What's the deal with new Steinberger Spirits?

[bottlenecker]

I've recently noticed they are for sale for $400... again?
Is this a resissue?
Last time I saw new Steinbergers it was a post-Ned design, that "trans scale" thing, which I was not at all interested in.

I've been meaning to pick up a spirit or a hohner/steinberger for a travel guitar for years, but it would be very comvenient to be able to just order a new one.
Anyone tried a new one?

Steinberger Spirit GT-PRO Deluxe Electric Guitar - White

Solidbody Electric Guitar with Basswood Body, Maple Neck, Hardwood Fingerboard, 2 Humbucking Pickups, 1 Single-coil Pickup, and Locking R-Trem Tremolo - White

www.sweetwater.com

 

[Jakedog]

I want one of the basses, but when I looked at them seriously a year or two ago the reviews were all over the place. Makes me really wonder about QC.

 

[tubedude]

"Hardwood" fingerboard? I hope so.

 

[Digital Larry]

Cool, I had a black Spirit and a white Hohner G3 or whatever for awhile. It was hard to keep them in rotation as there was always a bit of a getting used to it period when switching back. Did make a good travel guitar.

 

[bottlenecker]

"Hardwood" fingerboard? I hope so.

Higher end Steinbergers back in their day had phenolic resin fretboards, I believe.

 

[tubedude]

Higher end Steinbergers back in their day had phenolic resin fretboards, I believe.

I'm aware. I just thought most folks, like me, would want to know what wood was being used for the fingerboard.

 

[bottlenecker]

I'm aware. I just thought most folks, like me, would want to know what wood was being used for the fingerboard.

I used to want to know, but I don't even know what these trees are anymore that are going on fretboards. On a budget steinberger I probably don't care. On anything else I'll have to try it if it's not rosewood or maple. I've never tried any of these rw replacements.

 

[tubedude]

I used to want to know, but I don't even know what these trees are anymore that are going on fretboards. On a budget steinberger I probably don't care. On anything else I'll have to try it if it's not rosewood or maple. I've never tried any of these rw replacements.

And a few don't wanna know.

 

[dogrocketp]

I’ve had several import Steinberger over the years, and the necks went south. My travel solution? I bought a used Kiesel. It actually stays in tune and has been used on a gig. Not Spirit money, but it’s much better made.

 

[bottlenecker]

I’ve had several import Steinberger over the years, and the necks went south. My travel solution? I bought a used Kiesel. It actually stays in tune and has been used on a gig. Not Spirit money, but it’s much better made.

Do you know what years they were made, and in what countries?

 

[BigDaddyLH]

"Hardwood" fingerboard? I hope so.

"engineered hardwood"

 

[Jakedog]

And a few don't wanna know.

I always want to know. I enjoy learning about specs and materials. It would be more accurate to say I probably won’t care. If a guitar is well made (meaning it needs absolutely zero work out of the box besides basic adjustments for action preference and intonation) and sounds good, then I really don’t care what it’s made out of.

My fingerboard could be rosewood, ebony, maple, laurel, grenadillo, richlite, phenolic, it just doesn’t matter. If the guitar plays well, sounds great, and has top tier build quality, it could be made out of petrified cotton candy for all I care. Tradition for the sake of tradition is for the birds.

 

[The Lisbon Plane]

I've had a Spirit like the picture for years, plays like any other guitar, great for travel. Mine has HSH EMGs.

 

[goodguy]

Looked at these a couple years ago and thought they were a bit expensive then.
I do have two “Traveller” brand electrics which are 90% great but tuning is terrible. Neck and fingerboard feel great but the fact that no matter how well I fix the nut, lubricate, etc… it won’t stay in tune and is just cumbersome… it ruins the what could be a perfect travel guitar. I assume these Spirits are 100% better tuning-wise.

 

[Peegoo]

I've not handled one of the modern Spirits. I'll bet they're pretty good based on the decent quality of PacRim guitars these days.

I've got one of the original Spirits from 1993/4. All maple with a phenolic fretboard; it came with anemic passive EMG Select (import) pickups (HSH configuration) and the R Trem, which is a down-market bridge that has a nasty habit of bending/breaking the cast alloy mounting bracket.

