Done. It was quiet for a while and then two people expressed interest, the first offering a partial trade. So I'm getting some cash and a new pedal board out of the deal, so I'm happy with that. And I'll still lurk around here.
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Steinberger Spirits
- Thread starter Michael Vee
- Start date
Ah the one down in Florida. Was very tempted. I liked the red. Don't trust GC to get it to CT in one piece. My XT2 arrives today. 399. No tax free shipping.Agree with this assessment. I had an XT from '14, and I just sold my XZ. The pickups are probably the weakest link. Not terrible however - perfectly fine for a backup or something you want to take out instead of a four-digit valued custom bass. A preamp can boost output as it did in my XZ.
Yeah, the prices are going up. I still have two sets of brand new Status Graphite strings that will stay moth-balled until I get another headless - I know it will happen again eventually. Deals are harder to find though. The GC near me has a Hohner four string in red that's priced at $500. Not worth it to me, but at 3-350 it would be a good buy. I took pics and sent it to my band, threatening to buy it and a Spirit boat-oar guitar. I got a little tongue-lashing for that.I'll have to own another one day just to generate some reactions.
Ah, good, Dave! Gotta love no tax and free shipping- I always look for those myself when buying new.
Do us an NBD here, or if you want to do it in Basses, you can. Definitely pics and let us know how you like it.
Ok you asked for a new bass day.
Going to get this out of the way…this is a 300$ bass tops.
Mine was built August 2022. In Indonesia. So not even China. As suspected this is an epiphone all day long. I don't know why it's just not labeled epiphone spirit. Cosmetically it's good. It sounds ok. The hardware at a glance does a decent job. Looking close you can see that it's pretty cheap. The corners of the bridge inside didn't get paint. The pickups look cheap. Not sure why they used angled bezels around the pickups. Straight would have made more sense. The pickups sit at an angle in relation to the strings. Not sure if thats QC or using available parts for other guitars or what. It's not correct and a cost cutting measure. The action is high even with the saddles bottomed out. I do need to do another truss rod adjustment so maybe that will help but I'm out of adjustment at the saddles. The fretboard is "engineered wood" whatever that means. Honestly this thing is gift shop quality. A pale imitation. And it shows. I do think earlier examples were likely better quality. I'm going to keep it because I'm a believer in "you pays your money you takes your chances". But it honestly was exactly what I thought. I just needed to find out for sure. It doesn't play horrible. What's typical action for these with the saddles bottomed out? I hear folks say they can set them up low but I'm not seeing that.
Going to get this out of the way…this is a 300$ bass tops.
Mine was built August 2022. In Indonesia. So not even China. As suspected this is an epiphone all day long. I don't know why it's just not labeled epiphone spirit. Cosmetically it's good. It sounds ok. The hardware at a glance does a decent job. Looking close you can see that it's pretty cheap. The corners of the bridge inside didn't get paint. The pickups look cheap. Not sure why they used angled bezels around the pickups. Straight would have made more sense. The pickups sit at an angle in relation to the strings. Not sure if thats QC or using available parts for other guitars or what. It's not correct and a cost cutting measure. The action is high even with the saddles bottomed out. I do need to do another truss rod adjustment so maybe that will help but I'm out of adjustment at the saddles. The fretboard is "engineered wood" whatever that means. Honestly this thing is gift shop quality. A pale imitation. And it shows. I do think earlier examples were likely better quality. I'm going to keep it because I'm a believer in "you pays your money you takes your chances". But it honestly was exactly what I thought. I just needed to find out for sure. It doesn't play horrible. What's typical action for these with the saddles bottomed out? I hear folks say they can set them up low but I'm not seeing that.
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All that is 'no bueno' for me - if the place you bought it from has a return policy, I'd use it.
If another truss rod adjustment does the trick I'll keep it. It was the last one they had so can't exchange it. I will get whacked for the shipping if I return it. Not really looking to lose money. In reality it's a toy funded entirely from a handful of gig money.
A reasonable string height measurement from anyone that knows would be helpful. Truth is if I could exchange it I'm sure it would be identical. This is a bad on Gibson/Epiphone just on design and ergonomics of something that should be playable and adjustable. No fault of the retailer. I'll give it a little chance. If not I'm better to sell it myself during a time if scarcity than to take a hit on the shipping.
for the life of me I don't get the decisions made around the bridge height and pickup housings. It's like no thought went into it.
