Steinberger Spirit GU Deluxe

My Stein is a white, H/S/H, 1 tone and 1 volume. EMG Select pickups, maple body and neck...etc. Came with a not-too-bad gigbag and a case that MusicYo had on sale for 99 cents. The case is pretty nice. They didn't send me the instructions on how to set the thing up, though.

Well, this is probably the low point of the guitar. Really, the sound isn't all that bad. But, as other reviewers have said, the sound is a bit dull. I like to play a little of everything including metal, grunge, jazz, shred, pop-punk and classic rock (Blue Oyster Cult). A good set of pickups will probably solve the problem. Still, I've heard worse tone from guitars costing twice as much.

Suprisingly, the guitar was setup quite well at the factory. The action is great. I may need to make some very minor tweaks on the string height eventually, but they are very minor so I'm not rushing to do it. I raised the pickups as soon as I got it out of the box. You may or may not need to do this. It's just personal taste.
The fretwork is perfectly fine. I can play fast legato runs quite easily. But, being a cheap guitar, the qualtiy may vary- so keep your fingers crossed.
The finish has one little flaw. The paint ran a little on the upper horn. There are two little bumps in the finish where the paint beaded up and dried. The guitar is white, so you can't even see it from 2 feet away.

MusicYo really needs better customer support. The only way to contact them is through email. I'd really like the ability to TALK to the person I'm purchasing from.

-I've been playing for 4-5 years. I run this through a Peavy Envoy 110, soon to be replaced by a Tech21 Trademark 120. I also own a DeArmond.
-I would buy it again if I need a replacement or as a backup for a better guitar.
-I love the 24 fret neck. Much more fun to play than the DeArmond.
-I compared this to a Fender Deluxe Double Fat Strat and an Ibanez Rg-570. I picked it above the Fender because of Fender's crappy heel on the neck, poor control layout and lack of 24 frets. I passed on the the RG-570 mainly due to price and partially due to the thickness of the neck. I don't know if I could play on a paper-thin neck all night. In any case, I knew that I'd have to replace the pickups on any of the guitars I considered. The Stein won on features and as soon as I put in my dream pickups (Dimarzio PAF Pro- Neck, SD Cool Rails- Middle, SD Custom- Bridge) it'll win in the sound category too.

There are already many comments made on this guitar, so I'll skip the basics. The reason I'm submitting this reveal is to share my experience of replacing the stock neck with a Moses Graphite neck (www.mosesgraphite.com). My guitar is a GU Deluxe White. I bought the neck in March 2001. Took 2 weeks to arrive although Moses said it will be 1 week. The neck came with no holes, which means I have to do all the drilling, for the 4-hole heel and for the 2-hole headpiece. The job is to drill the holes in the correct spots and screw in the self-tapering screws. They told me to use a hand-drill but I don't think any untrained person can do that. I live in Hong Kong and no guitar tech is willing to do it. So I left the neck lying around for almost 1 year before I found a friend who runs a factory in China who's got heavy drilling machines there. So I started working at it with a mechanical technician. The neck does not fit exactly into the heel, which means filing is necessary. It took 1 whole afternoon to get all the job done. Moses did not provide the screws for the headpiece self-tapering screws, but I managed to get them in a hardware store. One of the self-tapering screws for the heel somehow 'screwed up' during the fitting process, and there is no way to turn in the screw completely. I have to saw away part of the screw to complete the project.

Though it was very messy to fit, it was well worth the trouble. The guitar now produces a completely different sound. Much deeper base, very loud highs and warm middles. I've actually bought 2 1-Meg pots plaaning replace the 500k ones after changing the neck, but I found it unnecessary. The original somewhat dark tone is now brighten up. The closest sound that I can describe is the Standard American Strat, though not completely the same. The pickups are actually very good, and I think the dark tone comes from the wooden neck and because it is without a 'head', it does not resonates very well. The grahite neck (a different material) was designed to resonate better than wood (I suppose?).

Action is improved reasonably. I think my wooden neck is worse than most of yours, probably I'm the unlucky one. I bought another one for a friend a few months ago, and the wooden neck can be set to a very low profile without fret buzz. The Moses neck does improves the action.

Overall the guitar is already very reliable, very solid. The Moses neck is heavier than the wooden neck, which makes the guitar even more solid. I hope the self-fitted screws do not fall apart! But time will tell. For now, the guitar is still reliable.

Never dealt with them. So no comments.

