DIY Straphook for Steinberger Spirit XT25 bass.

Review of a Steinberger XT25 bass I have had for 2.5 years. I share my thoughts on the pros and cons of this bass plus show DIY straphook that you could make to use bass in standing position. Cost of tool was around £6 and you will need some metal drills and a locking bolt. I found it a good idea to wrap your bass cleaning towel (you all have on right?) around the tool when you store it in gig bag. Reduces the chance of tool cutting thru the bag.
If you know of decent and ideally cheap active pickups that fit this 5 string please leave a comment or contact me.
Hope you find tool and review useful.

[@EdEditz]

I just ordered a black version of this. I'm not a bass player, I'm a synthesizer man. I'm not even that musical but the reason I got it was the last sentence in your video. 'It reminds me of my youth' :) I was a teenager in the 80's and always lusted after a Steinberger. The originals now go for €5000,- if you can find one so this is the closest I'll ever get. The other reason I want one is because Eric Serra plays one in a favourite 80's film of mine 'Subway'. Brilliant French movie.

[@stephenhookings1985]

Ah The Fifth Element dude! Firstly thanks for watching all the way to the end! For sure this will remind you of your youth - and I hope it makes you feel young again. The lightness of this bass will put less stress than traditional basses. So it shouldn't remind you of getting older (back pain). I tried to be honest in my experience. Stock - great for lap playing. Weak pickups - but OK if you put gain in and FX. Sniffer Customs (see his channel) did a great job adding EMG pickups in. If I bought this again I would probably go for the 4 string. But the 5 is good too - will demand better finger dexterity. The home made hook - for sure Gibson should have given a replica of the original hook. Without a hook it is MUCH harder to play standing up. Right now (later videos) I have mine in E A D G C and this, with an FX processors, can replicate Royal Blood tone and (as our lead guitarist commented) "not bad for a plank of wood". Enjoy and link me to any of your channels. Would love to see others having fun (hence why my main focus is on ZoomPedalFun - making some Zoom pedals controllable via midi for old non FX synths).

[@stephenhookings1985]

Ah I just seen you channel. Synths (tick). WW2 concrete (tick), photography (my Mrs does this - I used to design tracking algorithms for ATGMs so was into early drones). Electronics (I dabble but wish I was better). VCOs etc (tick). You have a new subscriber.

[@EdEditz]

@@stephenhookings1985 Dude, I totally forgot to thank you for that last comment and for subscribing. Thank you! :) We are 2 months on now and I just ordered the 4 string version too :) I just love these basses. Btw, I made a straphook extender that can just be hooked onto the front strap attachment point without the need to screw anything into the body of the bass. I have a short video demo of it on my channel. It's the last video I posted. I got La Bella strings for the XT25 and love how they sound. So much so that I ordered some with the XT-2 as well. I want my favourite strings and not the stock ones which, like you said, are rubbish. The La Bella's fit the Spirit Bass really well and they were the original strings designed by Ned Steinberger and the CEO of the Mari company of which La Bella is a branch. They are pricey though.

[@stephenhookings1985]

I heard a rumour that the La Bella don't fit the spirit so let me know. I use them on a couple of basses (SX5 string that came with a set for £130 - bargain and I put some on my Harley Benton b450FL and finally i put a set on my Daphne Blue Jazz bass with retrofitted maple fretless neck. Lovely feel.

[@EdEditz]

@@stephenhookings1985 Ah okay. Well they fit the XT25 perfectly, that much I am sure of. They also retrackt nicely into the tuning system. These were the S300 that I got. I'll have a look when the XT-2 bass arrives how those strings fit. They are the same as the other ones I got, only without the B string obviously. The S100S strings. I'll let you know how they fit when I tried it.

[@stephenhookings1985]

Just got a 14" radius block on order. I already have fret crowning file and fret rocker. I think I will experiment with levelling on this bass to get super low action with no buzz. Should be fun

[@TomFynnVideos]

Good Job. I followed your instructions 😊

[@stephenhookings1985]

@@TomFynnVideos Hope it worked for you. If you get tempted to upgrade the pickups follow Sniffer Custom's EMG rather than my butchery!! Still - my cheap pickups do sound good with a high C bass :-)

[@TomFynnVideos]

@ Actually I’m quite happy with the original ones.

[@JEKLWV2273]

thanks for giving me the idea of ​​placing a key as an arm for my Steinberger bass

[@stephenhookings1985]

No problem. Augusto gave me the idea and I guess Ned Steinberger himself had the original idea :-)

[@tommyhunter9641]

Thanks. This bass is new to me. It is a passive/active switchable lefty. EMG pickups. Sounds very nice to me. I appreciate your experience on this bass design. . I may try light gauge strings next time. I will video my process. Thanks a gain.

[@stephenhookings1985]

Sounds like a versatile model. These reissue ones have the travel part going do them - that is all. I will keep an eye out for one like yours.

[@bjornerikstokland]

The anglegrinder-tool is a brilliant idea for a straphook! If i may, asking because i do not know, and have not tried: Why non connect the strap to the neck?

[@stephenhookings1985]

I don't like to weaken a neck. To be clear it wasn't my idea - I gave credit to Augusta. But it works well. I have now set this bass up to be 5 string E to high C. With an octave you can get into Royal Blood territory! The stock pickups were so awful. I love this bass for travelling.

[@tlkshowhst]

Thanks for posting this. I have the same bass and even though the saddles are as low as possible, I find the action a little too high. I sanded down the bottom of a saddle and it feels much better. I'll end up doing that to the other 4. I, too, am looking to replace the pickups with something more faithful to the GL2. If I find anything, I'll let you know.

