The guy I bought my lefty XZ-2 from was also in Jersey City and he was a lefty Steinberger fanatic, with about 6 or 7 different Steinberger basses, including a converted XP-2 red one. I'm guessing this was his bass and he sold it to someone in Japan, unless another lefty did the same exact thing to a righty too. That whole face plate is non-original and was made to accommodate a lefty setup. original pickguards always had the Steinberger logo in some form or other (engraved, etched, etc.) and were 3 ply. If you look at the headless nut, you'll see that it also appears that the G string has been filed wider for the E string now. As for the neck, it definitely doesn't look like graphite to me, and AFAIK the XPs had graphite necks. (Though bodies were wood to keep cost/price down).
There may have been red XP-2 Spirit models, however, once offered by MusicYo way back when, and those most definitely were all wood construction. Check out this old archived MusicYo model list, where they clearly show red GP models:
http://www.guitarsend.com/musicyo.htmSo my thoughts? This is a $349 (price back in 2004) Spirit XP-2 that somebody converted lefty.
