Used Spirit Pro or New?

[moonmusic]

Hi,

 

This is my first post on the Steinberger forum. I just bought a used Spirit Deluxe Pro from Guitar Center online. The action is pretty nice thought the bottom string buzzes a bit but my real concern is that the volume knob on it sounds scratchy when in use. I really like the feel of the Spirit so I decided to buy a new one from Sam Ash and had it set up. I'm a little disappointed that the top string flattens against the neck when pressed past the 15th fret but I guess I can bring it back and have the set up guy bring the action up a bit. Anyway, there's a reason why I bought a new one after the old one.

 

I've bought the Spirit mainly as a travel guitar so I wanted one with a gig bag rather than a case. I'm probably going to bring the used one back to Guitar Center as I only saved about $70 with the used one and it would cost me just slightly less than that to buy a gig bag so why not own a new one? Well, the reason maybe not to keep the new one is that the pickups on the new Spirit say Steinberger on them and are fairly low in output compared to the pickups on the used Spirit which say Select by EMG. I like the punch and drive the older pickups have over the newer ones though I wish I could get a more sparkly tone from them. The used Spirit has a much lower serial number than the new one and I guess they changed the pickups over time. I can't tell for certain but the newer pickups may be more balanced but I wish they had more balls to them like the older Selects.

 

So my question here is what pickups exactly am I getting in the new Spirit? Are the pickups better or worse in the newer Spirits?

 

I'm debating bringing the used Spirit to Guitar Center to see if they can fix the volume pot or just flat out return it and eventually swap the pups on the newer Sprit for something with more punch. Any advice on what to do?

[gmiller79]

I've owned my Spirit GT Pro deluxe for 10 years. I had to replace the volume pot once. This is pretty easy to do if you can solder. If not, any guitar repair shop can fix it easily. I have not played a new GT Pro and mine is old and has the EMG Selects in it. From your description I would keep the older guitar and have it repaired.