Steinberger Spirit GT Pro

Maple neck through body, rosewood fingerboard, rectangular steinberger style body. HB-S-HB pickup, tremolo. 1 volume, 1 tone, 5-way switch. I travel a lot and I don't like to check in my Ibanez AS180, but sometime the airlines won't let me bring it as a hand carry so I tried this guitar because of the portability. The neck feels thicker than my Ibanez. The rectangular body needs some time to get used to for me. I usually play jazz boxes, the AS180 and GB5. I don't use the tremolo so I just lock the bridge. I give an 8 because the 1 vol, 1 tone feel limiting, given that I usually have 2 vols, 2 tones.

Depend on your playing style, the pickups can be considered as versatile or lack of character. I'd say the pickups give a neutral sound and you can shape it to your liking, thus quite versatile. The low output doesn't bother me as I play jazz. However, after several weeks I decided to change the neck pu to Duncan jazz, but it sounds too much treble even though the tone is rolled down. I replace the jazz with seth lover and now it works fine. Sounds more like les paul. I experiment by putting the jazz pickup at the bridge and surprisingly it fits well. It doesn't give the overdrive sound as the usual bridge pu (jazz is a neck pu) but it fits my need. I don't have much use of the middle single coil pu.
I won't expect to get the sound of an archtop, so I'm quite pleased with the sound now. Anyway I mostly use the neck pu only.
I use Polytone amp, and on the road sometime I use JC120 or twin. In worst case scenario, I will rely on my Boss pedals. With some eq, reverb and the blues driver, I manage to get the jazzy sound though not exactly a hollow/semi-hollow.

Considering that I usually play a jazz box, this guitar is very easy to play. The technician at my local store also set it for me when I changed the pu.

I like the neck through construction. Overall the guitar is solid (again given that I usually play the jazz boxes) and that I can hand carry in the plane and run from terminal to terminal.
I surely gig without a backup, can't afford to bring two guitars.

Bought from the internet, I don't have any complain, though I don't really prefer to buy guitar through the net.

As I mentioned above, I play Ibanez GB5 (around town) and AS180 (when traveling). This guitar replaced the AS180 for traveling so it is very handy, though I still get the strange look from club owners and audiences (they expect a Gibson, but anyway Steinberger is owned by Gibson right?). Overall I'm very pleased though I deduct one point as I need to replace the pu to suit my needs. Given that I can play my own instrument on the road, it is good enough. Once, my piano player didn't get a piano in the club, they only provided a DX7! Though sometime I envy him as he doesn't need to bring instument while traveling but the memory of his expression when he saw the DX7 makes me happy I have this guitar.

First let's all get straight that for this price this is an AMAZING practice/knockabout guitar that not only fits on airline overhead compartments but you can keep it with you in the seat! (I've taken mine to China). This is the cheapo version of a "real" graphite steinberger - wooden, made in korea, looks like a giant flyswatter or a paddle, you know the look. Comes in black or white - i got mine in white because EVERYbody gets black. All the standard stenberger features: fine tuners at the bridge end, tremelo, 3 pickups (EMG select, humbuckers in front and bridge, single coil in the middle), 1 tone, 1 vol., 5 way switch. Enough features to make it versatile, not so many bells and whistles that it's overloaded and difficult to use. Mine came with a decent gig bag included.

OK, here we go, everybody is going to DISAGREE WITH ME and think i'm stupid so here's some history. I own 13 guitars incl. a '64 gibson ES120, a 93 american standard tele, an ibanez john scofiled artstar and more and i have done a lot of customizing, changing pickups for various seymour duncans, etc. - so i have broad taste and experience. i've been playing since 1963 and my band Forever Einstein has recorded 4 CDs for Cuneiform Records and played here and in europe at some good clubs, so i'm not a hack, ok? I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THE PICKUPS and sound of this instrument. I will say that I think the pickups have no personality whatsoever, but i don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. I use this guitar a LOT on stage precisely because it has no personality. It's very utilitarian - even pickup response, no overtones, no deadspots. If you're a blues or jazz purist who wants some sort of authentic sound, go get a vintage guitar and amp, don't even THINK of buying one of these. But for the rest of us - come on! who doesn't rely on their amp and/or effects to get a big chunk of their live sound? I find this guitar very malleable in terms of using outboard gear and amps to make it sound the way i want and it blends well with the live mix onstage:no ear piercing highs or muddy lows. Maybe i just got a better than average set of pickups.

Action - set up was OK, i made it better with little work, now it plays like a dream. The finish is first rate - i find the workmanship on korean guitars is generally topnotch. If you're a hardline gibson/fender made in the USA snob, good for you - i'm an above average amateur woodworker and i recognize tight fit, good materials and well done finish work when i see it.

I've dropped this guitar a LOT (not proud of it, just more than a few times when i forgot how small it was and misjudged the eye/hand coordination thing when putting it on a stand). No problems, didn't break or get damaged. Stays in tune REALLY well and by that i mean i can leave it for a week or two, pick it up and find it still in tune, so no tuning and retuning on stage. Good solid hardware, well machined, one tuning knob was a bit funky, didn't turn as well as it could have. But i'm nerdy so i took them all out and cleaned them with a Dremel tool/wire brush and coated them with white lithium grease. Very well made, solid, dependable guitar. For the price you can NOT do better for a second/knockabout/travel instrument. TWO COMPLAINTS. The rubber retaining band at the "head" end dries out and breaks regularly (as any rubber band would) and the replacements cost $5. HEY! COME ON! It's a RUBBER BAND!!! (I filed a tiny groove at the "head" end on the back of the neck and fitted it for an "O" ring which i can buy at the local hardware store for 59 cents any time). Also, the idea of charging $26 for the adaptor that allows you to use regular (that is, non-double ball) strings is also bogus. It's a freakin' cheap piece of plastic, and they should raise the price of the guitar by 6 bucks and include it. This complaint falls into the same category as 'why do they give you those cheesy little toy spare tires with a 20,000 dollar car!?!?!!!'

