Be.eM
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Posts posted by Be.eM
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Steinberger branded pickups are Epiphone pickups (not Select by EMG), however, both are made in Asia. Doesn't matter where they are made, though, because the specs are either by Epiphone or EMG.
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Here is the wiring diagram including the pot values. An A25k dual pot.
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1 hour ago, moodyfrazier said:
Baseplate is not bent. Anyway I'm not gonna spend 250$ of bridge on a 300$ guitar. Come on...
Yes, that price has gone up recently, I also think it's too high. But the same tremolo can also be found on much more expensive guitars, so there's a market for it.
Anyway, if your base plate is not bent, this might be a solution for you: R-Trem steel posts upgrade.
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If the base plate itself is already bent there aren't many options apart from getting a new tremolo. There is a JCustom R-Trem clone sold by HeadlessUSA. The much cheaper Chinese copy (Overlord of Music) won't make you happy, this tremolo is much weaker than the original (or the JCustom version).
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Not a Steinberger at all. The bridge is cheap Chinese hardware, the shape is weird and nowhere near any Steinberger instrument. Not even a "fake". It's just something without a head.
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These two fit and work nicely with Steinberger and Hohner headless:
https://www.thomann.de/gb/rockbag_rb_20600b_headless_style_g_bag.htm
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That's not the serial. On your last pic of the neck heel, the serial would be on the left hand side. On a mounted neck, the serial is where your hand would be playing on the 20th fret. The serial on a USA neck always starts with "Steinberger USA" and the number has either an "N" or "TN" prefix (Nxxxx(x) or TNxxxxx).
I doubt these are factory EMGs (GRs came with SD pickups exclusively), and the knobs aren't original either. Looks more like a swap of pickups and pots.
Bernd
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I don't know what these things are, but if they're as solid as wood and stiff enough not to interfere with the neck resonance…
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I somewhat doubt that HeadlessUSA sells original Steinberger headpieces… to me it looks like a Hohner, or better: coming the manufacturer who also built the Hohner R-Trems (as long as they were available). Gibson doesn't sell them as replacements without a service/repair case. Don refuses to do anything on Asian Steinbergers (Spirits and the Korean line), so why should he bother with getting parts from Gibson… some years ago he also sold Hohner R-Trems, so why not also the headpieces.
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Well, this looks a little bit like the Hohner headpiece which I've shown above… as not fitting. Where did you get that headpiece?
If you want to use it anyway (and if the screw holes align to the existing holes), I'd use it with a shim. Just put a little bit of wood between the neck top and the headpiece.
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Correct. Two screws hold the headpiece, the truss rod nut is accessed through the middle hole.
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There is no bolt. There's just the nut on the truss rod (hex socket), accessible through the hole in the headpiece.
Bernd
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That Hohner headpiece has different dimensions, won't fit on a Spirit. I made this comparison with a JCustom headpiece, which is made for Steinbergers (Spirit and Music Yo):
Bernd
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Hi Lorenzo,
this guitar is listed as a "GMSTDBK", made on December 3, 1993. That model designation means a GM Standard with S-Trem, black, and most likely with passive Gibson pickups. These are the corresponding catalog pages from the 1994 catalog. Your guitar looks like the left guitar on the pic, correct?
I'm not sure what you mean by "have the documentation paying for the trouble". If you need instructions for the S-Trem: go to http://www.steinbergerworld.com/ and click on "Technical info". There are 3 pages of instructions for the S-Trem. Apart from that there's no documentation available.
Bernd
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Well, it's possible that the spring tab (on the bottom of the tremolo top) is severely bent or broken. You'll need to take the trem apart for checking it.
For doing so, remove the strings and completely turn down the spring tension. Then you'll be able to pull the trem top a little bit backwards (away from the pivot posts) and then upwards. Take it off and inspect the spring tab and the pivot posts. These are examples for damage on both:
Bent spring tab (with breaking as the next level of damage):
Bent pivot posts:
Post the pics of what you find…
Regards,
Bernd -
OK, the .008 string set and its (lack of) tension is definitely the reason. The R-Trem was not designed with a string gauge below .009.
