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This is my first Steinberger guitar, and also my first headless guitar. After years of playing, I have come to discover the Steinberger spirit guitar is a gem. I was unsure as to how I would react the owning one of these. After a short adjustment period to playing without a head I was hooked. I, like many others, was looking for a guitar to travel with and in my case to gig. The playability of this guitar is great, and I love the action as it came out of the box. The finish on the guitar appears to be excellent. The build of this guitar is also very very good. Volume and Tone knobs turn well and the 5 position pick up selector switch is spot on awesome. As to whether I will try to set this guitar up to play regular non Steinberger strings is yet to be determined. The guitar sits well on my lap with the use of the brace that comes with the instrument. With a guitar strap it also is well balanced. One issue for me was the tuning knobs were near impossible to turn without the use of a screwdriver. After some research I installed thrust washers and now tuning is a breeze. I don’t use the floating bridge so once I have tuned the guitar it stays in tune. Many reviews have stated that the pick ups are not very good and should be replaced. That has not been the case with me but some musicians are into tweaking everything. I actually love the humbuckers and the single coil middle pickup is just that, a single coil pick up. This guitar is also really quiet when plugged into my tube amp. I am so very happy with this purchase. You really need to get ya one.

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i've been playing for 55 years. i have owned it all several times. i always wanted a steinberger but didn't like the price. i decided to try this model. i have heard endless complaints about the pickups. total bull. this guitar (out of the box) sounds just as good as my 1985 jackson soloist with duncans and plays BETTER. all i did was change the strings to 9-42's and lower the action. zero fret buzz. all frets are PERFECT. i am blown away by the quality of this guitar. i play mostly joe satriani covers so you know what tones i use. this guitar does it all and does it well.

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I have played guitar all my life. I have had everything. My favorite is the telecaster; I have a Fender top of the line and several others. When I saw the spirit in online stores, I looked for reviews, and the comments were good. One day I saw one in a store, I went in and tried it and I couldn't leave without one. And now I play it daily. I think it's just great. He is MSM. The truth is that the single coil is barely audible, and I lowered it as much as possible so that it wouldn't collide with the pick. The great thing is that I still have two humbuckers left, and 4 positions. I don't use the single coil alone. The tone control is very extensive. I usually use 013 strings, minimum 011, but strangely I can play 010s on this guitar. The tremolo lever is entertaining. Being able to set the tremolo to tune without the other strings going out of tune, and then being able to adjust everything when releasing is excellent. Although it is worth 4 times less than my other guitars, I have respect for it. I have read that there are those who hate pickups, but the truth is that they give a sweet and pleasant tone. I thought about changing them but I think it's psychological. So I'll leave them. Lastly, the design is crazy. Along with the telecaster, I think it is the other best guitar design in history. Yes, I went crazy with the steinberger.

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zZounds pride themselves on Customer Service & it is apparent. They were very honest & up front. Now, to the guitar. Just made a couple adjustments for preference & it was up & running.The guitar actually feels better than expected. Unplugged, it rings out nicely & is fun to play. The neck feels a little small but....preferences... All in all, it's great little rig. Quality? Well, heck. Give me $400 & I couldn't even buy the materials to build this thing. There are a few little imperfections in the paint. If I was paying $2000, I might have a complaint. for $400, it's a gem. To summarize: I wasn't looking for a guitar to change the world. Maybe something more in the realm of a fun little broom to keep handy & play when inspiration strikes. Something I could eventually experiment with, in the way of different electronics. Could you use this as your main guitar? Sure. Again, @ $400, you can change the electronics to meet your taste & still be money ahead. Can I put a value rating on it? Yeah, 5 Stars. Like I said... Materials will cost you more than this little NitroBroom. & a nice little soft case is included! Thanks zZounds!

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I bought this as an alternative to watching TV or spending time on a laptop in hotels. It's also going to get a lot of attention at home with my 13 other guitars. I took a chance on getting a blemished model from zZounds and had spend a couple of minutes looking for the blemish. There was a very light scratch on the back of the body and after a few minutes of hand buffing with swirl remover, the guitar became 100% flawless. The fretboard feels nearly as smooth as my Carvin. The action was a little high out of the box but after a re-string and an adjustment, I have the treble side set at 3/64" with zero fret buzz. I didn't particularly care for the feel of the Steinberger double ball strings so I went ahead and ordered a string adapter from the Epiphone store (hope zZounds reads this and decides to stock it). I highly recommend the easy to install adapter since it allows you to use the strings of your choice. I put the DR neon green 9 - 42 strings on mine and the contrast looks awesome with the black finish. Strings changes are a breeze. Intonation adjustments are equally as easy with a simple push of the saddles. No truss rod adjustment was needed. The guitar balances nicely with the leg support opened. I can rest it on my thigh without holding on. Less impressive is the single coil mid pickup. Not much output there. I have no issues with the humbuckers. I actually like the bridge HB and tend to leave it on this setting. Not too quacky or twangy. The neck pickup can offer some nice blues tones. One disadvantage is that you can't have both humbuckers active simultaneously. I imagine the switch could be modded for a series option, or the single coil could be bypassed altogether, or a twin rail humbucker could replace the single coil. I doubt I'll bother changing a thing. Overall, I couldn't be more satisfied for the money.