Good customer support - my trem arm broke within days after i got it but it broke because i put it in a vice and attempted to bend the angle. I admitted this to MusicYo and they sent me a freebie replacement right away, so hat's off to them for that. They also answered all my questions before i purchased it and in fact they were out of stock for a while and were very nice about keeping me updated on when they were back in stock (never pushy though).

Amp wise, i have owned everything you can think of and now have a Mesa Boogie Subway Rocket, a Line6 Flextone II and a '53 Univox no name for great distortion. Live I used my POD through the Boogie or the Flextone to fine tune my sound. I hate being at the mercy of a room or lame sound person, so i try to make my stage sound as even and free of peaks/transient noises as possible (like stepping on a stomp box and suddely having the room turn into a giant garbage can that makes you sound like crap). The steinberger fits in well for this because as i said, it has no personality, it's very neutral and i can tweak the sound to my liking. I ALWAYS travel with this guitar for the simple reason that even if i am using a les paul or tele on stage, the steinberger is fantastic for warming up because of its small size - i plug it into a Korg Pandora, put on headphones and i can fit myself into a tiny corner of even the most crowded dressing room and warm up.

I don't want to get into the "Korean/Japanese guitars are not in the same class as US models" argument, suffice to say that,irrespective of the dodgy electronics,this is one hell of a guitar for the price.
I purchased mine recently here in Japan, and found it pretty well set up off the shelf. Neck just needed a slight tightening. Strangely enough, even though Korea is Japan's next door neighbour, their guitars are more expensive here than in the States, this one going for around $600! (Mind you, the US made Steinbergers are around $5000, that's assuming you can find one!)

I like to think that I can play a little blues, and after a few modifications, it's perfectly suited for that. I had 2 Seymour Duncan pickups lying around the house,(a Jazz neck H/B, and a JB H/B) so they went straight into it,(the EMG Selects are a bit weak, but not as bad as some reviewers have stated) but I couldn't decide on a middle p/u until I read a review by a guy named Justin (thanks mate!) who went for Duncan's Cool Rails Strat-sized H/B to fill the hole. All I can say is,Wow! At this time, none of the tapping features have been utilized, but I may split the JB eventually to spice it up a bit more. Honestly, it's a totally different instrument,and extremely powerful. Anyone looking to replace the Selects can't go wrong with this set. I'm using it through a Fender Deluxe Reverb'65 Re-issue amp, with a Boss CE-5 Chorus, and an Ibanez Tube Screamer, and I haven't had this much fun for years!

As previously stated, it was pretty well set up from the start, but like most people, I love tweaking guitars just for the hell of it!
The finish inside the routing (both front and rear) is a bit rough, but this ain't no PRS price you're paying! No fret buzz, no rough frets, no other finish flaws. I'm impressed, particularly with the bridge. Trans-trem it isn't, but I haven't seen anything better at this price. Being so different, it's just plain fun to play with.

Too early to judge if it will last, but it's built like a brick s***-house, so it should! I don't play live, so that's not really a concern.

N/A

In 38 years of playing, I must have tried 'em all, but I still love my '65 ES-335 most of all. I also have a Rickenbacker 325V63, a Larrivee acoustic, a Takamine Elec/Acoustic and an Ovation 12-string.
Regarding the stolen or lost question, I'm already on the lookout for a used body to set up with single coils, so I guess I'd have to say, yes, I definitely would buy another. The only other guitar I looked at was the Parker Fly, but they are outrageously expensive over here, even second-hand! ($2000 up) Still........?

What can I say, everything is perfect for what you pay. Sure construction is not top-notch, but korean manufacturers keep improving through the years. There are some features I specially like, like the tremolo blocker. With my other guitar, an Ibanez w/ Floyd Rose, you can't change tunings, and you better don't break a string while playing. With this tailpiece, you can go dropped-D in a breath, or lock the thing if you break a string. The neck is fairly on the big side, but not uncomfortable. The only thing I didn't like was the pickups. SELECT EMG PICKUPS ARE A PILE O' SHIT. They are completely dark sounding, with no character at all. They lasted half an hour till I replaced them with a pair of korean made Duncan Design Buckshot I purchased from guitar center in my summer vacation in Texas. This pickups are made after the SH-6 distortion model, and frankly, I can't tell the difference, they are the biggest bang for the buck about pickups (only rivalled by Bill Lawrence). Sadly, I also bought a scorcher (Duncan Design modelled after the hot rails) but can't use it because the PILE O' SHIT pickups baseplate is flat, they don't have this ear-shaped piece like all the rest of brands, so note this if you are going to buy one of this guitars

Suits everything. Looking at it, you could think it's trebly and tinny sounding, but it's not. It sounds and plays very well, really professional (IMHO).

OBVIOUSLY, like all korean guitars, the factory setup is DISASTROUS, but with a tuner, the supplied allen wrenches and some patience, you can fix it. I can't understand why some people complain about this issue. What did you expect?. It's not a PRS or a Tom Anderson, and I have seen some respected guitars wih a worse setup.... Finish is above average, the fingerboard wood is rather ugly, but an ebony fingerboard would have raised the cost way beyond desirable, so....it's a 300 euro guitar !!!!!!

I don't know either if it's built like a tank or not, but it looks pretty durable. THE "DELUXE BAG" IS TERRIBLE. Get rid of it and buy the hardshell case. It's worth it. The bag only protects from dust. The guitar is very balanced when playing stand up. I would use it without a backup, because of the tremolo locker. And string change is idiot-proof

Three days delivery, pretty fast !!!! support not needed still.. we'll see...but I don't like UPS delivering it to a neighbour if I'm not home

I bought it as a travel guitar, but it's so good and looks so original that I will retire my Ibanez. The best enginereed tremolo I've seen. But you guys at MusicYo...if you wanna put cheap pickups, which is logical, put Duncans or whatever quality OEM pickups that exist. This Selects are really the worst pickups I've heard in my life, much worse than the majority os stock pickups I've tried. Other than this, if you want a good guitar at a good price, and also you want features, try this. I've tried it, and I don't regret.