If you want to upgrade the guitar with a graphite neck, pls get someone professional to set it up for you (unless you are one of those). Moses does that for some $$, so I suggest you pay them to do it. I would have done that if I lived in the US. I was lucky enough not to have wasted US$270 drilling and filing the neck. But its a real saving and value for money compared to the American made Steins. Music Yo never replace the American stocks (promptly) anyway.

Got it brand-spankin new, Korean-made, same as everybody else. Supposedly got it scratch-n-dent but I can't find the blemish anywhere.

"Fireburst" or something, which is essentially Tobacco Sunburst.

Comes with a crappy gigbag, an allen wrench or two, and setup instructions.

The pickups are, as others have said, kind of flat. Which works to my benefit - I'm playing pretty synthetic pop music, so I need something pretty nondescript. I usually run direct into a mixing board, occasionally through a POD.

That being said, running it through a good effects processor, the humbuckers can give me a huge wall of sound. The SC is a bit weak, but that might only be in comparison to the humbuckers.

Fairly dark sounding - I find myself rolling off the bass a little just to be safe.

Finish is gorgeous. Depsite this being a scratch-n-dent, it's still better than the other two guitars I've owned.

Pickup adjustment seemed fine, although the action was a high overall on the strings. Intonation was decent coming from the factory. I allen-wrenched the action down a bit and all is much better. It does a good job of staying in tune despite me slamming on it from time to time (love those direct pull tuners) and constantly retuning to drop-D and back. Changing a string was pretty easy, although it took me a bit to figure it out even with the instructions.

This thing's built like a tank. Strap buttons are solid, but a little small. I'd recommend replacing them with straplocks (but be careful - if they're screw-in locks they might not fit right and you'll have to replace the screws).

The finish is gorgeous, and seems pretty solid. This thing could do nicely for live work (and it looks cool) but I dunno about not having a backup. I'd always want a backup of something...

MusicYo's been good to me. They got me the guitar in under two days, got a great price, and they've been responsive to my email questions.

I'm not a gifted guitarist, and I've only been at this for a few years, so I'm not always the best one to judge things - I play bass and violin mostly so my opinions are probably skewed by what I expect form those instruments.

That being said, it's a solid guitar, I'd buy another in a hearbeat, and it certianly beats the pants off anything else in its price range, featurewise. I tried a few Ibanez's and Fenders in the price class and this just seemed more...versatile.

The only sonic improvement would be the tone pot - it's pretty useless until you crank it all the way down where it just hi-cuts. Kinda dull. I could see maybe dropping a SD pickup into the neck position for more oomph, but it's not something that's a problem for me, really.

And did I mention it looks really cool? It does.

I'm skipping the description - others coverd that nicely . The body IS solid- not laminataed. I have bought 2 of them. I play lefty and these are a bargain. Change the neck SCREWS to BOLTS using inserts, remove neck and these become the finest TRAVEL guitar made. No headstock to break, easily fits into a Airline legal carry on bag - wrapped in my clothes. (20 inch neck, 16 inch body) Strings can be re-used until they break. (Bring extras hard to find.) This rates a 10 plus.

NECK SHAPE: A NICE FULL "C" - sort of a cross between a 1962 Strat & Les Paul. The neck shape rates a 10 plus. The body fits my body better then any other guitar I have put on. That rates a 10 plus.

(I'm 5'9" - 145 lbs, like "C" neck - travel a lot. My 10's are someone else's 1'S)

Set up and quality control: ZERO MINUS!

Sound: I don't care on a $300 instrument. I don't expect good Pickups. For this price I can change the electronics, have it refretted - and still save big $$$$ compared to a true Steinberger. Or an American Strat., Gibson. etc.

The bridge: Vibratto can be used in Drop tunings! That's more important then the pickups.

They have NO QUALITY CONTROL. They were NOT set up at all - the screws locking the intonation blocks on both of mine were loose - just slide'em around. But the action is low and the sweet spot between the frets - large. And thats un-setup-
completely out of tune. Setting the intonation is a pain - the blocks lock against one another - moving one without moving its neighbor is frustrating. NECKS: One guitar has perfectly installed frets. The other has sharp edges. Neck fit into body on one guitar is excellent, the other normal for a $300 guitar. Finish, routing etc are excellent for $300. The fit of the "headstock string holder" is sloppy. In short - whoever sets up the CNC machine (cuts wood) knows his job, so does the painter - everyone else needs training.