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I bought this as a travel guitar after lugging a full size solidbody around Europe for a month. I wanted something full size but much easier to travel with and that I could play at a high level. I definitely recommend this guitar if that's what you're looking for.The guitar arrived early, well packaged, and decently set up. The bridge design is brilliant, and I was able to get to a great set up in just 15 minutes. I took it to a jam session the next night and received compliments. The Hot Rod Yellow is either eye-catching or shocking depending on your point of view.Here are a few things I didn't know when I purchased the guitar:+ The gigbag is decent and very compact. Front pocket is pretty small but will hold a cable and small accessories.+ The leg rest works well, though you really need an instrument cable with a 90 degree connector if you're going to sit while playing. + The guitar can also be comfortably held almost vertically while seated to help with big, John Stowell-style stretches.+ The locking tremolo bridge is great. When locked it's like playing with a hardtail.- Pickup output is low, even from the humbuckers. I use an overdrive pedal to boost it and give it a little more character. - Fret ends were poorly finished and actually cut my fingers when I barred. An $18 fret file from StewMac fixed this problem in just a few minutes. - Double ball end strings are about twice as expensive as regular strings and are currently on backorder.- You'll be lucky if any of your instrument stands can hold this guitar. My Cooperstand Duro-Pro works OK but I don't think I'd use it with this guitar for a live show.

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I played one of these twenty years ago and loved the shape, but the quality was lacking. The pickups were soulless, and the thing wouldn't stay in tune with trem. This time they've got it right! I got the yellow one and it's a stunner. Pure '80s vibe! I got the action effortlessly low with just a simple truss rod tweak, and the tremolo really holds tune well! This is a FANTASTIC bridge design! You can also flip a switch underneath to lock the trem, essentially making the bridge fully fixed! The pickups are resin-encapsulated just like EMGs and they really sound good! One quibble: the volume knob is mighty close to my picking hand and it took a few days of adaptation to stop accidentally turning down the volume gradually when playing. It's annoying at first but I've got it now and it's no longer a problem. Also, the Steinberger TransScale (a few years ago) came with real active pickups, but it wasn't as well made as this and the integrated rolling capo was weird at best. That said, this guitar is BEGGING for real EMG pickups so I'm putting a set in. I routed in a 9v battery box in the upper rear wing and I'm putting in an EMG 85/81 humbucker set with an EMG SA middle pickup and five-way switching. This is not an easy mod, but I know it's gonna make this guitar roar like it should. So good I'm gonna get another and keep it stock! Gotta be that YinYang finish! No quality problems with mine at all. If you're on the fence, go for it. This thing is amazing.

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I like several other reviewers have been playing for over 50 years. I purchased a Steinberger GM 2T in 1988 primarily because its graphite neck was the easiest to play guitar I could find. I had hand issues and it allowed me to play and I could not on other guitars. After about 15 years, I had some problems with the Steinberger transtrem and I bought a Music Man JP6 guitar which has a fantastic wood neck and it became my primary guitar. About 7 years ago, I discovered that original Steinberger guitars were back in vogue and there was a company HeadlessUSA that was restoring them. I sent my GM2T to them and it came back better than ever !! Anyway, We travel on vacation 5-6 times a year, and I was carrying the GM2T with me on the airplane as a travel guitar because of its size. I them realized I was traveling with an irreplaceable guitar that was worth probably $4k. I looked at several of the travel guitars and just thought they were very limited and saw the Steinberger Spirit. I saw they had a Red one that matched my existing GM2T and ZZounds showed they had it in stock. I had never done any business with ZZounds but they gave me a good deal. I ordered it in the late afternoon and the next day it showed up around 10 am. I was very impressed, but shortly after I started to play it stopped any output. I think the switch or the tone capacitor failed. I contacted ZZounds and they quickly issued me a return and as soon as I returned the initial guitar to the shipper they shipped me a replacement. I would say ZZounds service was exceptional and I have no hesitations about doing business with them again !Overall, It is a good value for the money. The neck and intonation were perfect for me, The finish and feel are also very nice and the pickups are more than adequate for a travel guitar. The Red finish is very nice and really looks great. No, Its not an original Steinberger, which would be your everyday guitar but it it only costs 1/10. I believe it will be an excellent travel guitar with a lot more features than the other traditional travel guitars

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My wife got me this as a present and shorty after I ordered my favorite pickups, sounded good out of the box but I like to hot rod my guitars. It sounds totally amazing now. The neck is smooth and the finish is beautiful. She got the blue one. This will see a lot of action in my house for sure! Only slight complaint is the volume knob position. Little too high for me. I may just pull the tone control out and move the volume to the bottom position. Great overall guitar and fantastic for the price!