It's the wooden Korean Steinie shaped like a boat oar. It's got a 5-way selector for H/S/H EMG Select passive p'ups. Lovely double ball strings that stay in tune despite my ham-fisted playing "style." I hardly ever use the R-Trem system, but when people who can Really Play stop by, they love it since it stays in tune as well. I don't know how to describe the neck other than "comfortable." It's reasonably fat, and it can play it for days on end without any discomfort. From the looks of it, you'd think you could never play this thing in your lap, but there's a goofy looking little plastic lever that you can flip down on the bottom of it that makes it a surprisingly good sit-down guitar. Really a silly amount of features for the money.

Ok-confession time here. I can't really play, even though I love guitars and have been through a half-dozen Fenders & Gibsons. I mostly play punk, and it suits my abusive playing perfectly. The EMG's are not exactly rich in the growly low-end area, but run through any decent amp with a little EQ and they will get the job done. The single coil is weak as all get out, but it is quiet does a decent Fender imitation. When playing clean, you have to use the tone knob to take a little brightness out of it, but otherwise, you'll never touch that knob. Overall, I'd say it's got a good variety of sounds, but you have to add the "character" yourself with effects, amps, and decent playing.

I was one of the lucky ones-mine was almost perfect out of the box, other than mister low E being too low and buzzy. The guitar does look almost like molded plastic, the fit and finish are so sweet. The hardware fits very tightly, and the action is so easy to adjust that even I can do it. Got more than my money's worth on this part of it.

This is where the little GT Pro really shines. I could take this guitar to my softball game and use it as a bat and probably not damage it. You can beat the living heck out of this guitar. Compared to the last set neck Gibsons I've owned, it's much more solid, the strap buttons hold the guitar better, the finish is superior...it's scary. Add that to the fact that I'm no good-this is a great first guitar for someone who doesn't know how to care for a guitar. If I could get a gig, I'd feel very comfortable going without a backup.

Since it came out of the box ready to go, and hasn't shown any sign of letting up, I haven't had to deal with support. That's probably a good thing-MusicYo keeps the prices low by limiting the amount of human interaction. They have answered every email I've sent very quickly, and the shipping was suprisingly prompt.

I've been playing for a couple of years, and I've sold all my other guitars because this is really the only one I need. It's almost unbreakable, and it's unbelievably comfortable to play. It's well balanced, extremely light, and has a sweet neck. I had a couple of Gibson RD Customs, an LP, a Fender Toronado, a Telecaster, and a Hondo LP copy. The Steinberger wasn't the best sounding of the lot, but it was by far the most fun to play, so it was an easy choice as to which one to keep. I'm dying to see the new Steinie's that MusicYo are promising for later this year, with graphite necks and active EMG's. Even when I get one, though, I'll still be keeping this little gem.

Steinberger Spirit GT-Pro. 24 fret Steinberger GL style guitar made out of Rock Maple. EMG Select pickups in H/S/H configuration with single volume, single tone, and a 5-way pickup selector. Steinberger R-Trem bridge. Comes with gig bag, allen wrenches, and a cheap 1/4" cord. Standard features.. could have more, but then it's a simple guitar. I also have a Hohner G3T (same guitar, different manufacturer), so I'll be using this as a comparison basis.

EMG Select pickups are worthless unless you can't afford anything better. In my Hohner G3T I've got -real- EMGs, and the difference is so incredible, it has to be heard to believe. The 5-way switch is clunky, but noise free. The volume pot has a nice taper to it, but the tone control is pretty useless. The pickups have no output, and are very plain.. cutting the high end out of them with a tone control is a dumb thing to do.

The action wasn't bad, but I tweaked it a bit to my satisfaction. The stock strings aren't very good, but they work. I prefer GHS strings, but it's tough to find their double ball end strings these days. Compared to the Hohner, this guitar is a failure.. which is funny, since they're built in the same factory. The single coil's routing is sloppy, and there some white crap on the inside (polish?) and the fingerboard looks -really- cheap compared to the Hohner's. Frets are fine, not as nice as the Hohner, but they're just fine for me. The one (and only) area where the Spirit beats out my Hohner is with the bridge.. I like the saddles on the Spirit bridge better.. they've got a roller style saddle (but it doesn't really roll.. it just is much more rounded than Hohner's). I'm going to see which one is harder on strings before I put the better ones in my Hohner :)

Since it's made in the same factory as the Hohner, and since I've owned a Hohner bass for years (see my Hohner G3T review for more info), I'm confidant that it will be very durable. I've only had the guitar one day so far, so who knows what can happen.

First time dealing with MusicYo, and haven't had to contact Customer Support yet.

On it's own, it's a good buy. Compared to it's sister instrument, the Hohner G3T.. it's just an unfair fight. The Hohner wins in every single way, hands down. If this guitar was stolen, I'd be pissed because I'm dropping two sweet DiMarzio pickups and a Roland synth pickup in it.. but I wouldn't bother replacing it, I'd just drop a synth pickup into my Hohner.

Made in Korea, all-wood headless guitar. Pickup setup is Humbucker-single-humbucker. five-way selector switch. R-Trem system. Master volume and master tone controls. The pickups are EMG-Select. They are passive. The guitar is nicely finished. The tremolo system is about the best I've seen. So simple yet so effective. The guitar comes with allen wrenches to adjust intonation and saddle height. It is best to look this up on musicyo.com to perform adjustments. The guitar come with gig case, which is piece of junk. It is better to upgrade to the more expensive bag.

You need a good amp to get good sounds out of this guitar. The pickups are not design to get the maximum sound with any setup. Recommend trying out several setups to find the right sound for you. I prefer the neck position pickup. It has the most tonal colors.

