Does anyone have a Steinberger Spirit XT?

[Chiliwailer]

I’m looking at getting a Steinberger Spirit XT-2 for when I’m working away from home.

Anyone had one?

I’m finding mixed reviews, though to be honest I wouldn’t exactly expect much anyway from such a thing! I expect the Hohner B2A would be better quality, but there’s none local to me s/hand, and these days I’m more partial to a new bass over old...unless it’s a 60’s P Bass

Any thoughts welcome, I may be pulling the trigger tomorrow morning...

 

[machinehead]

I bought one for the same reason - I can take it away with me in my campervan.  After a lot of adjustments, it plays really well and is comfortable to play sitting down using the fold-out support.  It's a different story on a strap.  The reach to fret one feels a mile away compared to a Fender.

I solved this by making a carbon fibre extension (folding) to take the strap button to fret 12.  It works a treat.

By coincidence, I gigged it for the first time last night in a small pub.  It did fine.  The pickups are not in the league of my USA Fenders, USA SUB or my Warwick LX4, but, they're fine and I will get used to their different sound.

All in all, I'd say they're worth the money although I bought mine used for about half the new price.  I really pleased with it.

Frank.

[dlloyd]

55 minutes ago, Chiliwailer said:

I’m looking at getting a Steinberger Spirit XT-2 for when I’m working away from home.

Anyone had one?

I’m finding mixed reviews, though to be honest I wouldn’t exactly expect much anyway from such a thing! I expect the Hohner B2A would be better quality, but there’s none local to me s/hand, and these days I’m more partial to a new bass over old...unless it’s a 60’s P Bass

Any thoughts welcome, I may be pulling the trigger tomorrow morning...

 

The Hohner B2A and Steinberger Spirit are/were made in the same factory apparently. 

[uk_lefty]

Having owned, until very recently, a Hohner B2A I would recommend that over the steinberger. The Hohner second hand is far cheaper than the new steinberger and if you get one from the right period you not only get active electronics but EMG pickups too. They do sound fantastic, I would recommend GHS strings too. My only reason for selling was the string spacing was too tight for me to be making the change from the Fenders I play more regularly. My drummer did shed a little tear when I sold mine. 

[Paul S]

... and I would say, look for a Hohner B2B, which is passive with P/J pickups and sounds more 'organic' to me than the EMGs in B2As.  They don;'t come up very often but there are a couple on eBay at the moment.

[Chiliwailer]

Thanks for all of the replies, very helpful. 

I've just bought a new Steinberger Spirit, (the Argos collection via eBay is a huge help) I fancied a new one anyway and also having some fun tinkering around with the set up and tone - I read that CTS pots help open up the tone, so I may as well add a pan pot and Fender TBX pot while I'm there - I'll have my tools ready Frank, and may commission a strap extension from you one day if you're willing  

I'll probably add some Picato flats, but will keep in mind the GHS shout out in case I like it with rounds, cheers lefty.

I know what you mean about the PJ Paul, my fear is that my P & J Basses will be a benchmark too high for it to reach!

Getting it on Thursday, not expecting much to be honest, but an NBD is an NBD 

Edited December 12, 2017 by Chiliwailer

[uk_lefty]

Hope you enjoy it! A lot of people think they're a bit naff but I completely disagree. It goes to show that when we had a photographer at our gig there were more photos of me with the Hohner for the last few songs than there were of the entire band over the whole set. They're also light weight and reduce the chance of smashing headstocks with the guitarists... Though that may only be us kack-handers!

[Lozz196]

I`ve toyed with the idea of getting one of these as an easy-carry/less-room-taking backup bass. Not to everyones taste lookswise, but to me the practicality is what it`s about.

[tredders]

I really liked my Spirit, so much so that I bought the big brother model, the Synapse.

I travel a lot with work and the Spirit / Synapse is dead easy to lug around.  Rock solid design, and stays in tune forever.  I bought one of those little Vox plug-in headphone amps, and all is good when I'm away from home.

