Steinberger Spirit XT-2 - strap hook mod

[mario_buoninfante]

Hi all,

 

I'd like to share my solution for what some say is a "balancing problem" with the Spirit Steinberger XT basses, but I would probably rephrase as an issue with its "positioning" (see this post on talkbass).

 

I saw few solutions online that either required drilling an extra hole in the body of the bass or the use of really long brackets (fixed in 2 points where both strap buttons are).

 

I decided to go for the former, but I accidentally found a solution that doesn't require neither drilling holes nor using really long brackets.

 

I ended up buying 2 standard steel brackets at Wilko (I coluldn't find one long enough, these were 9-10 cm) and few nuts and bolts, with the initial plan of sticking 2 brackets together to make a longer one and drilling a hole in the bass so to anchor that to it (1 hole is already there for the strap button.
Once I joined the 2 small brackets using nuts and bolts, I fixed that to the bass only using the screw hole for the strap button, so that I could measure where to drill the extra hole. In this configuration (ie 1 fixed point being the strap button), the bracket could move up and down.
In doing so I realised that no extra hole was needed, because the nuts used to join the 2 brackets was acting as a stop for the "hook", when touching the bass body (ie the weight of the bass would let the brackets move up until the nut hits the body and this finds its "resting point").

 

The brackets I used are similar to this. It's 2 of them overlapped and fixed in 2 points/holes.

Hope this is useful.
 

 

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by mario_buoninfante