Here is where the fun begins. Musicyo.com must be making a least a hundred dollars profit on this product. Anyway, the action on this guitar is awful. I believe when you purchase an instrument it should be setup in a professional matter. My Gt-Pro was set up poorly and the buzzing was horendous. The five switch does not look like it is going to last forever either. Be careful, and be prepared to do adjustments to this guitar.

For the money, it is a great value. However, you should recieve a playable instrument right out of the box. Which apparently is hit or miss with musicyo.com

NOT FOR THE FAINT-HEARTED!!!! They have a 30-day return policy. However, you can only communicate with them over the Internet, no telephone, no mailing address. So you have wait for them to get any action done, which can be quite frustrating. I send the guitar back because of the buzzing and intonation problems. I had to pay for the return shipping, of course. And guess what?? THEY SEND THE SAME GUITAR BACK WITH THE SAME PROBLEMS. How is that for customer service??? I guess this is a problem when buying things over the internet.

MUSICYO.COM IS APPARENTLY OWNED BY GIBSON. I LOVE THE CONCEPT OF THE GUITAR, AND MAYBE I WOULD GET AN ORIGINAL ALL-WOOD STEINBERGER IN THE FUTURE. SUPPOSEDLY, GIBSON IS GOING TO RE-INTRODUCE THE STEINBERGER LINE AGAIN. ALL I CAN SAY IS " CONSUMER BEWARE ". IT IS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY!!!! AGAIN A WONDERFUL VALUE, BUT LIKE THEY ALWAYS SAY, " IF ITS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT PROBABLY IS "

This is Korean made, I believe. Has 24 frets. It's a "one piece" instrument. Actually it's a solid body neck-through design so it's three pieces, but you get the picture. The construction on mine is well done; it looks like it was carved from a block of shiny black plastic.
There's one volume control with good range, and one tone control with a truly impressive range of sounds. There's a 5 way selector to drive the three H-S-H EMG pickups. The electronic controls are passive. I believe it's made out of three pieces of maple. The finish is a shiny solid black. The body style on this thing is not easily characterized. It's not a pretty guitar. But it's sure functional as a way to travel with the family, keep your practice regimen, and leave room in the car or the overhead bin for other people's stuff.
The bridge style is steinberger. Each individual bridge saddle is a grooved cylinder that does its job well, is fully adjustable, and lets the string move freely if you're a whammy bar kind of guy.
The tuners are also like nothing you'll see outside of steinberger. They feature a direct pull mechanism that's quite precise, if a bit awkward to use.
The neck and fret work are amazingly good. Period. I mean, they are really good. The amazing part comes from the fact that I bought the guitar for $269.00. Believe me, I've seen much worse neck and fret construction on guitars costing 3 or 4 times as much. It's a 25" scale with 24 frets.
Mine came with a gig bag which, if you use it, is how it qualifies as carry-on luggage on yer major airlines. I bought the hard case too, but it's too big; if you try to carry it on in the hard case they'll make you check it.
You don't want to do that. The case is fine for what it is, but it's not a flight case and the baggage apes will destroy this case by looking at it crosswise. The guitar is such a little brute that it would probably play in tune even after a blow that trashed the case.
Three points off for the relatively wimpy EMG pickups. I don't really care about this. They sound fine through my amp and I'm not trying to deafen the neighbors of Wembley Stadium or anything. But you can't really drive a tube preamp into distortion even with the EMG humbuckers they're so timid sounding. The clean sound is nice, but it ain't loud unless you do it with your amp.

The sound is fine. It's quite easily varied because the tone and volume controls are very well done. I practice on this guitar, mainly, so if I want more of a sonic landscape I use my POD v2.0. The clean sounds are best. You can get some snarl out of this guitar if you're all practice up on your triple stops and bends.

The factory set-up needed some correction. Lucky me, I have a very good local guitar tech. The intonation was way off. The neck was set too flat at the factory. The pick-ups were very close to the strings, but I left them that way at the tech's urging because he said the wimpy EMGs would be really, really quiet if I moved them down to give the strings and the pick some room to work. I got the $35 basic set up that included some nut-filing, truss rod adjustment, intonation set, and action adjust (raising and lowering the bridge saddles). Now the guitar plays very nicely indeed. Amazingly nicely, in fact. The only playability problems are that the shape is kind of awkward until you get used to it, and the volume control is in the way of the pinky on your pick hand. Neither of these is a big deal. After a couple hours of playing it, you learn your own "work around" routine and then it's a fine guitar.

This is a very good guitar and a great solution to the problem of every boy guitarist/traveling daddy/musically inclined husband. It's a tough little brute. I took it to London with me on a family vacation along with my battery powered mini-amp and my tuner. I shoved it under the bed when I wasn't in the hotel room, carried it with impunity through international gates at American and British Airports, and played every day. It never went out of tune in the whole ten days. The bride and daughter never complained; neither did our hotel neighbors.
I don't gig. If I did, this would be the guitar I would bring along as the one I was sure would be playable when some more elegant and expensive piece let me down.

Don't know about this. Lucky me. Music.Yo is all internet, all email, all the time so I don't know what I'll do if I ever have a problem. I don't think I will. There aren't any defects in my piece, and being one of my guitars is really an easy life. They live under the bed, get played once a day, and the dogs and kids can only get close with adult supervision.

I've been playing for 35 years. Never knew there was as good a quality "munchkin sized" travel and practice guitar as this on the market. And at such a price! I'm a happy guy with this puppy. I'd buy another if I lost this one.
I love the durability, portability, and the fact that I can practice in a hotel room on a full-sized, well-made, professional grade neck.
Other things I'd like to share? As a matter of fact, there is. First, I agree that the "documentation" sent with the guitar is hideously inadequate. Which leads me to my second complaint. The reason so many of the reviewers here say the whammy bar falls out after a few uses is because you need to go buy a 1.5mm allen wrench to loosen the ultra-tiny set screw that's just south of the whammy bar hole. You loosen the set screw, insert the whammy bar until it bottoms in the socket, and then hand tighten the screw with the allen wrench to operate the nylon wedge that pins the whammy bar in the hole. They could have told you that, right? I got it from my guitar tech, who seems to know all. Lucky me, again. Meanwhile, I gotta go play my Steinie. See ya!

