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Steinberger Transposing Tremolo

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To my knowledge my shop "Ed Roman Guitars" is the only place in the world where you can still buy a brand new original Steinberger Trans Trem. I also have a good selection of replacement parts. If you can find one someplace else I would be very surprised. I purchased the last of the Trans Trems back in 1996 when the real Steinberger factory shut their doors forever.  I also bought almost all the other components available at the time. I have remanufactured many of the items as the patents expired.

Regarding the Trans Trem, at one time we all couldn't wait for the patent to expire, so we could start building them ourselves. then we could have reduced the price. But when we researched the tooling costs, I decided not to do it. By the time we eventually located the original USA tooling sitting in a machine shop in Brooklyn we had decided that the project was not going to be fruitful.  We did however manage to obtain 40 of the original machined USA made trans trems.

The advent of the Floyd Rose Speedloader Tremolo was the main reason we have opted not to go ahead with the project, coupled with the fact that most of the imported trans trems prove unreliable when you switch tunings.

The Trans Trem is a cool idea, Ned Steinberger was way ahead of his time when he developed it. The later model ones that Gibson had made were all cheap castings and they wore out really quickly.

We have Original Trans Trems and later model ones in stock... We have them new & used, They are considered very collectable, I have actually put several brand new ones away in my time capsule vault. Today they sell for 5 times as much as they did when the were new.

I also have Piezo & MIDI Systems available for Steinberger bridges. We have experimented with these for over 7 years before we were able to put out a product that will work correctly.

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Understanding these instructions is essential
Or you won't get the full benefit of this sophisticated mechanism.

1. INSTALLING TREMOLO ARM: To install, spin arm clockwise into threaded hole, a minimum of four full turns. When arm is screwed in almost to desired position, tighten knurled locking nut firmly down, Tighten both arm and nut together for about 1/8th turn more to lock into position. To remove or readjust arm, spin arm counter clockwise until small transposing arm contacts back at pin. Continue turning until arm is free. To adjust rotational friction of transposing arm, turn set screw located diagonally under arm on tuner housing.

2. TO USE TREMOLO: Rotate arm into playing position and use normally. Steinberger Trans Trem

3. TO TRANSPOSE: Drop arm down, then turn clockwise to engage D, C, and B tunings. Pull arm up and turn clockwise to engage F# and G tunings, To disengage, rotate arm counter clockwise.

4. TO TUNE: First lock tremolo  in center E position by rotating arm clockwise. Then tune individual strings with small knobs as you would normally. ALWAYS LOCK TO TUNE!

5. TO ADJUST TREMOLO RETURN: After unit is tuned, as in step 4 above, rotate arm counter clockwise to disengage center lock. If tremolo moves and does not remain in tune, turn SPRING TENSION KNOB at bottom of guitar to adjust to pitch as required. Tremolo should not move or change pitch when going in and out of locked position. Additional tremolo positions of Eb and F are possible by further adjustment of the spring tension knob.

6. ACTION AND INTONATION: First unlock the saddles with side set screw. Adjust action (vertical movement) with individual saddle set screws. For bridge intonation (horizontal movement), push saddles manually, if intonation is sharp at the 24th frets push saddles back (toward tuning knobs). If intonation is flat at the 24th fret, push saddles forward (toward headpiece).
ALWAYS LOCK side set screws when bridge adjustment is completed. (1 1/2mm allen wrench required).

7. TO REPLACE STRINGS: To remove, loosen tuning knob until string is loose and ball can slide up and out of jaw. ("B" and "G" string balls are deep in saddles and restricted from upward movement by a small lip, Simply move ball back in jaw and lift to remove).  Align string ball with hole in jaw, and push ball down as far as it will go (On "B" and "G" strings, balls must be pushed below small internal lip, and should then pull up on lip for most stable operation).

After rough tuning, push tremolo all the way up and down several times to set strings, then fine tune and adjust transposing feature as needed.

NOTE: The TransTrem will work with all double ball strings as well as conventional single ball strings using a STRING ADAPTER available from World Class Guitars. However, the best results will be achieved with Labella CALIBRATED double ball strings designed for the TransTrem, with either threaded ball or non threaded ball.  These are also available through World Class Guitars

The transposing arm is easily removable by loosening screw on side of arm. The transposing pin is removed by loosening set screw.

Buck Dharma (Above Pic)
Blue Oyster Cult's Fabulous Lead Singer & Lead Guitarist

Buck uses Ed Roman LSR EB-1 headless guitars with Steinberger Tremolos

He has now switched to the Floyd Rose Speedloader which is more dependable & doesn't cost as much.

 

 

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