A reasonable string height measurement from anyone that knows would be helpful. Truth is if I could exchange it I'm sure it would be identical. This is a bad on Gibson/Epiphone just on design and ergonomics of something that should be playable and adjustable. No fault of the retailer. I'll give it a little chance. If not I'm better to sell it myself during a time if scarcity than to take a hit on the shipping.
for the life of me I don't get the decisions made around the bridge height and pickup housings. It's like no thought went into it.
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So just follow to up and not leave this with me having sour grapes. I'm keeping the bass. 3 truss rod adjustments and I have the relief at 1mm. It's staying put so That's fine. My action is at 2mm across the neck. Measured with a nickle. That is acceptable to me. It plays well with no dead frets or buzzing at that height. I don't enjoy that there is no adjustment left but right now honestly the setup and action is right there with my American Fenders so I'll take it. I still think it's dumb that you can't go lower if you wanted to. I needed to remind myself it's a 400$ bass. Ergonomically I'm getting used to it. I've no issue with playing it sitting or standing.
Reality is I want a headless. Like the format. Used ones are more than new ones. And it's not worth more than the 400 I paid so even if I returned it not worth replacing. Besides the fact there are no new ones left anywhere. And the price went up 50$ today on all online outlets. So she stays.
Reality is I want a headless. Like the format. Used ones are more than new ones. And it's not worth more than the 400 I paid so even if I returned it not worth replacing. Besides the fact there are no new ones left anywhere. And the price went up 50$ today on all online outlets. So she stays.
An easy and non-invasive fix for the XT-2 balance issue:the D'Addario Dare strap.
It balances the bass 13 cms (5.118 inches ) to the right without any modification. As an added bonus it distributes the weight on both shoulders.
A winner as far as I'm concerned.
It balances the bass 13 cms (5.118 inches ) to the right without any modification. As an added bonus it distributes the weight on both shoulders.
A winner as far as I'm concerned.
It's not the balance that's the issue for many of us, but the reach to first position because of the small body and strap pin position. Spirits are not valuable, so adding one small hole in the back for an extender is hardly a value damaging move.
Tried that. I have three different screw holes in the back of mine experimenting with various locations. It helped but still wasn't comfortable. Added a strap hook extension device which shifts things right about 4", strap back on the rear where it goes, fixed the problem, moved on.
There's a reason why Ned invented that strap-component for the L-Series early on.
I can't justify bringing a status streamline on the road (airlines) anymore
I put some Rotos on and a strap hook. now I'm good to go.
Next are the underwhelming pickups
Does the EMG HB or HBCS drop right into the bevels?
Congrats on your Spirit, Lesfunk! I don't know if the Spirit pickup dimensions have changed in recent years, but it's likely they are the same, even though the cosmetics of the pickups have changed. It's a standard guitar humbucker size.
I installed my EMG's probably 20 years ago now, and they "dropped right in".
I installed my EMG's probably 20 years ago now, and they "dropped right in".
They're a direct drop in. No modifications necessary
If I still had my Spirit now that I'm electronically savvy; I would definitely add a stacked EMG pot to make it Vol/Vol and free up the middle knob for an EMG VMC (Mids) knob followed by a stacked Bass/Treble for the EMG BTC Preamp
If I still had my Spirit now that I'm electronically savvy; I would definitely add a stacked EMG pot to make it Vol/Vol and free up the middle knob for an EMG VMC (Mids) knob followed by a stacked Bass/Treble for the EMG BTC Preamp
@sonojono
Is there enough room in there to cram a battery?
It looks like it might be tight … but doable
I don't plan on using a Stacked bass treble even though I have one in my parts drawer
I plan on simply making vol/vol/tone
Is there enough room in there to cram a battery?
It looks like it might be tight … but doable
I don't plan on using a Stacked bass treble even though I have one in my parts drawer
I plan on simply making vol/vol/tone
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It's an extremely tight fit..
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This has been discussed at length previously in this thread. You can read back through the entire thread, which isn't that long, relatively speaking, or use the TB thread search function.
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