2001 Korean made headless guitar. See details at www.musicyo.com
$289, extras cost extra.

H-S-H EMG Select pickups, passive electronics - volume, tone, 5-way
R-Trem locking vibrato arm
24 frets, fat maple neck-through construction

Comes with "Deluxe gig bag", which is a piece of excrement - very thin nylon bag. I bought the optional hardshell case also; it is OK, does not lock but seems pretty serviceable and is small enough to fit in an airline carryon compartment.

The R-Trem is nice, I like the locking feature a lot. The locking lever resonates a little unless you push the lever all the way up; the lever can come loose and start buzzing while you are playing; I would prefer a more positive locking action. Stays in tune quite well, even with heavy vibrato action.

One complaint - a huge sticker was placed on the side of the guitar with instructions on operating the R-Trem. This should have been done with easy to remove adhesive, or just packaged separately. When I peeled it off, a large amount of adhesive stuck to the finish and I had to wipe it off with some trepidation, not sure if adhesive remover would damage the finish.

EMG Select pickups are not bad, really. Distinct tones and a bit of quack at the 2 and 4 positions. Fairly quiet, but also not high output.

Using Marshall 4100 JCM 900 and Mesa-Boogie DC amps - the tone is somewhat neutral and a bit closer to the Strat side than the Les Paul, but different from both. A nice addition to the armamentarium. You could probably convert to a metal sound with active EMGs. Might do that as a project in the future, I'd probably order another guitar though - I want to keep one as-is since the sound is interesting.

The maple neck and body construction vibrates nicely. Chording has a nice full sound. Acoustic sound better than I expected, given the small size and shape.

Setup was not good. No relief in the neck, action way too low. Serious fret buzz all across 1st 8 frets, all strings. Had to release truss rod nearly 1/2 turn (!) to get adequate relief. Now, action is low but not outstanding. High 5th fret, slight buzzes 3rd and 4th strings at 4th fret. At least the truss rod works.

Intonation not set at all - straight bridge saddles from factory. String height also not properly set - flat across fretboard. The saddles can be adjusted without unstringing, a nice feature. You unlock the saddles with a master screw, then adjust them individually. Tools are provided with the guitar so I was able to properly set intonation and saddle height without much difficulty. Do not expect a perfectly set up guitar from the factory.

Fit & finish - a few problems. A short scratch near 5-way switch - this is a brand new guitar, right? Rosewood fingerboard is nice, but there are several white streaks along the sides UNDER the finish - chalk on the wood at the factory, perhaps? At least they are not visible from the front of the guitar.

It's a low-priced guitar and I do not expect perfection; you shouldn't either. Expect to do some setup work. Neck is fat but is fairly comfortable. I think the size of the neck contributes to the sound, so no complaints there.

Seems pretty solid, have not dropped it yet though. One complaint, the neck button is screwed into the back of the guitar (you do it yourself). This causes your strap to twist 1/2 turn, and makes it easier for the strap to fall off.

30 day money back, it's an internet company. Shipped to me VERY quickly, I live in Nashville and it arrived 2 days after my order (shipped from Nashville). No other experience

Not a bad deal for the money, just don't expect perfection and DO expect to have to adjust the guitar after you get it. I would buy it again.

Made in Korea. VERY small body size - I bought it as a travel guitar. HSH pickup configuration. Neck through body construction. Bought used - included gig bag, the old pickups, and 5 sets of double ball strings. It requires either double ball strings or buying an andpter to use conventional strings. There is a foldout leg rest touse while sitting. This guitar can be used either right or left handed - all it takes is restringing. Black color

For travel, I use it through a Korg Pandora PX-3 and either headphones or a Fender Mini-Twin. At home, I use a Johnson J-Station, a couple of overdrive pedals, and a Laney LC-15 tube amp. The previous owner had replaced the original EMG pickups with Kent Armstrongs - two humbuckers and a rail-type pickup in the middle. I can't comment on the original pickups, but these are amazing. They sound good either clean or with distortion, and are dead quiet on all settings. I had intended to use this guitar strictly for travel, but it actually sounds better than any of my other dual humbucker guitars, plus it has more flexibility with the third pickup, the small size is a big plus, and it has outstanding tuning stability. Plus, unlike many humbucker guitars, it not only has a tremolo system, but a very good one. I will probably sell a couple of my other guitars, as this one simply sounds better.

This was bought used, but it has been extremely well treated. No finish flaws that I cnn find. The black finish covers up the joins of the wood poeces well. Action is set about how I like it, and there is no fret buzz. This guitar is extremely easy to change strings.

The "canoe paddle" shape should make it pretty well impervious to damage. I would always use a backup, but if you HAD to use a guitar without a backup, this would be the ideal one to use because you could change strings so quickly.

Never dealt with the company. Found some useful information at www.musicyo.com.

I have played seriously about two and a half years, although I had played as a teenager, and have played other instruments (keyboard, bass). The other guitars that I play the most are a Fender Strat Plus Deluxe, Parker P-38, Route 101 Solimar Custom, Fernandes Retrorocket Pro, Fender Nashville Deluxe Tele, and DeArmond Jet Star. This is an amazing guitar. It is small and lightweight, without being limited like many travel guitars (my Fernandes Nomad has ONE pickup, no tone control, for example). It can be used either right or left handed. It has an excellent tremolo system without being hard to restring. It has humbuckers but still has a single coil and a whammy bar. I'd replace it in a second if stolen. It also looks like it would make a good cricket bat in a pinch.

Who writes all these good things about this guitar?? I have bought one, and it is built like crap! And in my opinion it is too expensive for european customers. I should have bought one in the states!

Basically a wood-body (as opposed to space-age plastic body) Steinberger. Headless Steinie design (double-ball end strings), 3 pickups (H-S-H), tremolo that LOCKS (nice touch). Pots and switches are good, fine-tuners a little stiff and touchy.

