The Steinberger for an inexpensive guitar plays surprisingly good. Its biggest issue IMO was the fact that the volume knob was right up against the bridge pickup. My hand was constantly hitting it. So, I swapped the volume knob for a low profile kill switch, then moved the volume knob down to where the tone knob used to be. (pic below)
I also bought some ball bearings for the bridge tuners, but haven’t got around to installing them. The bridge tuners on the Steinberger are extremely stiff.
I drove three hours to Sweetwater to play almost every Strandberg they had in stock. Was totally worth the trip. They brought up 12 from the back, I play each for a few mins and quickly narrowed it down to three. Then I prob played those three for about an hour comparing everything about them. I don’t usually spend a couple grand on a guitar, so in my mind it had to be perfect.