[@stephenhookings1985]

Well mine with these Ken Smith strings goes down to 4/64 - Dave suggests 5/64 and at this height if I strum too hard I get some buzz of certaij frets hence why I have a radius block on order. I would settle for 5/64 which seems achievable. Have you measured yours ? What spec have you set to? The zero fret instead of nut is just great. And I find this fretboard to be one of the most accurate I.E. 2 octaves of decent intonation.

[@stephenhookings1985]

Got some Warmann quad rail guitar pickups ...they sort of fit (dont quite span the 5 string but pretty confident they would span 4... they for sure span my Squier 4 string Jaguar short scale). Need to get some mounts but for £31 they have beefy output and I will make a video once I fitted them. I fret levelled and recrowned and I just got a new Zoom B1fourX so that can work to change the sound ... watch this channel I expect more videos soon.

[@richardslicka8647]

so took it apart today. 2 x 500k linear for volume pots and 1 x 500k audio for tone. I think I will be changing the pots to 250k audio, maybe 500 depending on how it sounds. I got a 14" radius block on order and I already have fret crowning files and a Dremel like polisher. I will try to drop this down even lower. I measured the inner rectangle of the pickup at 38 x 80 inner with 45 x 100 outer. So far I not found cheap replacements - EMG are 102 x 38 but they dont seem to have the inner rectangle. Of course cheap far eastern but they tend to be 112. To me if the cost of decent replacement pickups gets near £200 I might as well buy a Sire M2 which I played and is quite decent with great active preamp. BUT I would like to upgrade these. Oh I measured the coil output at around 5k ohms ... which is on a par with the weak 4k Jazz pickup on my Squier VM - which once replaced with IronStone was just amazing. Alas Tony doesnt make soapbar's. Still looking for decent pickups Oh at 12th fret I am measuring 5/64 which seem reasonably constant towards the bridge - this is where Dave also likes to set it. I could probably to with adding a little more relief - it is about 10/1000s at 7th fret with capo on 1st and string flat on 24th fret. And some of my saddles are raised so no need to grind it of. They are reversible and maybe that is required if the intonation notch is too close to the bridge?

[@tommyhunter9641]

I have a Hohner model of this design. The tuning seems stiff. You mentioned that you disassembled the bridge on yours to lubricate it. What was your process of disassembly? I might like to try it on mine If there is a proper way to do so , I am interested. Thanks.

[@stephenhookings1985]

I don't know about "proper" but about 3 mins into another video I take the bridge off of the Steinberger to allow me to route new deeper pickup cavities- kzbin.info/www/bejne/g6Wlo3xqiNB5hrc Now there I take the whole thing off because I want to get router bit in - all I think you need to do is to video yourself/ take pictures ((just incase your bridge is different to the Steinberger)). Loosen and take out strings. Then keep loosening until the bridge saddle drops out. Make a note of any washer / spring assembly ordering, drop in a box, move on to next. Clean the pegs then use a small amount of grease. Carefully reassemble. I think the thread is similar to electrical pattress screws. And these seem to screw thru the knurled thumb screw. So it might be possible to replace them if they are somehow chewed up. If you have the wrong strings this too can make the pegs stiff. So on mine I went for a E A D G C and the D is too long in 3rd pos. It seems better in 4th pos (B E A D G) but the low B is barely fitting in the Ken Smith set. I do have the string conversion nut which I figure I may use with ordinary strings. At the time I was obsessed about finding cheap alternative pickups - since then I would simply put some active EMGs in and route a battery cavity (I don't think there is enough space in control cavity). I think some Honer have the active pickups? Hope this helps. If you do video it please send link and I will add it to playlist. Wishing you well. Final note. I dont know why these Gibson remakes have the bridge about 8mm closer to the nut than the original Steinberger - maybe your Honer is truer to the original and has a better choice of strings?

[@stephenhookings1985]

I took another look at my Steinberger just now - so sure I still have the problem with the D string. However I noticed couple of points: 1 - I lowered the action, so the string is effectively longer 2 - I have the height wrong on this D string!! Too low. So raising the saddle will make the string that little bit longer again. And this "wrong string" length is the major reason for my tightness in the adjustment. I might see if I can make a small collar for the string at the head end - effectively shorten it. So long as it doesnt crush I dont see why it should affect the tone - the zero nut / bridge saddle is the dominant factor. Thanks again for you comment - it's helped me out a lot too.

[@kevmac1230]

​@@stephenhookings1985 It has been my experience with the bridge that it holds tuning amazingly well.Mine is a four string though.I spent 30 bucks on a string retainer that fits on the nut with no modifications.Now I can use any brand or type of strings sold.

[@TheChrist11]

Hello Sir.🙏 How much would you charge to make me athe strap metal contraption for my Spirit 5 String?? I need it for my Church playing. The Spirit is highly uncomfortable to play. I live in NYC, if you can... how much would it cost to make it, and also the shipping change. I would greatly appreciate your help, mate. Thanks for your time, Michael John.

[@stephenhookings1985]

It's DIY. The spanner is like £5 from Amazon - a router spanner I think. Drill out and mount a locking bolt onto a straplock. Carefully mount it to the body. Maybe someone local to you in NYC can help? I think some folks made a 3d printer hook. I restrung mine E to high C - quite versatile in a Worship setting. For the Low B I use a Sire M2 or an SX fretless.

[@stephenhookings1985]

See kzbin.info/www/bejne/d2KXk4eifLZonrs for excellent example of installing EMG pickups. Any other hints accepted - looking at the Gemini. Installed a Belcat 3 band EQ today - not a dramatic improvement but worth a punt since it was £7. Still almost cut my thumb off trying to break into their potted block to reveal circuit board etc. Save yourself £7 and thumb :-)