Not bad--GREAT for the money. Pickups are Select (budget EMGs)--passive. Single pickup sounds are pretty good, blended pickup sounds less convincing (positions 2 and 4 on the 5-way selector won't make you want to sell your strat). Excellent sustain, very even response. A little thin, not terribly warm, but more than acceptable.

Again, great for the money. One high fret (buzzes), but otherwise quite good fret work. Very staight, true neck. Arrived with good setup, exemplary finish.

Very solid feeling, stays in tune quite well. Well built. Easily gig worthy.

Purchased through musicyo.com, an internet music company. While I'm still not sold on internet commerce, this is currently the only way to purchase this guitar. I must admit, I'm impressed--the instument was packed well and shipped promptly. A minor problem with ordering strings was handled quickly. While they claim to do everything online, they did offer phone support when I had the string problem (good for them!)

It's nice to have a cheap guitar around that desn't feel and play cheap. It won't make me forget any of my (substantially) pricier instruments but, for the money, it's a steal--vastly better than flimsy asian knockoffs that typically dominate this price catergory. If you need a spare guitar, something you're not afraid to leave in the car or throw over your shoulder when you go teach lessons, or a travel guitar (remember--it's a 25 1/2" scale, even if its overall length is just over 30"), you just can't beat this. Very pleased.

24 Fret Korean made headless guitar with EMG-Select pups and an EMG select single coil between, licensed Steinberger tremolo, 5 position switch, knee stand, and an amateurish black finish. The guitar came with a gig bag, trem bar, tools, and documents. I also picked up a case, and the string adapter so I can use conventional strings. I needed a travel instrument, perhaps I was in error.

This item sounded terribly for the money. I cannot for the life of me understand why they put the single coil in, except to fill I the area between the pickups, and add some price to the final cost of the guitar. Without the proper wood density, the pickups would need to take up the slack, however with the weak EMG select pickups the sound was dead and lifeless. However, due to my 30 years of playing ability and guitar technology, I replaced the pickups with some real hot humbuckers and a Bill Lawrence single coil. Properly set up the guitar and NOW for the money it isn?t a bad string stick

This guitar was set up terribly, the intonation was out and the guitar just played poorly. Nothing seems to fit correctly, the paint reflects the quality of the rest of the product. When it arrived the playability was substandard, but I was able to correct all of its shortcomings.

haven?t possessed it long enough to justify an opinion. However given the quality of what I can see I?m not going to test it?s durability.

Here is where it gets scary. I thought that I was dealing with a reputable company. However it seems that the only way to correct issues is by e-mail. If you have problems with this, do yourself a favor, don?t buy. I was shipped the wrong color item, I tried to get this rectified, however I would have to wait for the item that I had purchased to be returned to them, or place another order. And wait until they send me the wrong item again? I have never had such poor service in my life. And I have purchased well over 30 guitars in my life

Caveat Emptor ! I have not referred to this item as an instrument. IT IS NOT. It is a POOR representation, or better yet a kit to build an instrument. It suits its purpose as a travel item. However that is its only strong point. The company needs some development in the service end of the business. If ya need a travel companion, in a kit form, and you don?t care if you get the right color. This is the item for you.

2000 model; made in Korea; 24-fret scale; solid body neck-thru; Maple neck w/Rosewood fretboard; 5-way selector; Double-ball string system; HSH EMG Selects; Steinberger R-Trem.; Standard Gig bag.

For the money, you can't go wrong on this one. Forget about the 80's stigma of this guitar. It can hang with any of today's pricier "guitars de jour", like the PRS. I was a bit skeptical of a Korean-made axe but was pleasantly suprised once I played it. Every review I've read says the passive EMG Selects could be hotter but I think they sound great as-is. The active pickups I've played in the past tend to be "hummy" when not played forcing the use of some kind of noise gate. Not so with the Selects. I play it thru a set of Rockman Rockmodules and quite honestly I'm absolutely pleased with the sound I get. If the intonation is set up right it has impressive sustain. The bridge p/u has quite a range from sparkly Strat-esque to chunky grunge due largely to the wide tone control range. The neck p/u does a fine job for blues or jazz stuff. Mix in the reversed phased single-coil on either and you've just about got all your bases covered. I looked at my Jackson Soloists and said, "Boys, you've got competition!".

When I got it from MusicYo.com, I had to due minimal setup work (slight intonation and action adjustments). It came stock with the double-ball MusicYo strings. Here's a tip: splurge and get the single-ball string adapter that lets you use regular strings. The stock strings are pieces of crap. If you absolutely have to have double-ball strings, D'Addario DSXL110's (high E = .010) are available at Musiciansfriend.com or try your local store. The neck is a little thicker than I'm used to, coming from playing mostly Jackson Soloists but the action is just about right. You also have eyeball where the frets are when playing. Not having a peghead in your peripheral vision as a reference is a little disorienting but with practice this fades away. The R-trem will make you think "Why doesn't everyone do it this way?". Unlike a Floyd Rose, it's a non-locking design with the same, if not better, performance. Forget about the dinky springs associated with a Floyd Rose. This thing has a single spring that could have come from an off-road suspension system! When used, the spring is compressed rather than stretched which means more accurate returns to center and longer spring life. Plus the fact that you can lock the trem in a "neutral" position allowing non-trem stop-tail playing as with a Les Paul gives it that much more flexibility. My only gripe is with the lower trem arm hole (the trem has 2 - upper and lower). The arm doesn't snug in and will actually fall out if it swings enough. This may be a one-time flaw and not indicative of the unit as a whole. You can use the upper hole just as well - it just takes a little getting used to.

I don't play live anymore but judging from what I've seen it looks like it could take road use, no problem. It's small size doesn't take up much space and will even fit into an overhead bin. Another tip: spend a little more and get a hard shell case. TKL makes a line to fit the Spirit and the GU7R models (guitar and bass) that aren't too pricey and built well. I'd get 2 of these and keep one as a backup when not playing the other or one of my Soloists.