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This is my first Steinberger guitar, and also my first headless guitar. After years of playing, I have come to discover the Steinberger spirit guitar is a gem. I was unsure as to how I would react the owning one of these. After a short adjustment period to playing without a head I was hooked. I, like many others, was looking for a guitar to travel with and in my case to gig. The playability of this guitar is great, and I love the action as it came out of the box. The finish on the guitar appears to be excellent. The build of this guitar is also very very good. Volume and Tone knobs turn well and the 5 position pick up selector switch is spot on awesome. As to whether I will try to set this guitar up to play regular non Steinberger strings is yet to be determined. The guitar sits well on my lap with the use of the brace that comes with the instrument. With a guitar strap it also is well balanced. One issue for me was the tuning knobs were near impossible to turn without the use of a screwdriver. After some research I installed thrust washers and now tuning is a breeze. I don’t use the floating bridge so once I have tuned the guitar it stays in tune. Many reviews have stated that the pick ups are not very good and should be replaced. That has not been the case with me but some musicians are into tweaking everything. I actually love the humbuckers and the single coil middle pickup is just that, a single coil pick up. This guitar is also really quiet when plugged into my tube amp. I am so very happy with this purchase. You really need to get ya one.

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Really nice little guitar - after a full setup. Right out of the box, the small hook used to stabilize the term is loose to the point of being free swinging and any minute touch to the tailpiece would cause it to unhook. Being new to this type of guitar, I hadn’t realized this had happened during initial tuning and so tuned the guitar 2 whole steps above standard pitch. This kept recurring while trying to stabilize the tuning. I wound some coarse thread between the tail block and hook and this definitely helped. Also, according to the owner’s manual, the guitar was supposedly “expertly set up at the factory “ but no, it wasn’t. String height was fine but the intonation was not set and the individual string saddles were completely loose. Having taken care of these issues myself, this guitar is a fine player and sounds great through my Roland Cube. Action is buttery smooth and tuning is extremely stable, even after extreme string bending. This is definitely a keeper! I’m planning on buying the single ball adapter because I don’t like paying twice as much for strings.

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I got the ying and yang black and white. i sat there 20 minutes trying to figure out how to tune it.So if you buy one and don't know how here is the link to show youhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5efChFKZPc&feature=emb_titleThat being said, now that i know how to tune it it is easy. This guitar is amazing. i use a strap to keep it a little higher on my body. great action and super playability. The neck is thin and fast and action right on with no fret buzz. i almost decided to send this back because of the tuning problem but if you buy one just look at the video that shows you how. Well worth the money to go back to the 80's. What a fun guitar!! I gave manf support a 1 because they don't tell you how to tune it in the manual.

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I have been looking for a full scale travel guitar for a while and took the plunge on this one. I looked at a number of other options from other manufacturers but this model seemed to stand out. I have never been a fan of the headless guitar look but it made sense in terms of compactness when comparing the lengths. I honestly did not expect much, despite the majority of reviews being very positive. However, I was surprised. After I lowered the action, purchased an adapter for normal strings and changed to my preferred strings, it has been fantastic. The bridge was easy to work out height and intonation adjustments, the neck feels similar to my Jazzmaster but with a flatter radius and more frets/better reach, and the neck and bridge pickups sound great for my needs. My small gripe is with the middle pickup. For one, I am not accustomed to having a middle pickup but it is also very underwhelming when comparing output of the 3. I don't see myself using it ever. Having said that, I really don't care because I bought it to be a travel/practice guitar and it works great at that using just the neck or bridge.

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I got this guitar out of the box and was in tune perfectly, it was far more than I expected frets are perfect and sounds great plenty of harmonics whammy tricks etc. I've never used a r style trem and it's very close to feel of a Floyd rose but I absolutely adore this guitar it is a fine guitar for the price

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Guitar sets up nicely. Great action, smooth fretwork. Pickups are great in their own way. If you like very smooth sustain, and not too much grit,...this is fine. I will probably swap the pickups. All in all, its fun to play. Trem is not the best. Locked bridge is better by far.

