I made Steinbergers back in the 80's. Ned was a good guy to work for. The neck stiffness isn't relevant to using the trans trem. The Steinberger neck just happens to be very stiff by design. That was to eliminate a truss rod.
I mean holy f**k this is phenomenal. I’m 55 and thought I’d seen it all in the EVH world but this is in a league of its own. Every gawd damn EVH nut like me should be all over your channel. Your unicorn is incredible why haven’t you uploaded the project here. You’re the bloody Adam Savage of guitars!
You're too kind! I've found Instagram to be easier for content creation and my writing and voice over gigs are keeping me quite busy. I plan on doing another TH-cam video about a budget 78 VH rig when I get all the pieces and parts organized. There are days I miss this guitar! It was something special.
@@obsessedwithguitars3157 That’s sounds Kool. You could just upload the same videos you put IG right? TH-cam is just way more of a long form in-depth platform. Of course far harder to get reach with. There are reams of super geeks who would eat this stuff up. I mean building a transtrem guitar lol!! Holy s**t. 🤘
I always wanted one but couldn't afford it. Now a days, the effect is pretty easy to duplicate with something like the Helix or Boss G series effects because they have polyphonic pitch shifters. Nice job on this. It came out great!
My parents grew up with Van Halen, both @ Pasadena C.C…literally - born same day as EVH 😂 that said I’m now 35 and still learning this part of his sound and styles developed and part of his vault of musicianship. Takes me 2-3x’s to understand but awesome to grasp once it makes sense
OBSESSED WITH GUITARS, can you make a video lesson about how EVH used the transtrem because he would pull up or push down to put his licks into a different key. I'm guessing the trastrem has some type of locking steps or something because EVH would turn his guitar to D standard and pull up on the transtrem to put his licks in E standard tuning, not sure how he did this
Boy, I'd love to, but I don't own this guitar anymore! As for what he'd do to change keys with the Transtrem, he only used it on a few tracks. The most notable of them would definitely be Summer Nights, where he started the track with the bar in the highest position (F#) for the intro, then to E for the verses, down to the next lowest position (D) for the solo, then back to F# for the reprise of the intro section, then back to E for the outro. For Get Up, he never set the bar in a different key (feel free to contradict me if I'm wrong!) but rather relied on the trem's ability to change all the strings' pitches at the same rate. It's a really cool bar, but a PAIN to set up when you don't use double ball end strings. This guitar, while cool, was such a nightmare to get to transpose because of the odd scale length (25") and use of standard strings that I ended up selling it. Was fun when it worked, though!
@@laynesnewyearparty7909 Well, you can pick em up for between 1500 and 2000, but you WILL have to at least replace springs and bearings if not send the whole unit to Headless USA for refurbishment.
I’m gonna be doing a guitar project with a trans trem in the near future, most likely with a peavey wolf body/neck….Are there any tuning/pitch issues when transposing using the non double ball string setup?
Well, it's just super annoying to get figured out because there's the added wrinkle of getting it tuned up with the tuners, too. Not so bad if you use the exact same kind of strings every time though! Especially if you use very consistent strings like Ernie Ball Paradigms or D'Addario NYXLs.
@@obsessedwithguitars3157 yes, it's crazy how expensive it is! I can only find a couple of TransTrems for sale right now, and they're both going for almost $2,000 just for the TransTrem, no guitar included. I'd love to have a guitar like this if I can ever find a good deal on a TransTrem.
@@willgibsonguitar I don't, unfortunately. I had a customer order a body from me that he wanted routed for a transtrem, and he ordered an RWB bridge. I can message him to see what he thought if you like.
Dam never thought id see someone build this guitar. Hats off to you great job! Do you know if Eddie built his or did Paul or someone else build it for him?
Dang, I don't! My guess is someone else since Eddie wouldn't have made it look as nice as it ended up looking. That's no slight to Eddie, he just preferred chisels to routers and templates. Perhaps the Kramer folks did it? I'd love to have more info on it.
What were the dimensions you chose for the routing, the footprint of the trem itself ? Ive been trying to find any info on the actual size of the transtrem for a project, but so far come up empty. I think its def larger than the r and s trem, especially with the tuning portion.
Hey man. I recently bought a Steinberger TransTrem V2 bridge and was curious if you have those diagrams for the routing handy and how exactly you put this all together. I’d like to install in a strat style body and was curious about how you did this and if there was anything you would do differently having done this once. I’d greatly appreciate the help!
