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Steinberger Spirits

#141
TolerancEJ said:
I don't need to own a Spirit to appreciate one. An owner has the right to charge whatever they wish. That's all.
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Whatever. You have the right to your opinion, with no experience with these basses, and I have the right to mine, which is informed. I have owned Spirits and have read about and researched these basses extensively. You have not. The Spirits are not worth $500 or $600, or more.
 
#143
I have an XT-25, 5 string Spirit. I have upgraded it with soapbar pickups, a three band preamp, 18 volts. I'm still not happy with the tone, so I replaced the strings, using GHS double ball ends. Not too bad, more output but not much happening in the high end.

I had a Kramer headless bass, short scale, aluminum neck...the Duke. I loved it. I replaced the pickup with an EMG, but the stock Shaller sounded better. I added a second Shaller. Great bass.

I switched to 5 string in the late 80's. I got the Spirit 5 in a trade for an amp. It got damaged in a car accident a little over a year ago, so I'm getting it back in shape. I did a lot of experimenting on the strap positions, and I'm happy with where I mounted the strap buttons. I'll add pics later.

Let me say something about the EMG Selects used in the 4 strings. I have used EMG Selects in guitars over the years. They usually sound a bit dull and midrangey. The tone benefits GREATLY by simply adding a buffer. The tone comes to life. Adding nearly ANY preamp will help a lot.
 
#144
Steve, I agree about the stock Selects and passive electronics that came from the factory. With some amps, the factory electronics work well, others not. It's probably just an impedence matching issue, not too different from a lot of passive basses.

My experiments included using the Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster pedal (SFX-01) which worked very well. Actually, that pedal is super with a variety of different passive basses that I've tried it with. I've also used the EMG PA-1 circuit in passive basses including the Spirits, and that also works well. Finally, I do have the Spirit XZ-25 fretless that still has the Selects, and the Audere Z-mode preamp. That is also a nice combination.

The nice thing about the Spirits is they are fairly inexpensive platforms for modding, while offering some of the Steinberger design advantages. Sort of the headless SX, at a higher price point.
 
#145
I got the Status Graphite flats in the mail today. What an easy string change and the sound :hyper:

I spent about 2 hours resetting up the bass. These strings are a lot stiffer so I was able to lower the action. It plays like a dream now and is officially off the market!

I love the way it sounds. I have a practice with my band on Sunday and will hopefully get a chance to make some recordings which I will post if they come out okay.

Does anyone sell a passive tone, balance volume harness for this bass with quality parts? Stan Hinsley used to make some great stuff but he is out of business for now. I want to keep the bass passive. Actually the more important question is, does replacing the pots make the bass sound any better?
 
#146
Just got back from band practice. It sounded great. Our singer was wondering how I got that sound but it was just the bass through a VTbass pedal into a monitor. This bass is very warm sounding. Unfortunately my recordings came out bad this week ill try again next week.
 
#147
Like a lot of the Korean/Chinese basses, replacing just the pots and electronics with CTS level pots really only makes a small improvement. Going for better strings and a good setup is the best bet.
 
#148
Yeah I'll probably just leave it alone now. I still can't believe how good it sounds in a band mix. Really warm and bubbly if that makes any sense. It's very sensitive to where you pluck and how you fret the notes which is a good thing to me it allows me to be more expressive with just my hands. These Status Graphite strings are great!
 
#150
Gmarcus, I'm glad you stayed on board. I bought my first XZ in 2002, and then the other two followed in 2002 and 2004. I've thought about turning them loose, but the buyers got cold feet on me and I am so glad I still have all three of them.

It's a unique bass, and it can be a part of any player's collection.
 
#151
I just got a Spirit xz-2, I really like the idea of this bass but I wonder if a change in pickups will improve the sound, I was thinking adding EMG HB.. anybody have experience with this pickups? Any ohter model you guys recommend.
 
#152
ImageUploadedByTalkBass1359596004.251236.jpg
I painted my XQ5 and added a Bartolini preamp . It's not my main bass but I can't get rid of it. I've had to use it in travel situations and it still sounds sweet. Always get strange looks , apparently people don't see these much anymore .
 
#153
pedroims said:
I just got a Spirit xz-2, I really like the idea of this bass but I wonder if a change in pickups will improve the sound, I was thinking adding EMG HB.. anybody have experience with this pickups? Any ohter model you guys recommend.
Click to expand...

Hi Pedro- you and I have chatted elsewhere on Talkbass. Welcome to the Spirit bunch! There are a lot of posts here in this thread about replacement pickups. I have a separate thread that there is a link to here about my experiences with the EMG HBCS pickups in my XZ-2. It's an expensive upgrade, but it does get you pretty close to the graphite Steinberger sound, especially with the BCS pots and electronics set.
 
#154
Well, after some serious thought (and permission from my wife), I will be joining the club. I purchased an XT-2DB from the TB classifieds. I have yet to receive the bass, but am pretty excited about it. I use to have an XZ-5 from music yo, but 5 strings wasn't my thing, so i sold it. It was a really good bass though...

I love the steinberger paddle shape, and always wanted to own one ever since I saw Geddy Lee using one. I actually seriously considered picking up a real L/XL, but the narrow string spacing scared me off (not to mention the $). I also am not a fan of active pups, so i figured the spirit was a better fit for my needs as I didn't want to mod a real steinberger.

I also got a bit nervous, as it appears that Gibson is discontinuing the XT line. Musicians Friend says that the XT-2 is discontinued and I received another email from another company saying it was discontinued. I figured I had to pull the trigger sooner, rather than later.

Anyways, just thought I would drop in and say hi. I'll post some pics when i actually have the bass in my hands.
 
#156
Sure, here is the MF link. You can find it if you google "steinberger xt-2". It says it is no longer available, not discontinued, so my bad.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/bass/steinberger-spirit-xt-2-standard-bass-guitar

Here is the email i received from The Music Zoo. I was on their notify list for when they received more XT-2's

"I just wanted to let you know that Steinberger has discontinued the Spirit XT-2 so we won’t be able to order any more of those. Please let me know if we can assist with anything else"

So, i'd say if anyone is considering buying one, grab one while you can.

EDIT: I checked Sam Ash, and they are out, but say Coming Soon-Order now. Probably worth a call to see if they can get it, but my guess is not.
 
#158
Maybe, they are preparing for a relaunch of the original L/XL graphite series...you never know...;)

I agree about it being bad news, the XZ i owned was a very well made bass. I was sorry to see they discontinued that line way back. I am glad I was able to find an XT-2 here. I was scanning ebay and was going to jump on a hohner before i found this one here.
 
#159
I think Gibson is done with Steinberger designs, actually. They were never a mainstream instrument in recent years.

I bet the retail sales had fallen to the point where Gibson's execs said, "Let's just make the conventional stuff", both the foreign and the remaining USA-made basses.
 
#160
I have no idea of the actual sales figures for Spirits, but there are a lot of them out there, and so they will live on in the used market.

In the meantime, I'll keep looking as well, but if anyone sees some official announcement from Gibson, please share it here.

Edit: I have just placed a call to Gibson customer services, and have been promised a follow-up email. I will share what they tell me.
 

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