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Steinberger Transposing Trem | |
Article from One Two Testing, February 1985 |
lockable wobble
ALWAYS HEART-WARMING to start the new year with a fling of ingenuity. Steinberger, of course, are not precisely dullards when it comes to spritely invention. Give them the electric guitar body and they come up with those stocky, 'space plastic' wedges for basses and six strings. Show them a neck and they take off the headstock. Ask about machines or winders and they fit them as fine tuners behind the bridge.
A similarly offbeat and whacky approach has been followed for the Steinberger Transposing Tremolo — a system that doesn't just wobble the strings, but can be locked in position to raise the entire tuning up or down in steps, by as much as two tones (on our sample) from E up to G sharp and down to B.
Tremolo arm as capo?? That's the scheme, though you'd be hard pressed to find a capo that could drop the tuning of your guitar.
This transposing brainwave might seem simple until you try it on your own guitar by heaving the arm up and shoving a pile of pennies underneath to keep it in place. You'll soon discover that the strings stretch by different amounts and therefore rise in pitch by individual degrees. What starts as an E major might finish as an F sharp confused.
So the entire trem system of the Steinberger has had to be designed with the eventual transposability in mind.
The ball ends of the strings slot into metal grips housed in a weighty aluminium block at the far end of the guitar. The jaws are moved backwards and forwards by the brass knobs at the extreme edge of this block. This arrangement we shall call the Steinberger fine tuners. In a normal, trem-fitted guitar, the aforementioned aluminium block might swivel back and forth to supply the stretch and slack for the strings. Not this boy.
To preserve the pitch relationship, the top strings should be pulled further than the bottom ones to create an equal rise in pitch. To this end the hinge for the block is off centre. As you heave back with the arm, the block angles down and away from the E, B and G. Very, clever.
Even so, Steinberger have realised this general action might not be enough. So, each string can be individually set up for trem tension. Inside the ball end (in place of the usual ring) is a small, Allen-keyed grub screw which engages with a thread inside the grips. As this is screwed in, the ball end is pushed further down the grips. O level Physics will tell you that the closer the end of the string is to the hinge of the trem, the less powerful is the leverage, and so the strings are not heaved back by as much. Very, very clever. You do need "Steinberger" strings, however.
Quite remarkably — a comment that comes from knowing trems barely capable of keeping one string in tune, less alone six — the technique works admirably. Down and up, you can hear chords and intervals sticking together, harmonics shifting to keep pace, and gentle vibratos staying pleasantly in tune. Makes a surprising difference.
But hark, we said 'lockable' earlier in the copy. How so this? The trem arm itself (a disappointingly brutal bend of steel out of character with the rest of the smart engineering) screws into a pillar at the side of the aluminium block. A screw collar tightens it into place once you've decided on your best playing position. Thrusting forward from this pillar is a rod, cross sectioned like a key, with seven steps cut into it. This rod engages with an upright column fixed to the rest of the bridge (containing the brass saddles) which is firmly attached to the body of the guitar. The trem locks by slotting the rod against the column.
It unlocks by pulling the tremolo arm towards you, just a fraction, to disengage the 'key'. Disadvantage of this system is that, if you've set the trem and then accidentally catch it a light swipe while strumming away, the mechanics will leap back to the centre off position with a loud twang.
The steps don't go up in simple semitones but slightly puzzling jumps, perhaps a result of being unable to squeeze too many steps so close together on the rod. The E goes up to F sharp and G (no F) and down to D/C/B (no E flat or D flat).
The fine tuning of the individual string tension is essential. As an experiment I swapped the Steinberger to an open A tuning and found the pitch abandoned all attempts to stay in one place. Message here is do what they say. Used simply as a trem the Steinberger performs well but then the major problem of string stretch between nut and headstock doesn't exist, because neither does the headstock.
But is there any point to it all? Though you could doubtless build some intriguing solos and passages around the idea of instant transpositions, the greatest lure for these fingers was to keep up with the rest of the band. The keyboard player decides to shift the song from E to F sharp and in one move you can keep pace with him, without having to sacrifice all the neat open string runs, sneaky harmonics and intervals you spent hours developing at home. Similarly, if you've got a part that requires two or three strings bends near the nut, take the pitch down and the strings are slacker and the bend position moves away from the nut — easier all round.
Using the transposer as an everyday trem does benefit from some forward planning. Unless that pillar is rotated so the rod is well clear of the column you might suddenly find the trem rigid, knocked into the centre—off position. Vibbing is there none.
And of course, you're not going to fit it to any old six string leaning against the wall of the privy. The system will be sold separately to fit to existing Steinbergers (there's a bass version on the way) and Steinberger's British face says it should be possible to append the machinery to other headless six strings that bear a strong similarity.
Finally, the sample we had in for review was officially a prototype and it seems the production model will be four way (two up, two down) or possibly five way going by the American press release. Hope they get a nicer 'wang' arm for it on the way.
STEINBERGER transposing tremolo: price tba
Contact: Soundwave, (Contact Details).
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Review by Paul Colbert
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