I don't know about the bridge hardware. The local store will not have replacement parts.

The body/ neck are suitable for combat.

My story: I ordered a Spirit GU - saw it had a set neck - got a RO over the net - returned it - asked for refund - they sent me another -I E mailed them - refused delivery on the replacement - they gave me a refund.

They make good on there no questions returns, not having a "live" person to talk to made for a hassle. I still buy from them - but I live in the USA, not England!

(Better then Ms. Helan Waite - "Go to Hell and Wait" - but, not Guitar Center.)

These are love it or leave it instruments.

The Best travel guitar I have seen yet (the next best is basically the same thing for an extra $400 - a lot of money for $3 worth of thread insets and bolts)

I'm also lefty - our selection is much smaller. I would easily need to spend another $1200 to get this neck shape on anything else.

You need to do your own set-up work and possibly have it re-fretted. Once again, I have 2 - one has perfect frets, the other needed filing.

Strat Shaped, Swamp Ash body, red/orange translucent finish--very nice. I bought this on a whim off of EBAY for 90$.
Wanted a project guitar and I missed my old Steinberger GL3T,
wanted to see how the "spirits" compared to the graphite steinbergers. I gave this a "8" b/c i didn't have a bridge nor
a guitar jack, or case. so i had to buy a bridge from music yo for 90$. they delivered it fast. Oh neck is maple, rosewood fretboard, 24 frets, and it was also missing the back plasctic electronics cover. pickups are HSH emg selects. once i got the bridge (r-trem) and guitar jack in it's fine.

I got this guitar expecting to do some hacking it up etc. but am surprised how well it sounds. i had read some bad reviews of the emg selects, but i actually like them. they are not super high output (the dimarzios on my parker nitefly are loud compared to them), but i've come to like them for their different sound. they are quiet, the only noise is from my old 50 watt amp and whatever effects i'm running (phaser/flanger on the digitech rp100 has some noise etc). good clean sounds and i like the distorted sounds i get too. and i thought i'd never be the fan of the hsh setup , but i like it for the variety of tones. the swamp ash has a brighter sound than my mahahony nitefly, so again, it gives me a different tone. and i think the neck is pretty good--very straight, has a narrow feel, but thicker "c" shape going around. i had my doubts after hearing people knock "korean-made", but i found it to be a good little guitar. the r-trem (which i installed and set up myself) is pretty good also. not the caliber of the trans-trem on my old steinberger, but i think it's a decent "lower-model". it stays in tune quite well, and i've put it through some serious whammying. plus i love that the whammy will lock for stable playing!!!! a bonus!

well, since i got it w/o the bridge, i won't comment.
but i would say that w/ the bridge, i've got it at a "8.5"
it definately has a nice low action that doesn't buzz.
my thoughts were originally that if the neck sucked i was
going to have a moses neck put on it (i still miss the feeling of the ole steinberger graphite neck--very smooth and fast), but i've found this neck pretty good and am in no hurry to change it.
i think the wood quality is good. the electronics are very good--the volume/tone controls are very tight--way better than my old kramer pacer ....it seems to be a very solid guitar.

seems very solid.
and music yo was very fast in delivering the bridge.
so far very much worth the 180 i have invested in it.

since i got my bridge pretty fast , i'd say they have
good customer support. they also have decent info
about setting up the bridge on the site--which i used/
b/c i had a bit of trouble w/ it at first.

I think this is a good solid guitar. for a decent price.
if you don't like steinberger's design, i'd stay away (some
people need a headstock), but i think it's a great guitar.
has stable tuning, whammy stays in tune, and a decent sound
w/ the emg pickups. i've debated trying to turn it into more of a
"Klein" body shape for the future, but since it functions well as is, i probably will wait. and in the future, down the road i'll probably have a moses neck installed, but like i said, as is, it's a pretty good little guitar.

This is a Lefty GU Deluxe in a fire burst color. Comes with maple a maple neck, rosewood fretboard, and a swamp ash body. It has 24 frets, one tone knob, one vol knob, 5 way blade switch, H/S/H config using EMG Selects, Locking R-Trem, and a Headless neck.
The Locking-R Trem is most unique feature of this guitar. It has lock that can be set that basically disables the trem. It's very helpful; if your changing string, tuning, or not using the trem. This is the first trem I've played in years so it's taking some adjusting to. I'm not too fond of the tuning knobs. They're a little awkward to get to and still to turn. Maybe they just need some oil. Other than that, the trem is pretty soild. This guitar has a lot more features than I'm use to. I can't imagine anything else I would need. I give it an 8 b\c of the tuners. Comes with a gig bag.

