Steinberger Transtrem

I know I mentioned this in another thread, but it will stick out more here, and this is a more correct place for it anyway.

I'm looking for a Steinberger Transtrem, or at least a copy of one. I don't think anyone makes them normally, but if you know anyone or know of anyone who could make me one, that would be really, really great. I'd willing to pay a significant amount of money, as long as it's fair, unlike the $10,000 that a****** Ed Roman wants.

You'll probably have to wait until someone sells a bass with one installed on it. These things are almost as rare as a Honus Wagner rookie card.

I concur. The sad fact is that Steinberger only produced between 180 and 200 of the TransTrems for bass, making them extremely rare. And there are a lot of players that want one, including a lot of our brethren here. But we'll let you know if one pops up.

That's why I'm asking if you guys know anyone who can make me one

Part of the deal with the TransTrem is that its primary function was/is to change the tuning range of the bass. You would tune the bass to a normal E-A-D-G, and you could then on-the-fly raise this range to something like F#-B-E-A, or lower it to D-G-C-F, and lock the whole thing into place. You could also use it as a standard tremolo. I imagine that this multi-functionality is probably one reason why they are so expensive (besides the obvious price-gouging from the company).

The guitar units work in the same fashion.

I imagine that someone with enough experience at metal-working could probably design one, but this would take a lot of work.

Jeff/MoBeach had one, so he can elaborate more on how it worked.

I, too, would love to have one for the string locking, and the fine tuners.

What is it exactly that appeals to you about the TransTrem, KS?

I've posted this in the Steinberger thread as well. Here is what SteinbergerWorld has to say about the TransTrem for bass:

Bass TransTrem

Shortly after the introduction of the guitar TransTrem in 1986, Ned went to work on a bass version of this revolutionary bridge. Introduced in early '87 and logically dubbed the "Bass TransTrem" it featured the same ability to transpose strings in tune from low B up to high C. These bridges were actually made by HAZ Labs. Not known as a machine shop, this was done as a favor to Ned from Henry Zajic (HAZ Labs founder & owner).



Though inspired, demand and interest in the bass version of this tremolo was never very great. Outside of the initial production run, no more were ever made. Best accounts are anywhere between 140 and 200 bass TT's were produced. HAZ Labs recalls it being 2 runs of 100, but actual documentation is non-existent. Steinberger offered the bass TT as an option into the '90's until all existing inventory was gone.

Though our TransTrem instruction pages are focused on guitars, the same principles of installation, setup and use apply to the bass version as well.

Kugelspot wrote:

That's why I'm asking if you guys know anyone who can make me one

If you can find the schematics any decent machinist could probably do it, but they might worry about violating a patent.

Ok, my initial google search turned up nothing relevent, but I did find a pic of a really awesome guitar



Anyway, I'll probably email Hazlabs about it and see what they can do.

And as for your question, Eric, I'm not really sure why I want one so badly. I guess it's a combination of the duel functionality, the fact that none of my other basses will fit a top routed trem, and the sheer awesomeness of having a headless bass with a trem on it, let alone that there are only about 200 others in existence.

Wow...three Invaders...that's a lot of fuzz, man

KS, Jeff/Mo can confirm this better than I can, but I believe that the TransTrem routing is actually much more invasive than a standard Kahler or Hipshot. But it does appear that the top-of-the-body profile of the TransTrem is slightly smaller than the other two.

Mo? Your thoughts?

Good point, Eric. Looking at that photo of it, since the saddles appear to be more compact and much of the mechanism is hanging off the body, it looks like you wouldn't have to worry about running into your bridge pickup's housing. But if you tried to put one on a non-headless bass, I can imagine that you might have to take out a lot of wood in order for it to work/fit. Man the more you guys talk about these, the more I'm fascinated by them...

The thing is, I have always felt that a TransTrem would work really nicely on a standard bass with headstock and keys, since you would not only have the strings locked at the bottom along with the fine tuners, but you could still tune in an ordinary fashion. The Bach Musik bass trem also has fine tuners, but I'm not certain if the strings actually lock into the bridge. Still, I can imagine they must be anchored in there somehow.