I put a set of La Bella flats on mine (only about £25 from BassDirect), and it sounds great to me.

[Chiliwailer]

41 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

I`ve toyed with the idea of getting one of these as an easy-carry/less-room-taking backup bass. Not to everyones taste lookswise, but to me the practicality is what it`s about.

Agreed, but bizarrely It’s def hitting  my ‘guilty pleasure” spot!

[Chiliwailer]

15 minutes ago, tredders said:

I really liked my Spirit, so much so that I bought the big brother model, the Synapse.

I travel a lot with work and the Spirit / Synapse is dead easy to lug around.  Rock solid design, and stays in tune forever.  I bought one of those little Vox plug-in headphone amps, and all is good when I'm away from home.

I put a set of La Bella flats on mine (only about £25 from BassDirect), and it sounds great to me.

That’s good to read, particularly about the LaBella as I read elsewhere that they wouldn’t fit, great news, cheers.  

[machinehead]

Hi Chiliwailer

I have  spare strap extension that you are welcome to have.  No charge.  Let me know if you want it.  It might be better to wait until the new year before posting due to the Christmas rush?

You'll have to drill two holes in the extension piece, one at each end,  (easily done) and one hole in the guitar for the extension to swivel on.  It rests against the existing strap button to stop it in the correct positon.  I'll send a pic.

Frank.

[Chiliwailer]

6 hours ago, machinehead said:

Hi Chiliwailer

I have  spare strap extension that you are welcome to have.  No charge.  Let me know if you want it.  It might be better to wait until the new year before posting due to the Christmas rush?

You'll have to drill two holes in the extension piece, one at each end,  (easily done) and one hole in the guitar for the extension to swivel on.  It rests against the existing strap button to stop it in the correct positon.  I'll send a pic.

Frank.

Thank you Frank, that’s a blinding offer and much appreciated, after Xmas sounds like a good plan. 

I’ll send you postage costs and make a gift on your behalf to your favoured charity. @kodiakblair did that for me once and I thought it was a great gesture  

Cheers  

[visog]

Got an XT too. Good working bass when tat'ing with the DAW and keyboards, i.e. a home studio situation.

Whilst it's doesn't have the tone of my GB, similarly neither doesn have the planet-sucking 18v to keep feeding so you can noodle with your studio to your heart's content and it doesn't get in the way.

Channels 'Signals' era Geddy

Edited December 13, 2017 by visog

[Paul S]

13 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

I`ve toyed with the idea of getting one of these as an easy-carry/less-room-taking backup bass. Not to everyones taste lookswise, but to me the practicality is what it`s about.

This is where they score so heavily for me- they just slip into the boot and then prop themselves up against a wall without needing a stand. A convenient get out of jail option.

[Lozz196]

Well I`ve decided to pull the plug, the convenience factor being the main thing here. I`ve never needed a backup to date, but am reluctant to gig without one, so this is the best way methinks.

[Chiliwailer]

6 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

Well I`ve decided to pull the plug, the convenience factor being the main thing here. I`ve never needed a backup to date, but am reluctant to gig without one, so this is the best way methinks.

Not sure if you're the moding type Lozz, but I'll post how the TBX install goes, I ordered one yesterday. Would be nice to get as much oomph as possible out of it, I reckon that'll be a cheap easy mod.

[machinehead]

17 hours ago, Chiliwailer said:

Thank you Frank, that’s a blinding offer and much appreciated, after Xmas sounds like a good plan. 

I’ll send you postage costs and make a gift on your behalf to your favoured charity. @kodiakblair did that for me once and I thought it was a great gesture  

Cheers  

You're very welcome.

No need to pay postage.  It's quite small and will fit in a strong envelope.   It's made from very strong carbon fibre, used in the aviation industry.  I made two when I only needed one, just because I could. 

It works very well and is much stronger than it looks.  Easy to fit too.

I'll leave the charity donation up to you, although, to be honest, the value of the extension piece isn't an awful lot.

Frank.