This is the main set of dimensions I worked off of. It wasn't easy, there was a LOT of fine tuning as I went along. You'll have to have enough room on the back side of the body to turn the spring adjustment knob, which is something you just kinda have to feel out as you're doing it. www.scribd.com/doc/164837277/TransTrem-Routing
One more thing. On the right underside of the vibrato, you'll need to have an extra notch cut out in your guitar body. I'll try to find a picture of what I'm talking about.
Here, on this body you can see there's an approximately dime sized hole on the right side of the trem rout: www.google.com/search?q=steinberger+body&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjd-dG89IP6AhWOlWoFHZfHAVYQ2-cCegQIABAC&oq=steinberger+body&gs_lcp=ChJtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1pbWcQAzIECAAQGDIFCAAQogQ6BAgjECc6BQgAEIAEOgYIABAeEAg6BggAEB4QBVCjBVjGImDMJ2gBcAB4AIAByAGIAccZkgEGMC4xOS4xmAEAoAEBwAEB&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-img&ei=VjMZY932BY6rqtsPl4-HsAU&bih=724&biw=412&client=ms-android-verizon&prmd=msivn#imgrc=qy4AlCRMIKGuVM
Ok cool. Another question, what was the purpose of the cutout that was routed all the way back past the tremolo to the tail of the guitar? Can I get away with using a CNC to cut out the room I need for the transtrem and have the rest of the body flush with the surface?
@@becketholmgren924 Since the fine tuners are horizontally mounted, you need enough room to grip them. On the original Steinbergers, the cutout on the butt end of the body was so you could access the tuners and tension knob (as well as the locking lever on S-Trem equipped guitars.) Eddie's solution, as was anyone who equipped a standard solid body with a Transtrem, was to rout a channel behind the fine tuners and a cutout in the back for the tension knob. When Steinberger made the headstock equipped Transtrem guitars in limited numbers, they actually had a knife edge nut and tuning machines. The Transtrems in these guitars were set into standard style guitar bodies, but they had no fine tuners!
Man I need to build one. If I do can I pay you to get some info on how to do it right? Just had a GL3T over the weekend to help a guy set up the transtrem and it feels like I cannot live without one now.
By chance, how would you describe tuning stability on those steinberger trems, if you have any experience outside the transtrem version. Theres also the s and r trem, from what Ive read. The r trem, or a copy of it, being used on those cheap gt pro steinbergers. In principle they all act like a floating trem that can be hardtailed if you so desire, but none can be set to dive only or has a kind of fail safe if you break a string or detune a single string.
@@maxmustardman298 You can tune to drop d on there, but honestly, it's super complicated to get it to transpose and the fine tuners are integral to the process, so I never did drop d while transposing. I know it's possible, just a pain to set up.
Just subscribed! Love your channel and guitar builds! What would you charge for a bumble bee clone made for me? Just curious as I would possibly like to pay you for one...if you can or available to in the future.... much appreciated, and Happy Thanksgiving!
@@obsessedwithguitars3157 thanks for your reply… let me know if I can send you my email… I don’t have social media i.e, fb Instagram Twitter etc… just TH-cam… thanks!
I'm not knocking this dude but, who the hell is going to shell out the money for this? Also, the intonation is crazy outta whack.... Again I think he is sharp no question but, this is not a cost effective guitar at all especially during these extreme lean times. Which is why I speak for many when I state that the Kramer Baretta Special is selling like hot cakes.
I made Steinbergers back in the 80's. Ned was a good guy to work for. The neck stiffness isn't relevant to using the trans trem. The Steinberger neck just happens to be very stiff by design. That was to eliminate a truss rod.
I mean holy f**k this is phenomenal. I’m 55 and thought I’d seen it all in the EVH world but this is in a league of its own. Every gawd damn EVH nut like me should be all over your channel. Your unicorn is incredible why haven’t you uploaded the project here. You’re the bloody Adam Savage of guitars!
You're too kind! I've found Instagram to be easier for content creation and my writing and voice over gigs are keeping me quite busy. I plan on doing another TH-cam video about a budget 78 VH rig when I get all the pieces and parts organized. There are days I miss this guitar! It was something special.
@@obsessedwithguitars3157 That’s sounds Kool. You could just upload the same videos you put IG right? TH-cam is just way more of a long form in-depth platform. Of course far harder to get reach with. There are reams of super geeks who would eat this stuff up. I mean building a transtrem guitar lol!! Holy s**t. 🤘
@@Andrew-pk9vz Yeah, I should download the Instagram videos and post them here, sounds like I have a project for tomorrow!
You're back! I love your enthusiasim toward the rock gear's greats. My kind of channel to be sure!
Thanks for the kind words!
I always wanted one but couldn't afford it. Now a days, the effect is pretty easy to duplicate with something like the Helix or Boss G series effects because they have polyphonic pitch shifters. Nice job on this. It came out great!