I still want to try and develop some sort of toplock for a bass one day. Combine that with either a TransTrem or a Bach Musik bass trem, and you'd have a complete locking system for bass.

EricHaven wrote:

KS, Jeff/Mo can confirm this better than I can, but I believe that the TransTrem routing is actually much more invasive than a standard Kahler or Hipshot. But it does appear that the top-of-the-body profile of the TransTrem is slightly smaller than the other two.

Mo? Your thoughts?

The routing looked pretty intricate, I never removed the bridge so I can't say for sure what it looked like.

EricHaven wrote:

The Bach Musik bass trem also has fine tuners, but I'm not certain if the strings actually lock into the bridge. Still, I can imagine they must be anchored in there somehow.

They slide into the back, just like a normal, non trem bridge, and the fine tuners press down on the string, before they reach the saddle, increacing the pressure, to bring the string sharpened back into tune.

Fender had a non trem bridge for the "elite" series of basses, that incorporated a similar system.

Ah! I remember that Fender bridge!

That makes sense to me now.

EricHaven wrote:

Ah! I remember that Fender bridge!

That makes sense to me now.

Its basically that on a trem.

Which tells me that if someone got their hands on one of those older Fender bridges, and had it welded to a fulcrum system ala John Gallagher, bingo!

Exactly!

But those old basses, most guys took the fine tuners off, little un-necessary on a hardtail really, and often as not get misplaced.

Taking another stab at tracking one of these things down. I posted a thread on TB asking about it, and I've been following a trail of "hey, I know a guy who might be able to help you." I'm supposed to call this guy who might be able to help me (though I'm not sure how, because I can't find any info on him other than he is a member of the Steinberger World Yahoo group). If that doesn't work out, I might email HAZ Labs or Ned Steinberger himself to see if either will give me a copy of the blueprints. If they somehow agree to send me them (I think it's a long shot), then I'll see if I can find someone with a machine shop and the metalworking skills to make it happen.

Keep your fingers crossed guys, this might just work out!

Best of luck on your quest, KS! But I would think that they might not cough up the blueprints all that quietly. It would be sort of like giving away the keys to the kingdom, if you get my meaning. As long as Ned Steinberger has those plans (and it is his design, after all), then he's free to retain the ownership of the design, and as such, free to build the units for whatever price he wants to set.

Now, I would reckon that since the bass TransTrem is built upon the same operating principal as the guitar unit, it wouldn't be out of the question for someone to reverse-engineer the design. And since the guitar units are so much easier to acquire, it might be possible to do such a thing. It would still be costly, but I believe it could be done.

I've always thought that it would be simpler to buy a Steinberger bass with the TransTrem off of an eBay seller, and to then take the trem out and put it into a standard bass. At least that way you wouldn't be paying that ridiculous price of $10K for the trem alone.

EricHaven wrote:

I would think that they might not cough up the blueprints all that quietly. It would be sort of like giving away the keys to the kingdom, if you get my meaning. As long as Ned Steinberger has those plans (and it is his design, after all), then he's free to retain the ownership of the design, and as such, free to build the units for whatever price he wants to set.

I knew that already, it's just would just be a desperate last try.

EricHaven wrote:

I've always thought that it would be simpler to buy a Steinberger bass with the TransTrem off of an eBay seller, and to then take the trem out and put it into a standard bass. At least that way you wouldn't be paying that ridiculous price of $10K for the trem alone.

Actually, the whole point of this was to not have to resort to that. If I'm going to buy a TT Steiny, I might as well keep it on the bass, instead of putting it on my Hohner, which is not nearly as good

'87 Steinberger TransTrem Bass with padded Steinberger gig bag...For sale in North Carolina - make reasonable offer
[]

Also, there is one on the bay right now at 1800.

Very big alarm!
I've seen one, transtrem I mean. Ebay. Biddings lasts for four days. Buy it now 3000 us dollar, No shipping outside Us so no option for me.

Transtrem ebay