I play mostly hartd rock and some metal. Creed, Metallica, GNR, etc. I tell ya, for the rpice, this thing sounds great. I was leary of the PU but I think they really sound good. Quiet and smooth. They aren't too hot which is my only beef. They remind my of PRS Dragon II's. The cleran is actually really good. My main rig is a Marshall JCM 2000 TSL w\ 4x12 cab. I also use POD in small settings. This guitar rocks therough the JCM like everything else. Plenty of sustain and crunch. I might replace the PU with active EMG's at some point. For now, these things are fine. A 10 for value.

The factory set-up was pretty lame. Teh trem needs to be adjusted and the action lowered. I also had trouble with the trem arm allen screw. I had to mess with the lock to make it stay still. Now it works fine. The set-up is really not that big of a deal. I wasn't expecting much. I'm going to have it redone anyway. The middle pU was set way too high. Ikept hitting it with my pick. I lowered it as much as possible. The finish was fine. Only a few minor flaws. Nothing major. % for the set-up and trem problem.

Haven't ahd it long enough for an opinion. Seems solid. Heavier than I thought but light comared to my LP.

Bought from Music Yo. E-mailed them about the trem and how to lock it. Nothing tells you. Still haven't heard back. I'll give a 7 for now.

I've been plaing for over 15 years. I just sold my PRS CU 22 and a LP Classic Plus for teh PRS Private stock that I've ordered. I wanted a cheap guitar to tie me over and one to use as back-up. $245 for this lefty is a bargain. It's really small. Comfortable but it's taking some time getting use to. Especially without the head. I really like it a lot though. you can travel really easily with it. Take this and my POD and you've git tone in a bag. I'd recommend this one to anyone.

1996 (I think) model, country of manufacture unknown. Usual R-Trem, EMG Select pickups. I bought this guitar for its compact size and quirky looks. (Maybe I also wondered if it might help me play like Holdsworth, but I soon abandoned that hope.)

The trem is the real highlight. No string ends to snip off, and tuning is childs play. It can be locked in place with a little catch, so the whole guitar can be flipped from fixed bridge to whammy mode! To fit strings, hook the ball ends in place and tighten.

To tune, fix the bridge in place, and twiddle the tuners until everything is in tune. Then, release the catch behind the bridge and adjust the tremelo tension with the knob until the tuning is the same. Then the guitar is in tune when the trem is fixed or floating. Magic!

24-fret neck; not too thin, not too thick. Frets are a little on the low side for those used to jumbo, so legato playing works less well than on all-out rock guitars.

Came with a cheapo gig bag that has long since worn through; this is my travel guitar, so it gets lugged about in overhead lockers from country to country.

The EMG Selects are very weedy. They're passive, unlike other EMGs. The rest of the guitar is so well made that an investment in upgraded pickups would be worthwhile. On the plus side, I neve got round to doing it.

Perfectly set up on delivery. Finish was also immaculate. Not a 'prestige' finish; just solid, clean and no-nonsense.

This guitar is 100% dependable. Strings don't break as often as with Floyd-equipped guitars, and they're quicker to change if they do snap. Solid strat-like construction, but not indestructible. (Presumably the carbon-fibre super-expensive Steinbergers *are* tank-proof)

Finish has lasted well, despite the guitar getting a lot of use.

Great guitar. Superb value. When I saw that Music Yo were selling this guitar so cheaply I was amazed, because I considered it great value at the much higher price that I paid. I almost considered buying a second one at the bargain price (you know, just in case...).

Steinberger Spirit GU Deluxe, made in Korea in 1999-2000. Body is maple with a rather nice, considering the $250 price, gloss black finish and a shape similar to a Strat. The headless neck is a one-piece maple bolt on. I believe that the fretboard radius is 16". The width at the zero fret is 1.625", and this neck is THICK. It took a little while to get used to, but now I love it, very fast. 24 medium frets. The bridge is Steinberger's R-Trem, which, despite looking somewhat cheap, stays in tune amazingly well. It has one volume, one tone, and a five way selector. Pickups are Selects (licensed by EMG) in a H-S-H arrangment. It was shipped with a very thin gig bag, the usual cheap cord, and allen wrenches for the truss rod and trem. It's by no means perfect, but it only cost $250, so that really can't be expected. For the price, I'm very impressed.

