So to tell them apart - see above....there are eight trem units in total that Steinberger used, with three of them being actual Trans Trem variants - TT, TT2, and TT3.

Trans-Trem Type 1 (TT1) - The original Trans-Trem was released in 1984 and seldom seen, and only really on the GL style guitars that Steinberger was making at the time. These used very special strings with threaded ball ends, which doubled as the adjustment for the pitch change rate of each string. The problem with this was that it meant you had to re-adjust the fall rate for each string every time you changed strings, which was a tedious, annoying process, especially to the kinds of people who could actually afford these $5000 instruments at the time (ie professional musicians). You don't see these very much as they were made for a short time before the Type II came about.

Trans-Trem Type 2 (TT2) - The Trans Trem II is the most commonly seen design on Steinberger guitars. It basically changed to using regular factory ball ends on the strings, using an assembly known as a "Jowl" that changes the fall rate by moving the string up and down. The string attaches to the Jowl, it's tuned by turning the knob behind it - which pulls the string back, and the jowl is adjusted after everything else to affect the fall rate. Seems the further down the jowl is, the more pitch change. There also are 4 Specific types of Jowls - one type for E, A, and D strings, then specific sizes for the G, B, and high E strings, with the high E allowing the most movement as it needs such for the highest amount of pitch drop. It works much the same as a Wonderbar Tremolo (which came later) - basically, the higher up the jowl is raised, the more pitch drop. This design was manufactured from about 1985 or 1986 until about 1998, where it was replaced by the TT3.

Trans Trem Type 3 (TT3) - The Trans Trem Type 3 - or "TT3" as it was officially called, was a new version of the Trans Trem introduced on the ZT3 guitar in 1998, and looks a bit more modern and elegant compared to the 80's versions. This particular unit works a little differently from the others. I might have to do some massive digging to figure out how the trem works and the assembly works.

String fall rate explained - everyone focuses on the "compensated" strings part of the argument but the cold hard truth of it is given enough adjustment any type of string will work with a unit like this if the strings can drop fast enough. BTW, Edward Van-Halen, ever the tinkerer, bought some Trans trems and put them on REGULAR GUITARS - including a Les Paul, one of his Wolfgangs, and even a late 80's Kramer guitar (which Valerie Bertinelli was seen posing with at one point in the late 80's). I figured this out on my own putzing around with the Washburn Wonderbar.

Here's my basics....

• The wider the arc of the "jowl" the more pitch variation - This arc is tuned by moving the Jowl up and down.
• The thinner and higher pitched the string, the slower the fall rate - This is why we see the high E on the Trans Trem (and on my Wonderbar by extension) cranked up so high - because to get the same drop in relative pitch, you need to increase the arc to increase the fall rate.
• Rule of Thumb: the higher/thinner the string, the more fall rate it's going to need - This is why the Steinberger trems have compensated jowls for the fall rate. This is one way Washburn/Shift 2001 failed in it's Wonderbar design.

Jowls (Type II) - The primary piece of this function is called the "Jowl" (left). The Ball end of the string sits in the cat-head shaped piece, and that cat-head shaped piece rides up and down on a brass, flat-head screw that goes through the jowl (visible in the back of the Trans-Trem on all Type II units). By raising and lowering the "jowl" the arc of motion is changed. Raising the Jowl raises the arc-of-motion and therefore the pitch-change-rate, while lowering it makes the arc smaller, and therefore, less pitch change. The thinner and higher pitched the string, the more arc it needs to drop relative to a smaller set. And to explain again the importance, there are 4-5 different types of jowl. The tuning is changed by pulling the jowl assembly forward or backward by the tuning knobs in back. This mildly affects the arc of motion - hence why we need "calibrated" strings, because if the string is too long, the arc will be too small, and the string won't drop enough, while vice, versa, if the string is too short, it might fall too fast - like a too-short Low E string. There's a nice equal-centerpoint where they all fall at the same rate. I'll talk about why this works (somewhat) with regular strings in the Washburn Wonderbar section.

Compensated Strings - Another thing to talk about, are the special "double ball, compensated" strings you need. Only one maker I know of that makes strings for the Trans Trem - LaBella, and they have STP, ST for V1, and ST for V2. V1 means the old trans trem with the adjustable fall rate via the threaded ball ends, and V2 is for the Version 2 Trem which adjusts with the jowls. They have to be made at special lengths and special tensions to have the proper fall rate to work with the tremolo. I think the length is a big part of it though.

How the Transposing Feature Works - So now that the strings all fall at exactly the same rate in pitch, allowing chords to be bent up and down, another feature of the Trans-Trem is the ability to "Lock" into different positions enabling being played in different keys - using the bar like a spring-loaded CAPO of sorts. This is done, surprisngly simple - via an adjustable lock position/cam thing on the whammy bar mount. Basically, when the bar is pushed away from the player, it engages this cam against a pin, and that locks it into position.

This effect can be heard on Van-Halen's "Summer Nights" - when the song starts, Ed has his Trans Trem pulled up 3 semitones to "G-standard" tuning for the intro, and then he drops it back down to "E-standard" when he begins playing the main section of the song. I also have reason to believe, on the verses, he's pulling the bar up one step and locking it, playing that B minor section (G#) like you would in E-standard in the key of A minor - the hint is when the chorus ends you get this 1-step up bending of the chord from the "A" that ends the chorus to "B5" - that's Ed engaging the locking feature on the Trans-trem for that section. The entire song "Summer Nights" - and "Get Up" off 5150 are basically showcase demos for the Steinberger trans-trem.

Picture	Specs	Description
Overlord of Music R-Trem Copy	$30-100 Clone of R-Trem Fulcrum Type Pivot	These are probably the cheapest trem on here, and they are post-pivot Fulcrom style tremolo unit in the style of the R-Trem Type. It uses two hidden knife edges and the whole unit pivots on those knife edges, but it uses the same spring style as all the other Steinberger style trems.
Double Roller Headless Trem	$50-$150 Original Design Based on S-Trem by functionality (tail pivots, instead of whole unit on 2 knife edges)	This is a new design that just turned up at the turn of 2023-2024, and is sort of it's own thing. I could see this being a basis for a Transposing Trem variant as well. But I think they avoid that because it would make this unit way too expensive. It functions much the same as an S-Trem unit which is basically a Trans Trem without the Transposing features installed. This is one I'll be testing out on my Guitari 2600 guitar build.