MusicYo is a pretty good site. I had a small gripe with their checkout procedure and they promptly returned my emails. Haven't had the guitar long enough to comment on Tech Support but I bought it online and it was into UPS and on the way the same day - 'nuff said!

If you're looking for great sound on a budget, don't hesitate on this one. The small size takes some getting used to but the sound is well worth it. A++!

I got this one new in 2001, made in Korea 24 frets, solid body, neck thru, Steinberger Trem, HSH pickups with five-way switching, one tone, one volume, That steinberger headless double ball tuning system. Came with the Gig Bag. I got what I expected...It's a Steinberger... love it or don't

This guitar has an awesome sound, with the switching, I can get from jangly, to sparkly to cut it with a knife thick. Really quiet, sounds nice distorted, sounds really nice clean with chorus. Quite a versitile tool for studio or live.. For this price, I couldn't ask for more.

I credit myself for messing up the trem adjustment, but I got it set back. Intonation is great, and the fret work is fine. Finish is great, one slightly uneven paint line, but that's getting really picky. Looks great in White. The action was set lower than I am used to, but I'm not changing it. The neck is a bit thicker than my others, but not enough to make it a big adjustment. All is well on this Guitar... a drop of oil on the tuners are all I think was neglected. The trem keeps things in tune... that's a miracle for guitars at this price... can't beat that.

This thing doesn't seem to be very breakable... not much plastic... just wood and metal. Everything seems kosher on this unit. I bought it to travel with and as a back-up... but I really like it for in studio. Havn't had it long enought to be certain, but with the way I care for my gear, It should be here and functional for a long while.

You got 30 days to decide... then you are on your own. I have RMA'd items at MusicYo before, and they take care of it. Their customer service is not conventional, but it works ok. Short warranty isn't great, but hey, I knew it going in.

Great value if you like that steinberger sort of thing. Awesome unit at a mediocore unit's price. Go for it if it's your thing.

korean made, headstockless, tiny little, white little guitar.
Strat, emg select pickups (select meaning passive not active) 5 way selector, incredibly easy to operate tremelo, neck-thru design, etc.
What more could you ask for?

I play a cross between death metal and bluegrass. I call my band "meatbanjo". The gtpro can really nail it. Its high output pickups do the trick. Some people say that the gtpro is "sterile sounding" but i do not agree. Excellent guitar but for the sake of not sounding like an idiot i give it a 9.

The intonation is sooooo easy to adjust! just push the saddle forward or backward!! And the bridge tension is controlled by turning a knob- no more unscrewing a back panel get to the springs!! WOW!

DOES NOT GO OUT OF TUNE!!! ( for a long time )
I saw a picture of a guy standing on one- like one of those things that the olympic girls stand on and do flips! (only he didn't do any flips) But the guitar is STRONG!!

I was taking a dump yesterday and it really hurt. You know what i mean? It was killer! I hate it when that happens. I probably don't eat enough fruit.

gETTY lEE PLAYS ONE OF THESE (THE BASS OF COURSE) ENOUGH SAID.i SHOULD TAKE THE CAPS LOCK OFF. There we go.

This is a 24 Fret Korean made headless guitar with Two Cheapo EMG-Select pups and an EMG select single coil between. This has the licensed Steinberger (style) tremolo, 5 position switch, flip out stand to sit on your knee, and a simple black finish. The pups are passive and have none of the charm or appeal of real EMG active pups. The guitar came with a gig bag, trem bar, tools, and lousy docs...). The one little interesting issue is that you must buy special strings for this guitar since it has a non existent headstock. This guitar was finished poorly with paint filling in pock marks in the wood (or whatever this thing is made of). This guitar was set up horribly with buzz in four spots. The intonation was lousy and the guitar just played poorly. The frets were placed well enough and the rosewood board was adequate for a cheap instrument...I should really be kinder in reviewing a $250 guitar, but this thing is made like crap and really should be ignored except as a nifty travel instrument.

This guitar sounds ok for the money. The pup selector would seem very versatile and they really had no need to give you the single coil pup in the center of this guitar. For the money it is pretty versatile, but the sound is a bit dead to my ears. I would rip these pups out if I kept this guitar and perhaps throw in some real active EMG's. I just don't think the body could handle it and would likely need routing. This guitar is a bit noisy and the pup selector was not solidly soldered so it made noise with every move. I like the design idea, but I got a bad instrument here. They all can't be this bad.

This is where you can tell you got a $250 guitar. They glued in the neck and they slapped on the paint. This instrument was likely built by poor starving Korean women and children on no sleep and under the abusive supervision of American capitalist pigs!! It is made terribly and an embarrassment to the proud tradition of makers like Tokai who can make great guitars cheaply in the great nation of Korea.

This guitar was not in my ownership long enough to test this out. I think the construction was weak and the design while solid was not executed well in this lower level guitar. If you need a cheap electric to travel with and to put ideas on tape this may indeed meet that need for you. It will fit in your overhead compartment on the plane, but don't lay any luggage on it for it is likely to break on the headstock (all plastic parts like a child's toy!!).

Musicyo is a great company doing nice things on the wholesale side of the retail market. They are classy and responsive to emails. I returned this item with no problems (haven't been paid yet, so more may follow in terms of comments). They let you print pre-paid return labels on line and treat you like a human (no real person contact...all email..no phone....kinda scary, but they responded to all my emails within a 6-12 hour span). They get the benefit of the doubt here.

This is one cheesy guitar for the money. If it had a headstock or bigger body it would be even more laughable since it would lose all travel appeal. It is not even suited for a cheap first guitar for your kid since it is so lame looking he won't want his friends to see it. If it got stolen I'd laugh my ass off and be happy the curse was passed to some poor idiot. Caveat Emptor on this item. If you want a relatively cheap electric for travel...maybe it will be what you want after you change the pups....I hate this guitar.

Got it new last year, features like all the others below.