 

[Chiliwailer]

Cheers @machinehead, all sounds good and I'll be in touch after Xmas 

[Chiliwailer]

Mine arrived today, I’m chuffed with it. It’s suprisingly ‘solid’ for something that isn’t really there. After a few minutes of getting used to it the playability felt good, the neck reminds me of the Hohner Jack I had when I was 15, that was a long time ago but @dlloyd did say they are made in the same factory as the B2A. 

The build quality seems good. The set up is poor, a truss rod adjustment will get it playing, but it’ll need the saddles sorted too for height and intonation. Probably pickup height as well. I’ll get down to all that once I’ve found some DBE flatwounds for it, it looks like it needs half a litre of lemon oil too. Im looking forward to putting in the TBX and pan pot next week, with a CTS volume for good measure, it’s not a bad sounding bass for what it is but any boost will do I reckon. 

Fun bass, that’s for sure  

[machinehead]

I'm glad you like it.  I love mine and yes, the quality is excellent - they're great value for money.

Setting the bridge/saddles is a bit of a faff, but if you take your time, well worth the effort.  It transformed the action and playability of mine.  The intonation is now spot on too.  It was way off when I got it.

Another thing - I've had mine for over 2 years and in that time it has barely gone out of tune.  I had it in France in August and took it to it's first gig last weekend and it was still in tune. Impressive.

Frank.

 

Edited December 14, 2017 by machinehead

[Chiliwailer]

15 minutes ago, machinehead said:

I'm glad you like it.  I love mine and yes, the quality is excellent - they're great value for money.

Setting the bridge/saddles is a bit of a faff, but if you take your time, well worth the effort.  It transformed the action and playability of mine.  The intonation is now spot on too.  It was way off when I got it.

Another thing - I've had mine for over 2 years and in that time it has barely gone out of tune.  I had it in France in August and took it to it's first gig last weekend and it was still in tune. Impressive.

Frank.

 

Yeah, my intonation is way off too, up the dusty end it sounds just like me on a fretless! Hopefully later next week I can get down to modding and adjusting. 

Definitely good value, I agree, which was a pleasant surprise as I felt like it was a gamble. It’s a keeper, it’s just too useful and portable for it not to be. 

[Chiliwailer]

Oh dear... the tone pot has already started to die. Luckily I’ve plans to change that anyway and am still enjoying it. 

 

[Planemo]

On 13/12/2017 at 00:59, machinehead said:

Hi Chiliwailer

I have  spare strap extension that you are welcome to have.  No charge.  Let me know if you want it.  It might be better to wait until the new year before posting due to the Christmas rush?

You'll have to drill two holes in the extension piece, one at each end,  (easily done) and one hole in the guitar for the extension to swivel on.  It rests against the existing strap button to stop it in the correct positon.  I'll send a pic.

Frank.

Hi Frank,

I am really keen on the idea of your carbon strap extender! Assuming the spare you had went to Chiliwailer, I would really appreciate it if you could send me a pic of what you had so I could consider making up the same for my incoming XT2. The idea of it swiveling and using the stock button to rest against sounds awesome.

Thanks, Nathan

[machinehead]

2 hours ago, Planemo said:

Hi Frank,

I am really keen on the idea of your carbon strap extender! Assuming the spare you had went to Chiliwailer, I would really appreciate it if you could send me a pic of what you had so I could consider making up the same for my incoming XT2. The idea of it swiveling and using the stock button to rest against sounds awesome.

Thanks, Nathan

Hi Nathan.

I'd forgotten about this.😕

As it happens I think maybe Chiliwailer did too because I never got his address.

Anyway, I still have two spare extensions and if you and Chiliwailer (If he still wants it) PM me your addresses and I'll send them to you both.

The only problem I have is that I'm really busy working this week, plus I have a cousin from Australia staying and I head to France on Saturday (with the Steinberger ☺️)

I'll do my best to get envelopes and stamps this week but apologies if I don't get this done this week.  If not, I'll post the last week in September.

Frank.