I've only been playing for about two years now. I play what I can, mostly rock, with a little of anything else I think sounds cool thrown in. I think that it sounds reasonably good. I'm playing it through a Fender Princeton Chorus (excellent clean, rather weak distortion), with a DOD Grunge in front of the amp. (Not the greatest distortion either.) It sounds excellent clean through my amp, but so does everything else, and it rocks distorted through a friend's Marshall stack. I'm mostly non-commital on the sound. If you buy a higher end guitar, you're probably going to get a better sound, but to me it sounds much better than most things in its price range that I've played.

For the most part, I was impressed when I recieved this instrument. I had never purchased an instrument on-line before. As it came out of the box, the action was just a little high, and the intonation was a little off. Not a big deal. The neck pickup was too high as well. the routing has no flaws that I can see. The fretwork is good, no edges protruding anywhere, pretty level, very little buzzing, none of which comes through the amp. The neck joined is tight and contoured very nicely, I barely notice it. There were some negatives as well: The saddles are all held in place by a single set screw. The intonation is adjusted by loosening the screw and sliding the saddles manually, the screw in mine wasn't properly tightened and the first time I changed the strings all of the saddles fell out. The rubber band that keeps the strings from popping off of the neck when using the trem dried out and broke after about three months. To me its not a big deal, I don't use the trem that much, and when I do, I don't dive far enough for it to be a problem. It could be for someone else though. It has worked flawlessly though since these two early bumps in the road.

I don't play live, but I'm sure that the guitar could handle it without a problem. The hardware is kind of questionable, it's holding up fine now, but we'll see what it looks like a few years down the road. I don't have any complaints about the finish, other than the ugly sticker that they put on the front of the body. I've only put a few scratches in it from my watch. I always forget to take it off before playing. The strap buttons were kind of small, so I replaced them with a larger set. The zero fret is already showing some wear after about a year, but it definitely has plenty of life left. I wouldn't gig without a backup, just based on principle. Changing strings is VERY fast though.

MusicYo has a 30 day return policy. That isn't too great, but I've never had to use it either.

I've been playing about 2 years now. I have two acoutics (both cheap beginners guitars), my Steinberger, the Princeton Chorus and the Grunge pedal. I'm very happy with this guitar for the price. I think that if it were lost or stolen, I would have to buy another one just for the incredible neck. I like the trem, even though it seems to be made out of pretty cheap metal, just because it stays in tune better than a lot of Floyd Rose copies. I compared this to just about every guitar I could find in the $300 price range, I bought it based on its specifications and the reviews of it that I read. I do wish that it didn't have the middle single coil because I rarely use it and it gets in the way. I would just prefer two humbuckers and coil tapping. Another potential downside of this instrument is the requirement of double ball end strings, which can be hard to find. MusicYo sell them though for $4 a set. There is an adapter available that allows the use of regular strings. I bought on and was not impressed by it at all. Overall, I haven't found another guitar that I'd rather have for any price comparable to this. If you're willing to deal with needing double ball end strings, I highly recommend trying this guitar out. Obviously, my rating takes into account the price paid.

Steinberger Spirit GU-Deluxe year 2000 solid-color model, made in Korea.

Solid maple (swamp ash for translucent burst finishes), "strat-type" body with rounded, tapered neck-pocket heel, moderate tummy contour, moderate forearm bevel, and around 3/16" contour elsewhere (i.e., slightly "sharper" edges than a Strat) -- glossy black finish.

Hard maple bolt-on neck, no headstock, truss-rod adjustment at the headstock (or rather where the headstock would normally be), around 1-5/8" wide at zero fret, very full, rather thick D-shaped contour, possibly slightly thicker toward the "nut" than toward the heel -- satin finish.

Rosewood fingerboard, around 14" radius, 25-1/2" scale length, 24 medium frets (not including zero fret) -- dyed medium brown.

EMG Select passive pickups in H-S-H configuration. Five-way pickup selector, one volume pot, one tone pot (both with knurled-metal dome-shaped knobs).

Steinberger "R-Trem" tremolo bridge, fully floating, lockable, with roller saddles and direct-pull tuning machines.

All black hardware, pickup covers, and knobs, except for steel-colored roller saddles and trem bar.

