Steinberger Spirit 4 string Bass Review

The Steinberger Spirit 4 String bass is a great bass. I've been playing mine for 3 or 4 years.  It's the only bass I own because I'm too spoiled to it to accept any other bass.  I bought the Steinberger because I needed a really light bass.  Most basses are just too big and heavy for me to comfortably wear and lug around for an entire gig.  The Steinberger is perfect.  It's feather light.  And the sound quality is great.  It comes with EMG designed stock pickups.  The tuners are amazing.  You tune when you put the strings on, and never have to tune again, ever.  They lock down 100%.  I once dropped the bass off a 10 foot stage riser, and not only did it not survive the fall, but it wasn't even the slightest bit out of tune.  Not many models could do that.  Everyone in the band tunes to me all the time because my bass never changes.  It's awesome.  The double ball end strings that are required are a bit of a pain,though.  They are fairly costly ( I use LaBella brand,but there are a couple of other makers like GHS and D'Addario.).  They usually cost me around 65 dollars a set.  And they aren't readily available in stock at every music store.  So you need to keep a spare set on hand all the time, since you can't just run down and grab a set or borrow a string from somebody else.  You've got to plan ahead.  But they don't break that often, and go dead at the same rate as regular single ball strings.  The other thing that is a bit odd about the Steinberger is it's look.  It's headless stick shape isn't necessarily the prettiest bass I've ever seen.  It's definitely not for traditionalists in the looks department.  But for some people, I guess that could be an advantage.  Your bass will provide more opportunity for conversation than most.  It could draw extra attention.