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Is excellent for travel. I’m an airline pilot, and I’m always carrying it with me. The only problem is with finishing quality of the guitar, the neck next to the 12th fret increases its width on the upper side (6th string), its not simmetrical from head (less) to bridge. And other things like paint issues (like points, or bubbles), and some glue on the 2 first frets. Other than that I’m happy with the guitar, for the price. Gibson should care a little bit on the quality of this guitar, is an excellent model, the best for travelling, looks and feels like a real guitar, but the finishing quality is bad.

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I GOT MINE A FEW YEARS AGO. I HAVE LOTS OF VALUABLE GUITARS RATE THE SPIRIT WITH MY VALUABLES. I SAW VICTOR WOOTEN BROTHER PLAYING THE SPIRIT IN CONCERT ON YOUTUBE I SAID GOOD ENOUGH FOR HIM GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME. PLAY PROFESSIONAL OVER FIFTY YEARS.

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I placed my order on a Friday afternoon and had the guitar in my hands in less than a week. The shipment was packed well, which was nice because I’m always sketched out by ground travel when it comes to instruments. The payment plan option (Pay As You Play) was also great for a broke 20 something like me.I was most amazed by the feel of the guitar itself. It feels far more expensive than any $400 guitar you could pick off the rack at a retail center, and setup took all of 10 minutes. The action as delivered is a little high for my tastes but there seems to be plenty of room to play with it. The simplified floating bridge is a great touch.All in all, I’m completely satisfied with my purchase and can’t wait to play this thing live. Thank you very much, zZounds.

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I received the Steinberger Spirit package pretty fast. I took it out of the box and was Happy with my order until I plugged it in to my amplifier, the 5 way switch was bad and I contacted my Friend at Gibson and He sent me a new switch. I wonder who put the bad switch in the Guitar, they need to be fired. Gibson needs to check the Guitars before they just ship them out. Gibson your Qualify Control sucks and needs attention.

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I bought this guitar as a gift for a family member. They love music and used to have an original 1987 Steinberger guitar back in the day. I thought this would be a neat gift for nostalgia sake & for him to further his music talent.The guitar was well packaged but I was shocked to find 2-3 nicks on the fretboard. Paint was chipped by the control cavity cover. The strings were starting to rust despite the thing being brand new. Once I plugged in the guitar, the pickup selector was very scratchy. Spraying electrical contact cleaner into the selector helped but I noticed volume jumps while playing. I inspected the wiring in the control cavity and noticed there is either a bad wire or more likely a bad connection to ground. The pickups are a bit microphonic. I don't know if they are even wax potted (yes the guitar was in the humbucker positions as apposed to split).I've played $100 knock off brand guitars that were higher quality than this.I would not recommend this guitar. Maybe I received a lemon but who knows. Gibson doesn't exactly have the best track record with quality control. Gibson, you've done it again! (Gibson purchased Steinberger years ago. I didn't realize this until I opened the packaging. Had I known it was a Gibson product, I may have thought twice before purchasing.)zZounds were kind enought to give me a discount but if I wanted to return the guitar I had to pay shipping which is ~$75 due to the packing (which has to be original for return qualification). The guitar, if it was up to standard manufacturing-wise, is a pretty neat guitar. The HSH pickup configuration has a multitude of tones. It's a cool looking guitar. It has a thicker neck which is something I enjoy. The tremolo system is very interesting and practical. Floating or hard tail can be achieved with the flick of a lever.One other thing to consider: there are adapters for these guitars that allow the user to play with any strings they so enjoy as apposed to using the double ball strings supplied by Steinberger. The only catch? Good luck finding these string adapters anywhere. There are a couple of independent sellers on various auction sites that make them if you look hard / long enough. I emailed Gibson, inquiring about these adapters but never received a reply.I have skill in working on guitars so I can at least hopefully get the electronics decent before gifting it. I don't think my family member will mind as much as I have but this was a disappointing experience to say the least. I gave a high rating for "wow factor" as I couldn't believe they let this out the door!

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Bought this so I could throw it in my office at work and when I travel.I was torn between this guitar and a travel guitar. This is pretty much all it's good for. Pickups are garbage, action is a little tough to dial and the neck is a bit thick. If this is going to be you're only guitar it's not going to be sufficient and overpriced in my opinion. But it serves the purpose for which I bought it.

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I'm not sure how so many people are happy with these things. I got one a few years ago and it was a massive disappointment! The neck is a baseball bat. The bridge tuners are unusable. The position of the controls makes it impossible to have your right hand in a natural position. The pickups are weak garbage. I hated pretty much everything but the size. It is a super easy to manage size. I just can't imagine how anyone finds this thing acceptable.