Comes with big allen wrench for truss rod, tiny allen wrench for set screws on tremolo, instructions for adjusting tremolo, and economy-grade nylon gigbag with minimal padding. (I recommend getting the $50 "Premium" gigbag. It's not a bargain, but it fits snugly inside the "free" gigbag, and the two gigbags together provide just *barely* enough padding to be acceptable.)

I couldn't form a valid opinion of this guitar's sound, as I had to send it back for other reasons. However, according to a friend of mine who is a professional guitarist, EMG Select pickups are so-so, with somewhat weak output.

I'm going to start this section with a conclusion: My GU-Deluxe was a potentially very nice guitar, with decent components, spoiled by a sloppily mounted string retainer ("nut"), a sloppily mounted bridge, and an overtensioned truss rod.

The Good: The glossy black finish on the body was near-perfect. The satin finish on the back of the neck was as fast and smooth as I and my pro guitarist friend have seen on any guitar at any price. The fretwork was well done, with no sharp shoulders or visible filler. I couldn't see any problems with the fit at the neck joint. The quality of the bridge was quite decent for the price -- not surgical instrument quality, but easily good enough for a musical instrument.

The Possibly Bad: The neck seems to be somewhat thinner toward the heel than toward the "nut." I don't know if this is by design or if my neck was improperly milled.

The Bad: The string retainer appears to be made at least partly of plastic and doesn't seem to quite match the contour of the neck (the string retainer caps off the end of the neck where the headstock would normally extend from). Also, the string retainer has a semi-elastic rubber or plastic band to keep the strings in place during tremolo dive-bombs. I don't know how durable this elastic band is in actual use or how easy it is to replace if it loses its elasticity or breaks.

The Really Bad: The truss rod was grossly overtensioned, causing the neck to actually bend slightly backwards, resulting in "negative relief." The string retainer was inaccurately mounted -- too high off of the fingerboard on one side (where it should have lain flush), and visibly off center. Similarly, the bridge was mounted too far in, making it difficult to locate the finger-catch on the tremolo locking lever. Finally, the bridge-plate was a bit too far forward in the recess, possibly due to knife edges that were slightly too short. This brought the tremolo "block" too close to the front wall of the recess (lined, by the way, with a steel plate), severely limiting pull-up range (1-1/2 steps max, as opposed to the 3 steps reported elsewhere in Harmony Central).

Clearly, Gibson (which owns Steinberger) and MusicYo (which is the exclusive seller of Korean Steinberger Spirits) need to pay serious attention to their Korean factory's assembly procedures and quality control. The components are on the whole quite good, and it's a shame to waste them.

Obviously, I can't provide an informed view on this. However, I can say that this guitar seems to be *very* solidly made. Moreover, the headless design, with the tuning machines "sheltered" in the tremolo cutaway essentially eliminates the two most common types of damage: broken headstocks and damaged tuning machines. The finish *appears* to be thick and tough, but again, I have no idea how it will wear in actual use. However, I do have a few minor concerns:

* The string retainer appears to be made at least partly of plastic. Conceivably, if the guitar were dropped or fell over the wrong way, it could break. Metal with a rubber-like, impact-absorbing finish would be better.

* The string retainer has a rubber or plastic elastic band to hold the strings in place during dive-bombs. I don't know how long it will take for this to break or lose its elasticity.

* The strap buttons aren't very big.

* The tremolo knife edges *may* be prone to premature wear. I only used my tremolo for a minute or so before taking it apart, and one of the knife-edges was already showing *clear* signs of wear. Of course, it's possible that a poorly machined or cannibalized part was installed in my instrument. On the bright side, the knife edges on the Steinberger R-Trem are removeable and replaceable. The question is, will MusicYo sell them to you?

I purchased this guitar on the Internet from MusicYo.com, exclusive sellers of Steinberger Spirits. They were definitely helpful and friendly. They shipped when they said they would, and the package arrived (in good condition) when UPS said it would.

However, I did have a few minor problems, probably caused by a holiday season crunch at MusicYo (I placed my order a couple of weeks before Christmas). One of the items I ordered (and was billed for) was missing, and it took MusicYo several weeks after I notified them to ship the missing item. Similarly, I had a great deal of trouble getting a prepaid Return Merchandise Authorization mailing label from them. I'm quite good with computers, but I couldn't generate a mailing label using MusicYo's automated process. In the end, I had to email MusicYo and have them generate a label themselves and send it to me as an email attachment. This delayed my return by a good week or so, and I'm still waiting for my refund 12 days after mailing the returned merchandise back to them.