Really fascinating. As a lefty I don’t get to play many guitars this trans trim stuff it amazing!
They made a truly small number of lefty trans-trems. Tony Iommi had one, and I've seen a few in TH-cam videos, but they are dang rare.
My parents grew up with Van Halen, both @ Pasadena C.C…literally - born same day as EVH 😂 that said I’m now 35 and still learning this part of his sound and styles developed and part of his vault of musicianship. Takes me 2-3x’s to understand but awesome to grasp once it makes sense
Looking forward to the standard fender trem keeping-in-tune video
Great stuff man
OBSESSED WITH GUITARS, can you make a video lesson about how EVH used the transtrem because he would pull up or push down to put his licks into a different key. I'm guessing the trastrem has some type of locking steps or something because EVH would turn his guitar to D standard and pull up on the transtrem to put his licks in E standard tuning, not sure how he did this
Boy, I'd love to, but I don't own this guitar anymore! As for what he'd do to change keys with the Transtrem, he only used it on a few tracks. The most notable of them would definitely be Summer Nights, where he started the track with the bar in the highest position (F#) for the intro, then to E for the verses, down to the next lowest position (D) for the solo, then back to F# for the reprise of the intro section, then back to E for the outro. For Get Up, he never set the bar in a different key (feel free to contradict me if I'm wrong!) but rather relied on the trem's ability to change all the strings' pitches at the same rate. It's a really cool bar, but a PAIN to set up when you don't use double ball end strings. This guitar, while cool, was such a nightmare to get to transpose because of the odd scale length (25") and use of standard strings that I ended up selling it. Was fun when it worked, though!
Where did you find the transtrem I’ve been looking for that bridge for years.
Scanned eBay and Reverb daily for like a year. No joke, it wasn't a fast process.
@@obsessedwithguitars3157 not to be nosey but what’s a ball park price I know most steinbergers with them are like $3000 to $7000?
@@laynesnewyearparty7909 Well, you can pick em up for between 1500 and 2000, but you WILL have to at least replace springs and bearings if not send the whole unit to Headless USA for refurbishment.
I’m gonna be doing a guitar project with a trans trem in the near future, most likely with a peavey wolf body/neck….Are there any tuning/pitch issues when transposing using the non double ball string setup?
Well, it's just super annoying to get figured out because there's the added wrinkle of getting it tuned up with the tuners, too. Not so bad if you use the exact same kind of strings every time though! Especially if you use very consistent strings like Ernie Ball Paradigms or D'Addario NYXLs.
@@obsessedwithguitars3157 Definitely appreciate the insight….thanks!
Is this still for sale, or are you looking to make another one 👀
@@willgibsonguitar oh, it's long gone, but I'd love to make another one. It's just so dang expensive!
@@obsessedwithguitars3157 yes, it's crazy how expensive it is! I can only find a couple of TransTrems for sale right now, and they're both going for almost $2,000 just for the TransTrem, no guitar included. I'd love to have a guitar like this if I can ever find a good deal on a TransTrem.
@@willgibsonguitar you need to check out RWB Engineering. They're making new Transtrems for $1600 each.
@@obsessedwithguitars3157 ill definitely have to check them out! Do you have any experience with them/know if they're as good as the originals?
@@willgibsonguitar I don't, unfortunately. I had a customer order a body from me that he wanted routed for a transtrem, and he ordered an RWB bridge. I can message him to see what he thought if you like.
Dam never thought id see someone build this guitar. Hats off to you great job! Do you know if Eddie built his or did Paul or someone else build it for him?
Dang, I don't! My guess is someone else since Eddie wouldn't have made it look as nice as it ended up looking. That's no slight to Eddie, he just preferred chisels to routers and templates. Perhaps the Kramer folks did it? I'd love to have more info on it.
Super awesome playing and building
What were the dimensions you chose for the routing, the footprint of the trem itself ? Ive been trying to find any info on the actual size of the transtrem for a project, but so far come up empty. I think its def larger than the r and s trem, especially with the tuning portion.
That is correct, I'll find a link and post in a minute
Here's the main dimensions I used: www.scribd.com/doc/164837277/TransTrem-Routing
@@obsessedwithguitars3157 awesome, thank you !
@@maxmustardman298 you bet!
Hey man. I recently bought a Steinberger TransTrem V2 bridge and was curious if you have those diagrams for the routing handy and how exactly you put this all together. I’d like to install in a strat style body and was curious about how you did this and if there was anything you would do differently having done this once. I’d greatly appreciate the help!