As there is no other way to "center" anything than to adjust it via spring tension, you'll need a different spring. One option to test would be using the standard spring size for the TransTrem, which is 1.75", instead of the 2" spring you've got now in your R-Trem. This would be the TransTrem spring I'm talking about. If you're not living in the US, let me know. There are other sources for these springs.
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If the strings go sharp there is already too much tension on the spring. Turning counter-clockwise would reduce the tension. Do you mean you cannot reduce the spring tension enough to get the tuning correct when floating? That would be very unusual… not getting enough tension happens from time to time (especially on worn trems), but having too much from the beginning is a new thing. I cannot imagine how this would happen, except for a) using a non-standard tuning (down) or b) having a spring that's too long.
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ECC,
instruments in that numbering range can be found right at the beginning of the headless europe database. For example, there's a GM7TA with the prefix (MY)N and the serial 000961. That prefix (MY) stands for Music Yo, to distinguish between Newburgh and Music Yo instruments, both using "N" as a prefix. Your guitar is not yet there, but I will add it, if you give me more details. Please also read the description at the link above. This is not an official list published by Steinberger or Gibson, who both never published such a list and never will do. This is tedious manual work by fans, once started by Andy Yakubik (Steinberger World list, with about 1050 serials), and now continued by me (meanwhile 4050 serials). So it's neither a mistake nor "no one bothering" that your guitar isn't listed yet, it's just that nobody sent me the details yet to add it.
Besides the serial number list also check the "Steinberger Instruments Timeline", also at the link above. This will show you that your instrument was most likely built in 2004. An exact date is impossible to find out, because this info is not available from Gibson.
Bernd
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Rich,
first you'd need to disassemble the bridge to find out the cause of the problem. If the threaded bolt of one string was actually broken, I'd expect the broken part to still sit in the jaw. The tuning knob with the threaded rod cannot be inspected unless the bridge is disassembled.
From the Synapse parts list linked by Slowgypsy above, there are two parts which might be of help, depending on the cause of your problem:
- * Guitar Synapse - Fixed Bridge w/ Piezo Assembly & HW SBR-102 (the designation on the website is wrong, SBR-102 is the 4-string bass bridge)
- * Bass Synapse String Jaw - Jaw (1) One Fits All SBR-107
The procedure to get replacement parts from Gibson is as follows:
- Find an authorized Gibson service provider
- Have this authorized Gibson service provider order the parts for you from Gibson/Epiphone
You cannot order these parts directly from Gibson. And there's no guarantee that these parts are still available, as current stock isn't listed anywhere. However, there actually is a chance, I've recently ordered other parts from that list and received them.
Good luck!
Bernd
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On 5/4/2020 at 8:50 AM, Davvan1980 said:
Does anyone know where to get these kind of screws? A few of my screws are bent, but the worst thing is Thatcher hex partern is all worn out. Intonation is almost impossible.
I've just checked it, and although totally unexpected, you can still have these parts ordered from Gibson/Epiphone. All you need to do is have an authorized Gibson service shop order the "Steinberger SMH-100" screw set (you cannot do it directly), and this is what you'll get:
Bernd
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This will help: R-Trem maintenance 🙂
Edit: No, sorry, this is still not the bass bridge…
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Yes. Gibson missing the bus on a trend once again. Nothing to add.
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1 hour ago, Kahuna Nui said:
One option I suppose would be to grind down the base of the saddles by a couple of mil…
Just make sure you've still got a string break angle greater than 0 afterwards. The ball ends of the strings need to be lower than the break point of the saddle, otherwise you've got a new problem… 😉
Help Needed To Identify Very Unusual Head/Nut Piece On Steinberger GR4
in Steinberger
Posted · Edited by Be.eM
image added
Hi,
I've never seen a headpiece like that, and I'm somewhat irritated by the lack of the zero fret. This looks like a one-off solution by an (to me) unknown parts/machine shop or luthier who must have removed the zero fret while installing the headpiece. Unfortunately this is kind of an irreversible damage to the neck, however, as long as it works correctly this is only a damage to the value. I've also never seen such an additional number on the neck. The partially visible regular serial (N121xx) definitely points to a 1991 GR.
It also looks like there's a part of the neck missing (cut away), the neck end is shorter and not as round as the usual necks. This is how it should look like:
Bernd