guitar. Its the small bat shaped guitar and has all the same features of its big brother. I have been lucky enough to own a GL7S for three years before it got stolen !! so I can compare them both. The basic difference is the material of the guitar, the GL7S is all composite with active EMG's in H/S/H and the GT Pro is all wood (Maple with Rosewood fretboard) with H/S/H EMG selects, but that is the only differences. They are both exactly the same shape / scale except the GT is alot lighter and has alot more natural sound to it, its hard to believe that the GL7 is #1500 more than the GT. The trems are identical, the GL7 is S trem & GT Pro is R trem, I don't actually know the difference between the two as they perform identical.I had been trying to get a replacement GL for sometime but they have been out of production and are also very hard to get in the UK, So when I found musicyo.com on the net I jumped at the chance to buy the GT Pro and I cannot believe the price of #250 plus shipping compared to the #1900 I spend originally on the GL I had. How do they do it ???

This little axe is very versatile, Like the GL7 I had, the GT can produce smooth jazz tones, through to heavy metal tones. For the more sustainy lead sounds, I think the EMG Selects are a bit weak on output and you don't get so much chunk on the metal rythmn sounds but its still a good clean sound. I have actually booked my GT into a guitar shop which specializes in EMG pickups and will be replacing the selects with an EMG 85 in the bridge, EMG SA in the middle and EMG 89 in the neck which is a splitable pickup and can be either an 85 or SA, Once this is done, the GT will be my ultimate axe and will surely get a 10 out of 10.

Straight from the box the GT had a great feel and was set-up very well. The finish was excellent, and the build quality is superb, just the same as the GL. A little gig bag and accessories come with the GT and is very good, but if you are gigging all over the place, a hard case might be more appropriate. Ed Roman guitars do a good case for this style of guitar.Overall this guitar is faultless. Just make sure you set-up the trem first, by locking it and tuning up and then unlocking it and adjusting the master tune knob at the back, by doing this the trem can be locked / unlocked without going out of tune. Overall this guitar is faultless.

The GT has the same quality build contruction as the GL series, brilliant and professional. I did'nt need to contact musicyo as the guitar was shipped really well. It took just three days to arrive from Nashville USA to just outside London UK. Astounding.The price is #75 for UPS express and another #34 for Tax/duties. Total #280

No need to contact musicyo as mentioned above. Steinberger themselves have still deserted their factory but may go back into production later this year or beginning of 2001 but Ed Roman Guitars is a brilliant place for all things Steinberger, parts, advice etc and also updates on steinberger themselves are available. edromanguitars.com

At last my prayers have been answered and I now have a replacement for my GL which was stolen, its lighter and has better sound with the wood body, it may need a set-up once a year or so but thats no bother. I still cannot believe the price, even if this guitar turned out to be average it would still be worth it, but it's a professional guitar thru and thru and is my main axe. I am looking forward to getting those new EMG active pickups, I would have spent #520 in total for a phenominal guitar. In true Jerry Springer fashion, my final thought is...THERE'S NO EXCUSE NOT TO GET ONE.

The guitar was made in Korea, I'm told it's manufactured by Cort though I haven't found any official mention of this. Beautifully made wooden version of the classic Steinberger Legend series, three-piece rock maple neck with 24 frets, rosewood fretboard, EMG Select pickups in HB/S/HB configuration, solid glossy black finish. (White also available.) Steinberger R-Trem system with 40:1 gears that grip fantastically, the best I've ever seen. Double-knife-edge tremolo system that locks if you don't want to use it. Fully reversible guitar that can be strung left- or right-handed without changing a thing but the strings. (Double rear strap buttons, double anchor point for tremolo arm, friendly nut and bridge.) Flip-up leg rest to make the slender broom-like body sit comfortably on a knee without sliding, that actually stays out of the way nicely when not in use.
The guitar came with a gig bag that looks suspiciously like a hunting rifle bag (I was stopped three times by my office building's security and given the 'hands in plain sight' lecture once, the day I brought it to work -- watch out for this!), allen wrench, and a printed set of directions for adjusting intonation/changing strings/etc. Considering that this was a $249 purchase, I'm amazed by the quality and range of features. If they can include this much in a $249 sale price, there's just no excuse for any less from more expensive guitars.