Real cheap sound, so I replaced pu's with 2 dimarzios and a fender. Sounds better, but the solid maple body makes these pickups sound sharper that when they were in other guitars.

Great neck, no flaws. One problem, I got the white finish. Looks great. With that big white neck and those little white dots on the topside of the rosewood board, you can't see where you are on the neck. I had rhinestones installed in place of the white dots. Thank you Mr. Danny Gatton.

Very reliable, I have gigged with it. It is my backup and third and fourth set ax. The whammy bar won't stay in anymore. I don't know why.

NA

Great deal for the money. great backup, travel guitar. Looks cool, very light.

Features : Easiest to take a look at MusicYo.com to check all the features. I've had the guitar for almost a year now and really like it a lot. everything about it smacks of a quality job. I bought it because I wanted something different. I give it a 9, because I wanted a bit more flexibility by being able to spli the humbuckers, but I bought it knowing I'd need to change the pickups to achieve this.

I play blues, but not in a band,just for my own pleasure. I play it through a Sessionette:75 and can get just about any tone you can imagine from this set up. I've changed the two EMG Humbucker pickups for a Sky pickup (neck) and a Seymour Duncan JB4 (bridge). These have been wired to give me a split out of phase sound in positions 2 and 4, so this helps massively with the variation in tones available from the GT Pro. It's get's a 10 now, but from the factory I guess I'd give it a 7. It didn't sound bad, but as it's my only electric guitar I really wanted the increased flexibility of splitting the humbuckers. Now this guitar sounds as good as anything else I've heard.

Out of the box, the guitar was perfectly set up. But beware of the strings which come on it. The first bend of the top E broke the string. So have a spare set of strings in your house ! There were no flaws on any of the woodwork, and the frests were perfectly set. All in all very impressive from MusicYo. 1 point off for the broken string, otherwise a 10.

I haven't used this guitar live, but I can't imagine where it would let you down. Indeed I think the method of holding the strings in would be a definite plus point, should a string break during a gig. Everything about it is well made and well screwed together. During the year I've had it, I play it for a while every day and nothing has gone wrong.

I've not tried to contact MusicYo. I've not needed to.

I played a lot as a teenager and have just started to get back into playing after a long time without any guitars. This is a fabulous guitar, and with the changed pickups I think it's pretty well perfect. I've had everything from Tele's to vintage Strats to Les Pauls in the past and this guitar is as good as any of them. Once you get used to the lack of body (it kinda throws you'r hand positioning out at first) and the brilliant little fold out knee rest, you'll soon wonder why all these other guitars need to be so big. Would I buy another - definitely Yes, but I'd still change the pickups. Doing this really makes the Spirit GT Pro sing.

I have had my Steinberger GT for nearly a year and have sufficiently put it through its paces, so time for a review I thought. I have been playing for about 12 years and the GT is by far the most comfortable guitar I've owned, even more so than the Parker I had. A year or so ago I played a Steinberger GL7T which is the top of the range carbon boat oar type guitar, I fell in love with it straight away because it was so comfortable but it was already sold and no more to be shipped to the UK. When I saw the GT I snapped it up. The finish & workmanship is top knotch by any standard, the neck is just perfect for me and very easy to play. The GT is now the only guitar I've got at the moment, I've always ended up selling guitars because I found them cumbersome to hold and play, especially strats which are heavy and has so much wood under your arm. The GT comes with EMG Select pickups which are excellent for a whole range of sounds but for that extra crunch and sustain on lead sounds I thought it was lacking a little kick in the bridge pickup but the neck pickup gives that flutey Santana sound. The tremolo is fantastic, the R trem is such a fantastic invention, stays in tune very well and allows for such expressive playing. Such good value for money considering in the past I have paid three times as much for an axe which was nowhere near as good as the GT.

The sound of the GT is again very good with the EMG's, but saying that I am changing them to Seymour Duncans because I will have more output for sustaining leads. The EMG's as they stand are good for Jazz, Blues, Funk, anything, but Seymours are just my personal favourites. Also considering the size of this axe, there is plenty of sustain and body to the sound. I play my GT through a korg Pandora II,
Mesa Boogie Triaxis with TCE G-Force. Although I've given an 8, its only my personal preferences getting in the way, aside from this, it deserves a 10!!.

As I said earlier, the build, workmanship & finish is excellent. Usually with a sub #500 guitar you'd expect a slight kniggle in the paint work or build but its all put together perfectly, I know some people have bought a GT with a dent or uneven paintwork, I just think its bad luck on their part as most people who have submitted a review here have been very happy with it. The setup of the GT again was good, but the trem needed a little adjustment but thats expected on this model of trem.

Everything on the GT looks and feels very solid, on the musicyo site now, they have an advert which hightlights the strength of the GT by having a man stand on top of the GT whilst its balanced between two amps, I would'nt like to try it on mine but it does show how sturdy this little axe is.

Not needed to contact Gibson or Music yo. Music Yo did deliver the GT from the USA to the UK where I live in 3 days and I was very impressed. Gets a 10 for delivery alone.

My finals thoughts : This guitar is my only guitar so obviously is my main axe, I have an upgrade plan for my GT. In Feb 2001 (when I have the money!) I am having a Seymour Duncan Jazz put in the neck, Cool Rail in the middle and JB humbucker at the bridge. This is my pickup configuration I have used in other guitars and is a very versatile setup. I am also getting an internal roland GK2A synth pickup installed as well. The guitar tech at the shop has told me that he can do all the work, he will also move the volume control next to the tone control and put the G2KA LED light in its place, the volume pot location does get in my way a bit. Once all this is done and all is ok, I will buy another GT (probably a black one to go with my white one) and do the same upgrade to that as well. I will be buying the Roland VG88 which my GT will be plugged into so that I can get acoustic, nylon and any other type of guitar sound out of my GT. After this upgrade the GT would still have only cost me around #750, not much for a pro guitar. Be sure that once all this upgrade is done I will submit another review here of the duncanfied, roland ready Steinberger GT-Pro. All the best.

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.

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.