I swapped in Duncans and hard-tailed the bridge; it has been an outstanding travel guitar and 100% trouble free. I make my own double ball strings for it using standard Daddario XLs because DB strings are stupidly expensive. It has been around the world with me many times.

 

[SnidelyWhiplash]

The Spirit line isn't worthy of the Steinberger name ...

 

[lupowitz]

I've recently noticed they are for sale for $400... again?
Is this a resissue?
Last time I saw new Steinbergers it was a post-Ned design, that "trans scale" thing, which I was not at all interested in.

I've been meaning to pick up a spirit or a hohner/steinberger for a travel guitar for years, but it would be very comvenient to be able to just order a new one.
Anyone tried a new one?



View attachment 1176346

Steinberger Spirit GT-PRO Deluxe Electric Guitar - White

Solidbody Electric Guitar with Basswood Body, Maple Neck, Hardwood Fingerboard, 2 Humbucking Pickups, 1 Single-coil Pickup, and Locking R-Trem Tremolo - White

www.sweetwater.com

The Steinberger Spirits are low budget versions of Ned's original composite design called the GL series. First he licensed it to Hohner in the 80's later on before the Gibson buyout they started to produce them as Spirits. They are hard maple bodies, with rosewood necks. The original '80s-early '90s Spirits were all equiped with the Steinberger R-tremolo systems, although Hohner produced some early ones as hardtails, just as Ned did with the GL composite ones. The pickup numbering is different form the originals were GL 2 means double humbucker (always active EMGs, either a pair of 81s or 85s, so never mixed pairs), GL3 meant three single coils, GL 4 was SSH, and GL7 stood for HSH pickup combos. Thats is what you have on your attached photos, although in Spirit world it is called GT-PRO.
Now, Spirits were produced first for a short period of time before the buyout, but Gibson shortly aftewards decided to mothball the whole brand. Spirits came back in the late '90s-early 00s by Musicyo, who were a wholesale company specialising bringing back Gibson owned but not in production brands' cheaper lines, selling only via the web, that was a novelty back then.
Now on the early Steinberger Spirits and Hohner lisenced guitars everything was just as on the original composite ones size-wise, which meang '50s Gibson profile 24fret 25.5 scale necks. ON the Musicyo-era Spirits most remained the same, but flatter radius neck were applied.
The Spirit line came back a few years after Gibson envied the Musicyo success, and strangled the company that was started by ex Gibson employees, and started to produce them again in mid 2010s, and nowdays as well. While these are the same shape size and material then the original and Musicyo Spirits, I heard the neck size is significantly smaller than it used to be. I don't know, I never seen one in person.
Now the real disadvantage of the whole Spirit line is the pot metal used for the whole bridge assembly. The original R-trem is a wonderful design, it was used on the wooden body lines that had composite necks, and the bridge on those were milled of steel.
It is almost sure that you are going to run into problems with the trem, it is just a matter of time and usage intensity, but the positive is that you can lock them into hardtails.
The whole Spirit line sports EMG Select passive pickups, on the series after the Musicyo era they are branded Steinberger.
The original Steinberg instruments were EMG active exlusive for a while, but the mentioned wood body guitars (GR4) were equipped with 2 SD HotRails and a CustomCustom by the bridge.
I have a musicyo GT-Pro and a HOhner G3T, both equipped with everchanging EMG actives, I way prefer them over the Select line.

 

[trandy9850]

Higher end Steinbergers back in their day had phenolic resin fretboards, I believe.

This is correct….it was like synthetic ebony….the official name was “Ebonol”.

A lot of the aluminum-necked Kramers also used Ebonol fingerboards.

 

[rgordon]

I've had a Hohner G3T and B2ADB bass for many years - bought 'em both new sometime in the '90s, if i'm remembering correctly. Have been very happy with both, though have no experience comparing with Spirit (or for that matter with any original Steinberger either).

 

[jackal]

I had one of the newer ones for a short time. Even with the vibrato locked, it just wouldn't stay in tune. I really wanted to like it, even after giving the strings a good stretch and with a good set-up, no joy. After 6 months of trying, I sold it cheap.