MusicYo's warranty isn't really a warranty, but more of an approval period. Basically, you have 30 days from the date you are invoiced/charged/billed (*not* the date you receive the shipment) to get a Return Merchandise Authorization number from MusicYo and send the return merchandise back to them -- for any reason. I'm not sure how they handle problems that crop up after the 30 days expire.

I like MusicYo, they've treated me decently, and they probably were snowed under by a Christmas rush. However, I have to mark them down a little because of the hassles and delays described above.

I've been playing for over 20 years, but I'm self-taught (with tips from my GIT-trained buddy) and just play for fun. Right now, I'm playing on a Yamaha EG303, a Taiwanese-made Strat clone. (Don't laugh! The neck is pretty nice and the "vintage" vibrato stays in tune -- even though it's set to float. If you have to laugh, laugh at the pickups...) However, I'm thinking about putting some effort into becoming a better player, and I'd like to have a decent instrument to do it with.

As I mentioned earlier, I returned my Steinberger Spirit GU-Deluxe because of sloppy assembly. I didn't want to take risks on a neck that had been grossly overtensioned, and I didn't want to fill and redrill mounting holes for the string retainer and the bridge. However, I should make it clear that I came very close to exchanging it for an identical guitar (hopefully one that had undergone a proper quality-control inspection).

THE STEINBERGER SPIRIT GU-DELUXE IS A *GOOD* GUITAR. The tremolo is intelligently designed. It stays in tune, it makes a good "bleating" sound (which you get by pulling the trem bar up a little and flicking your finger off the tip), and it can be locked in "neutral" position for setting intonation and saddle height, and for changing strings and tuning. Once you finish tuning, you adjust the tremolo spring tension by turning a single knob so that the free-floating neutral position matches the locked neutral position. Changing strings is a breeze, and if you don't like MusicYo's Steinberger strings, you can easily find alternatives (albeit more expensive ones) on the Web. The tremolo arm slides snugly in place (no threads to strip) and you can adjust the rotational resistance via a set screw.

Most of my reasons for not doing an exchange are idiosyncratic:

* I don't like the Steinberger's thick, D-shaped neck.

* I like a more pronounced forearm bevel and a higher bridge, so that my picking hand falls naturally into the correct position. I would like a wider cutaway below the neck: with the existing cutaway, access to the upper frets is quite good, but in only a limited range of fretting-hand positions -- in other positions, the back of the fretting hand jams against the body's lower "horn." I suppose the body's tummy contour could be more pronounced, too.

* The volume knob is *almost* out of the way enough -- much better than a Strat, but you still run the risk of hitting it with your picking-hand pinky if you play with correct picking-hand position. Similarly, the pickup selector is *almost* out of the way enough. Still, it's not too hard to whack out of position when you're doing funk-style strumming.

* It would also be nice if the overall height of the R-Trem bridge were adjustable -- unfortunately, the pivot posts are (?) welded to a metal plate that is screwed to the bottom of the tremolo recess. Similarly, the lever that locks the tremolo into "neutral" position pivots off of a fixed point on a metal plate on the bottom of the tremolo recess, and the catch that the lever latches onto doesn't appear to be adjustable either. Apparently, the only way to raise the height of this tremolo would be to remove it and shim up the entire bottom of the tremolo recess.

* Intonation could prove to be a real pain, since the saddles are apparently all held in place by pressure from a single set screw on the side of the bridge and are apparently all free to move when the set screw is loosened. Moveover, the saddles have to be moved back and forth manually -- no intonation screws or Floyd Rose intonation keys here -- not exactly a precise and stable system. Luckily, as long as you don't change string gauges, you won't have to do this very often.

* Finally, I'm not thrilled by the way the tremolo locking lever latches on to the catch (which looks like a nail with a wide, flat head protruding from the bottom of the tremolo plate).

This guitar has a swamp ash, strat-style body, made out of three separate pieces of wood. The neck is maple with a rosewood fretboard and 24 medium frets. The neck is has a pretty nice round shape and is somewhat thick, with a very nice satin finish. The width of the neck is 1.625" at the nut/headpiece. The fingerboard is more flat than round. The guitar is, of course, headless. The finish is a transparent honeyburst which allows one to clearly see the detailed grain pattern of the wood.

There are three passive EMG pickups in an H/S/H configuration. The pickup selector is a standard 5-way strat-style selector. There is one volume and one tone control knob.

