Modern Guitars, Then and Now.

Andy Eagle

Andy Eagle

Fractal Fanatic
The two I want to look at first are the Steinberger GL and the Aristides 060 neither is the companies first offering and my examples are in to the life of both but represent the peak of there potential.
First up Steinberger GL4T;
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This example is a close to mint 89 that has been refreted in 57110 SS Jescar (by me) and has had the neck relief almost removed entirely (also by me) .
The reasons for this are it has no truss rod and the neck does not flex in any way under tension of strings and the amount that was cut in to the neck originally was too much IMO . This and cutting the radius to 20" was also the mods that Allan Holdsworth had done to his GLs
 
These guitars where and still are quite rare in terms of numbers although they had a profile in the media far higher than many brands that sold in much bigger numbers. Original production was 7/8 a week and they cost $2K plus in the mid 80's $5k now for a good example $1k for the trem.
This one has the version 2 Transtrem that was produced in Japan for them . IMO the first version that was hand made locally and needs threaded ball ends on the strings is by far the best but the stings make it very impractical and the fact that it needed calibrating every time you put strings on. ( Arguably you should anyway .)
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The differential pitch change is achieved with a conical cam that has individual radius adjustments for each string to fine tune calibration across the range. This is also the body for the tuner mech. The fact that the tuning pulled the string out of alignment with the cam to tune is why you have to use calibrated strings that are within the adjustment range to compensate . There was a version without the tuner mech for the super rare GS7T ( I have a GS7Z ) that has the ball ends in line with the cam axis and can use normal strings. (EVH had Wolfgangs with this trem to play TT tunes.)
 
The cam can stop in five positions including locked standard tuning then ± 1 and 2 tones either way;
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You can see in this picture the extent of the different angles required to keep the intervals right across the range.
Also the complexity of this insane piece of hardware , and this is before we look at the accuracy and the material required to make this work and last.
 
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My fret choice and fingerboard level just brought it in to line with modern requirement for guitar like this.

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Calibrated double ball end strings are an expensive PITA and they are often not fresh and not in calibration .
This and the fact that almost nobody could actually set their trem up properly for some reason (it really isn't that hard.)
This was never going to catch on and there is almost no music made that actually needs it to play . EVH was the only guy that just got one and immediately wrote on it.
 
The second guitar is an Aristides 060
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This is far more nothing new but an attempt to get everything we already have and make it predictable and better.
Playability is flawless as is the fit and finish.
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This is what attracted me to it in the first place. A guitar that I wouldn't feel the need to disassemble and rebuild from new and one that I could just think about music instead of what is wrong with it.
 
This guitar has a very loud immediate acoustic tone that although not like wood is very good and doesn't take long to get used too.
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Plugged in it is far more conventional sounding if a little modern and even response for some
 
The only thing I don't really like is the indents but they are their trademark so I can't complain (but I do because I rest my hand on the guitar there.)
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Fretwrap too. even though they don't work very well.
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Details are just perfect on these.
 
My son is into Steinberger guitars with trans trem but they don't look anything like that model, I do not know the model, but the cam system is hidden in the trem unit, and you can use regular strings, or the special double ball strings. you put the ball end at the trem and the bare end gets clamped with an allen screw at the end of the neck just past the zero fret. He does not seem to have any troubles with set up, but he has been using them for a few years.
 
Henry said:
"Then".

Weirdest one I ever tried out.

https://www.12fret.com/instruments/1985-bond-electraglide-carbon-fibre-guitar/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_Electraglide

No frets. Each step is wedge shaped.

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I remember those well, a friend of mine had one. It played like hell because the closer you got to the fret edge on the stepped fingerboard the lower the effective fret was . Absolutely terrible for bending and vibrato. The fingerboard was also anodised aluminium and was showing wear pretty quickly.
 
paranoid said:
My son is into Steinberger guitars with trans trem but they don't look anything like that model, I do not know the model, but the cam system is hidden in the trem unit, and you can use regular strings, or the special double ball strings. you put the ball end at the trem and the bare end gets clamped with an allen screw at the end of the neck just past the zero fret. He does not seem to have any troubles with set up, but he has been using them for a few years.
Click to expand...
Is it this model;
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Interesting guitar but made at Epiphone in Korea and did not have a carbon neck . This model has a hybrid headpiece to allow normal strings BUT the transtrem 3 needs calibrated double ball strings to work in tune across the range.
This is the only TT equipped guitar to take normal strings without using an adapter .
Are you sure it is not the R trem (no tt function) because the cam is visible and necessary on all three variants.
This is the ZT3 btw.
 
While we are on Steinberger here is the GS7Z.
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Or the Sceptre. This is the rarest at only about 200 made in 1990 and it basically bankrupted them because of all the proprietary hardware .
 
Then something that is not on ANY other guitar . A knife edge almost friction free nut with individual string pieces. The absolute best trem nut ever made.
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Each string sits on what is effectively a pie wedge shaped piece of hardened steel that rocks in a V shaped cage. The string never moves on the wedge ,instead the wedge rocks on a knife edge however much is needed to accommodate the trem action . And because the wedge has a radius on the string contact point the intonation remains perfect . This is the only design of friction free nut that wold work better the more down pressure you put on it.
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Now add a hand machined steel bridge and you can see the profit margin disappearing rapidly.
This is before you factor in the carbon neck.
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This stays in tune like a Floyd and was designed so you could put a Floyd on the posts . I have never tried it and suspect the routing may get in the way but the stud position is the same.
 
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The only mod I have made to this is again Jescar 57110 SS frets.
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This is one of the only 2 that came to the UK. The other was the review model that was in Guitarist magazine, a metallic blue GS7T with EMGs. There may be a few more with people bringing them in but v rare. There was a version of this that had the "Jam trem" after the Gibson buyout.
This model was a floating knife edge unit that locked hard tail when you parked the trem arm. The only version of this that actually worked in the real world because of the spring tension adjustment knob on the top of the unit. This vital fine tune adjustment is missing from all the other attempts at this function rendering them real world useless.
 
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