Yeah, I bought a new Steinberger. Well, it's sort of a Steinberger. It
has none of the materials, construction details,
quality, or even the same country of origin as a "real Steinberger",
but it is a Steinberger nonetheless. In name,
anyway.
What I got was an "XZ" series "Spirit by Steinberger" bass, a very
cheap, all wooden copy of the Steinberger "Q" series
bass that enjoyed 2 minutes of popularity back in 1990.
And now for the stunning verdict: It ain't bad. At all.
True, it is in no way the equivalent of a $3000 bass, but it didn't
cost $3000, either. More like $400, including two-day shipping and the
string adapter - a vital accessory, so I can use real strings and not
those pansy-ass La Bella
double-ball strings that sound like crap.
At any rate, strung up with real stings, it sounds great. A few tweaks
to the action, intonation and truss rod, and it
plays great too. Nicely balanced. No dead spots.
Another bonus, in my book, is the completely passive signal path. If
there has been one thing that always bugged me a
little bit about my "real" Steinberger, it's that you MUST change the
battery at least every year. I've never had it
crap out on stage, but I've seen it happen to other people, and that's
just embarrassing. I'm not big on
embarrassment.
The finish is horrible. It has one of the most garish finishes
I've ever
seen on an instrument, but that will be fixed pretty soon. I'm thinking
red. I haven't had a red bass since I got my very first bass in 1981.
I'm
overdue, I think.
It's a five-string. Fretted, as they seem to have gotten rid of the
fretless models in 2004. That's OK. I'm going to
get a second one in another couple of weeks and rip all the frets and
inlays out of it. I will have my fretless one way
or another, dammit! And it'll be nice to have a matching pair of
five-string basses, ones that sound good and are cheap
enough that I can take them out and play them without fear of them
getting ripped off.
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