You've got the classic Steinberger sound here, beyond a doubt. The EMG Select's capture the classic 'active' sound even though they're passive, and produce a full, broad frequency response. The sound is very 'digital' -- broad even spectrum response that sounds slightly 'unguitarlike' because it's too even. Of course, this is exactly what I usually think of when I think of the Steinberger sound, so I wasn't disappointed at all -- in fact, I was relieved.
The wooden body and neck add a little tone contouring back into the sound that the graphite bodies of the old Steinbergers didn't have...I personally like this, I think it gives it a hint of warmth and familiar 'guitar' sound in the right places, while still being faithful to the qualities that make it a Steinberger.
I usually play mine through a Line6 POD, and find I can achieve a huge range of tone with that combination...the two together complement nicely, and remind me of Rush's more digital work (Hold Your Fire era). The broad frequency range of the pickups (and even contour of the outputted sound) combined with the POD's all-digital modelling system produce a 'more real than real' sound. I use this when I was a very processed, over-the-top effect; when I want natural, I use tubes and my vintage SG.
If you're looking for a very natural, 'woody' tone with the EQ balance that made all the great albums famous, you probably won't be happy with the Steinberger sound. You can approximate it with a good amp and EQ adjustment, but you'd do better to buy a more classic/natural guitar. However, if you're looking for that Eighties 'huge' sound that sounds so good through digital effects, this is the Real McCoy. The only other instrument I own that comes close in a mid-Eighties Ibanez (I believe RG470? unknown model, looks like RG thinline series).
The five total coils give you a broad range of sounds, from trebly and sharp to twangy and plucky, to full and smooth-edged and silky. All five positions sound very full and broad, however -- you can't do 'small' the way a Fender with single coils can, everything sounds fairly 'big,' even the single coil.
Through a tube amp, it crunched and compressed nicely, did a respectable 'brown sound' and shaped up nicely with EQ tweaking. A respectable job, but it lacked the 'character' of a more classic guitar...nothing really jumped out at me as being great about its sound. Its ability to shine was much better showcased in a non-tube signal loop, with tons of effects.
I bought it fully knowing what I'd be getting, and was pleasantly surprised -- I think the Spirit series does a great job of reproducing the Steinberger sound with a few subtle improvements.
Were I rating it based on a classic 'guitar sound,' I'd rate it a 7. However, weighing into things its ability to do the 'Steinberger sound,' I rate it much higher.

The guitar shipped in superb shape, pretty much ready to pick up and play (except for minor tuning tweaks). Action was fine, paint job and fit seemed fine. A tight, well-put-together package through and through. NOthing outstanding, just all-around solid and good workmanship.

I've been hammering on it nonstop since buying it, and it's held up beautifully. The pickups are close to the strings and prone to getting scratched up, which is kind of a nuisance, but I don't think this will harm the guitar in any way. (The pick scrapes off onto the pickup housing before the pickup housing would get damaged.)
The most attractive feature about this guitar, with respect to reliability, is the double-ball string system with the linear-pull tension. Instead of wrapping the string around a post (doubling the chance of slippage), string tension is maintained linearly. When I do large bends and I feel the ball shift a little in the nut, it snaps back to the proper tension (and therefore, pitch) neatly again. I feel MUCH more comfortable about keeping in tune with it than I do with any of my other guitars.
I never gig without a backup, on principle. But I'd be much more comfortable doing so with this guitar than any other I've played.

Never dealt with Steinberger. They're owned by Gibson now, which gives me cause for uncertainty.

I've been playing for eleven years (or thereabouts), and own a fairly large collection of instruments adopted over the years, of all different breeds. I've wanted a Steinberger since childhood, having long admired them in music shops when a four-figure price seemed miles beyond my grasp, and finally came across Musicyo.com and decided the time was right to buy one. I'm really glad I did...I love it. For $250, I truly feel I got everything I'd come to love about Steinbergers, sacrificed nothing, and got a great guitar at a steal of a price. I was so impressed, I turned around and ordered the Spirit XL bass as well.
At the price, whether you want a travel guitar, a reasonably-priced backup, or just want to pretend you're Warren Cuccurullo or Alex Lifeson, there's no excuse not to go ahead and do it. The Spirit series is truly worthy of the Steinberger name.