The tremolo is a Steinberger R-trem. This trem can be locked into place when the whammy bar is not in use. A very nice feature which, in my opinion, should be standard on all trems. The tremolo bar can be affixed to either side of the trem, i.e. it can either be attached to the side of the trem closest to the sixth string or the side of the trem closest to the first string. There are six tuners on the R-trem by which tuning is accomplished.

All the hardware is black: the strap buttons (non-locking), the volume and tone knobs, the pickup covers, the headpiece, and the pickup selector cap.

This guitar sounds pretty good. Many people have complained about the cheap EMG Select pickups, but I really like the neck pickup and the combination of one of the neck coils and middle single-coil, which gives an unmistakable strat-like quack tone. I like the pickups because they give a very clear, clean, yet full tone, and are very, very quiet. My guess is that most guitar players who haven't liked the pickups haven't liked them because they are relatively clean-sounding. I could be wrong, but most guitarists seem to want really hot pickups so they can get more gain, compression, or sustain from their amps on the distorted channel. I don't like hot pickups. The EMG Selects are nice and clean and balanced -- there are no obnoxious frequencies that stick out when using these pickups. The clean tone with the neck pickup is nice and round, without any muddiness. I'm not much for single-coils, but the single-coil in this guitar is very, very quiet. The bridge pickup is kind of mediocre, but I do like it's relatively clean sound. Distorted, the neck pickup gives a very smooth, warm sound. The bridge pickup is pretty average -- a little hotter and brighter than the neck pickup. Overall, this guitar has very refreshingly clean-sounding pickups. The sounds have a nice clean, clear quality that I really enjoy, whether playing with a clean sound, overdriven sound, or high-gain sound. This guitar also sustains fairly well.

I use this guitar with an all-tube Fender Blues Jr., a solid-state Fender Eighty-Five, a Line 6 Pod v. 2.0, a Korg Pandora PX-3, a Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde Ultimate Overdrive, a Jekyll and Hyde Route 66 American Overdrive, and a Boss Crybaby wah.

I'm going to give this a mediocre rating for several reasons. First, the guitar was out of tune and badly intonated when I received it. Also the action was quite high. There is a minor blemish in the finish right where the pickup selector is. Some of the fret ends are not finished properly. There is a small chunk of wood that is missing from the edge of the fretboard near the neck pickup. The bolt-on neck doesn't fit perfectly into the joint. There are some very narrow gaps between the neck and the body.

That's about all that I can think of that was not right about the guitar. Everything else was good.

For the most part, the guitar seems reliable and durable to me, but I baby all my stuff. The guitar feels solid. The one thing I think might not last on this guitar is the R-trem. I've had this guitar for almost a whole year now and the the little screws that are used to adjust the string action on the bridge saddles are beginning to show through on the side of the bridge saddles. That is, when I remove the bridge saddle from the bridge, I can see that the side of the saddle has been worn away partially and I can see a bit of the threads of the screw showing. I worry about that. It's not like I can just go down to the local guitar shop and get new bridge saddles for the R-trem. That is really the only thing that concerns me about the reliablity and durability of this guitar. Like I said, I've had this guitar almost one year and it's never quit working on me.

N/A.

I've been playing for 12.5 years. I also own a USA-made Hamer Studio and an Ibanez RG570. I've also owned a Fender American Standard Strat, a Fender Strat Plus, and a Yamaha strat-copy.

The Steinberger GU-Deluxe sounds far better than my RG570. However, the workmanship on the Ibanez is superior to that of the Steinberger. I wouldn't say the Steinberger sounds better than my USA-made Hamer, but I can't say it sounds worse either. They sound different -- the Steinberger has that clean, clear quality that I like, while the Hamer gives great Les Paul tones.

The things I really love about this guitar are: the clean, clear sound; the satin-finished neck feels great to play; the trem locks into fixed position when I'm not using it; the guitar is light and well-balanced so when I'm playing standing up, it's very comfortable. I also really like the way a headless guitar looks.

The things I think could have been improved are the overall workmanship, the durability of the bridge saddles, and the quality of the gig bag it came with. I wouldn't mind if it had jumbo frets, either.

This is an excellent guitar for the price I paid: $250. Musicyo.com has raised the price to $280 since I bought it. I think that's still a good price for this guitar. If it was stolen or lost, I might buy a new one. I can't say I would for sure, but I really would consider it seriously.