This is the main set of dimensions I worked off of. It wasn't easy, there was a LOT of fine tuning as I went along. You'll have to have enough room on the back side of the body to turn the spring adjustment knob, which is something you just kinda have to feel out as you're doing it. www.scribd.com/doc/164837277/TransTrem-Routing
One more thing. On the right underside of the vibrato, you'll need to have an extra notch cut out in your guitar body. I'll try to find a picture of what I'm talking about.
Here, on this body you can see there's an approximately dime sized hole on the right side of the trem rout: www.google.com/search?q=steinberger+body&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjd-dG89IP6AhWOlWoFHZfHAVYQ2-cCegQIABAC&oq=steinberger+body&gs_lcp=ChJtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1pbWcQAzIECAAQGDIFCAAQogQ6BAgjECc6BQgAEIAEOgYIABAeEAg6BggAEB4QBVCjBVjGImDMJ2gBcAB4AIAByAGIAccZkgEGMC4xOS4xmAEAoAEBwAEB&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-img&ei=VjMZY932BY6rqtsPl4-HsAU&bih=724&biw=412&client=ms-android-verizon&prmd=msivn#imgrc=qy4AlCRMIKGuVM
Ok cool. Another question, what was the purpose of the cutout that was routed all the way back past the tremolo to the tail of the guitar? Can I get away with using a CNC to cut out the room I need for the transtrem and have the rest of the body flush with the surface?
@@becketholmgren924 Since the fine tuners are horizontally mounted, you need enough room to grip them. On the original Steinbergers, the cutout on the butt end of the body was so you could access the tuners and tension knob (as well as the locking lever on S-Trem equipped guitars.) Eddie's solution, as was anyone who equipped a standard solid body with a Transtrem, was to rout a channel behind the fine tuners and a cutout in the back for the tension knob. When Steinberger made the headstock equipped Transtrem guitars in limited numbers, they actually had a knife edge nut and tuning machines. The Transtrems in these guitars were set into standard style guitar bodies, but they had no fine tuners!
Do you have my Tele Trans-Trim ready yet?
Man I need to build one. If I do can I pay you to get some info on how to do it right? Just had a GL3T over the weekend to help a guy set up the transtrem and it feels like I cannot live without one now.
I could, probably best if I just rout a body for one and sell that to you!
@@obsessedwithguitars3157 that sounds like a better idea. found your instagram, I'll send you a message there.
As for info, that's always free. I have plenty of drawings and dimensions to share.
By chance, how would you describe tuning stability on those steinberger trems, if you have any experience outside the transtrem version. Theres also the s and r trem, from what Ive read. The r trem, or a copy of it, being used on those cheap gt pro steinbergers. In principle they all act like a floating trem that can be hardtailed if you so desire, but none can be set to dive only or has a kind of fail safe if you break a string or detune a single string.
I'm afraid I have no experience handling a Steinberger trem beyond this one. People report great tuning stability, but I can't say personally.
@@obsessedwithguitars3157 ah too bad. Have you tried something like drop d on the transtrem and seen how it behaves ?
@@maxmustardman298 You can tune to drop d on there, but honestly, it's super complicated to get it to transpose and the fine tuners are integral to the process, so I never did drop d while transposing. I know it's possible, just a pain to set up.
@@obsessedwithguitars3157 ok thanks
Just subscribed! Love your channel and guitar builds! What would you charge for a bumble bee clone made for me? Just curious as I would possibly like to pay you for one...if you can or available to in the future.... much appreciated, and Happy Thanksgiving!
You won't believe it, I literally just got all the parts for a Bumblebee. Message me directly on Facebook at Obsessed with Guitars and we'll talk!
Or PM through TH-cam. Is that possible? I don't know, I really should find out!
@@obsessedwithguitars3157 thanks for your reply… let me know if I can send you my email… I don’t have social media i.e, fb Instagram Twitter etc… just TH-cam… thanks!
@@TonyFuentesTV Sure, send me your email, that'll work great!
Where did u get the trans trem
Got it on eBay. They come up for sale every now and again. They almost always need refurbishment, though.
Do you have an email I can contact you at? Thanks! Happy Thanksgiving! 🙏🙏🙏🤘🤘🤘
Send emails to emeraldcoastproductionsllc@gmail.com. Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving to you, too!
@@obsessedwithguitars3157 Thanks! I’ll reach out to you this weekend! 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘
I'm not knocking this dude but, who the hell is going to shell out the money for this? Also, the intonation is crazy outta whack.... Again I think he is sharp no question but, this is not a cost effective guitar at all especially during these extreme lean times. Which is why I speak for many when I state that the Kramer Baretta Special is selling like hot cakes.
Was thinking are the frets spaced right for intonation
He would just need one buyer. Wish it could have been me.