Steinberger Spirit XT-25 5-String Standard Bass Black

by Steinberger

Product Features

• Number of strings: 5Body material: Maple Neck material: 3-piece hard maple Neck joint: Thru-neck
• EMG Select Humbucker Neck - EMG Select Humbucker Controls: 1 - Neck Pickup Volume, 1 - Bridge Pickup Volume,
• Tuning system: Patented, Steinberger Double-Ball System Overall length: 38.50"
• 1 - Master Tone Bridge: Patented Steinberger Bass Bridge with direct-pull 40:1 fine tuners
• Fingerboard: Rosewood Fingerboard radius: 14"Scale length: 34"Frets: 24Neck width at zero fret: 1.625"Pickups (passive): Bridge -

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 11.8 pounds
• ASIN: B0006NNIPK
• Item model number: XTSTD5BK1
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #45,397 in Musical Instruments (See Top 100 in Musical Instruments)

Product Description

The Spirit XT-25 is a 5-string bass guitar featuring the same distinctive body-shape as the award-winning Steinberger XL Series and the trademark headless neck with the patented Double-Ball tuning system. Other features include the patented double-ball Steinberger bass bridge with direct-pull, 401 ratio machine heads, 2 (HB - HB) EMG Select bass pickups and folding leg rest for playing comfort while sitting. And the XT-2 is perhaps the worlds most travel-friendly and convenient bass ever made. Being only 38.5" in length, the Steinberger Spirit XT-25 can fit in places where other basses cant. It also features a 3-piece hard maple neck and thru-neck solid wood construction.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The BEST Bass you can buy for the price, January 4, 2005

By 

hedlesbrmstkbass (Honolulu, Hawaii USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Steinberger Spirit XT-25 5-String Standard Bass Black

this is the one of the best basses in this price range that you can buy. period. great construction and quality. double ball tuning sytstem is awesome. the looks take a little getting used to, but once you do its awesome. the dual emg humbuckers are great. u can get whatever sound u want, from real punchy to mellow tones. the leg rest is kinda useless, and the gig bag provided isnt the best, so if you are going to carry it around i suggest you just use a normal bass gig bag...it works perfectly fine.

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome value and quality., February 18, 2011

By 

L. S. Rubí - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Steinberger Spirit XT-25 5-String Standard Bass Black

First of all, don't expect it to be a Steinberger like the ones from the eighties. Once you get that out of your mind, you can grasp the concept, to have an instrument which takes away many things some instruments have just by tradition and make it as functional as possible. Sure, it is not made in Newburgh or made of carbon fiber-graphite composite, but what you get is awesome. I had this exact bass, but I purchased it through the MusicYo website back in the nineties. Hey, I even wrote to Ned Steinberger to get his opinion on the Spirits, and he is such a humble and approachable man that he wrote back, saying he thought these were fine instruments. I regretted so much selling mine 3 years ago that I just purchased another one recently, hoping to hold to it forever, since I don't think these little guys will be produced a lot.

What you get is an excellent instrument, more than you would expect from the price you pay: nice tone, portability, versatility and a very good construction, which for me it makes more sense, since I don't think I could come to terms with spending US$1200 on a Synapse, being manufactured in probably the same kind of factories where the Spirits are (were?) made. For that kind of money I rather try to collect $300 more and get a good Musicman Stingray, which I did a year ago.

The point?: If you want a good portable bass that will amaze you with the basic setting, this is the one. If I could get a real XL2 I would without a doubt, but if you like the concept, this is the way to go, lot of bass for the money, and for me makes more sense than $1500 for a Synapse, made in the same factories as these babies.

Only changes?: The only things you might consider changing are probably:
Pick Ups: The basic ones (EMG Select) are very good, but maybe not very good for very demanding musicians. I was impressed with the ones I had, but not being a pro musician means mine were very good for my needs.
Support hook: You can consider buying the extension hook for a Synapse bass, attach it to the back of this bass. Mine tended to crawl away from me because of where the button straps were located, and the higher frets got very far, which made it uncomfortable after a while. As you might know, the original XL2 had a boomerang like contraption on the back, to which the strap was attached for a perfect support, so the hook serves the same purpose. There are even other things, such as what Ned Steinberger sells (Ned Steinberger Design) for his more modern basses, but are expensive.

A bass that you will surely enjoy, hope they keep making them, but just in case get one before they disappear.