That Tough Nut To Crack: The Headless Tremolo

[andvari7]

Good evening.

I like to consider myself a fairly intelligent man. I have an anthropology degree, which is mostly useful in dinner parties, or if you're Cliff Clavin; I enjoy 'Frasier' on a level that surpasses most sitcoms, and I use a Mac. But, despite my grooming, I find myself perplexed by what should be a simple task: developing a trem system for a headless bass. It's a problem not seen since Ned Steinberger was still running his first namesake instrument company, and it is one that has plagued me since I first came into possession of a headless bass five years ago. Until I owned a bass with a whammy bar - in my case, an Ibanez with a Kahler 7410 Hybrid - I could not begin to understand the nuances, the physics, the mechanics of such a device. "Never trust gimmicky gadgets," he said to Romana, regarding the locator to the Key to Time.

Having worked on the project off-and-on since 2007, I think I finally may have come up with something workable: Rather than reinvent the steel (mind you, I'm more of a "Vulgar Display..." kind of guy), why not just use the existing architecture, and modify it to suit our needs? I've had some opportunity to ponder this arrangement, but I need your help. Heck, I need all the help I can get, in order for me to solve this problem. It is as I outlined in the title.

Thank you.

[Turnaround]

Originally Posted by andvari7

Good evening.

I like to consider myself a fairly intelligent man. I have an anthropology degree, which is mostly useful in dinner parties, or if you're Cliff Clavin; I enjoy 'Frasier' on a level that surpasses most sitcoms, and I use a Mac. But, despite my grooming, I find myself perplexed by what should be a simple task: developing a trem system for a headless bass. It's a problem not seen since Ned Steinberger was still running his first namesake instrument company, and it is one that has plagued me since I first came into possession of a headless bass five years ago. Until I owned a bass with a whammy bar - in my case, an Ibanez with a Kahler 7410 Hybrid - I could not begin to understand the nuances, the physics, the mechanics of such a device. "Never trust gimmicky gadgets," he said to Romana, regarding the locator to the Key to Time.

Having worked on the project off-and-on since 2007, I think I finally may have come up with something workable: Rather than reinvent the steel (mind you, I'm more of a "Vulgar Display..." kind of guy), why not just use the existing architecture, and modify it to suit our needs? I've had some opportunity to ponder this arrangement, but I need your help. Heck, I need all the help I can get, in order for me to solve this problem. It is as I outlined in the title.

Thank you.

Well I guess it's an Everest kind of thing, but I have to wonder why you want to complicate your life by trying to put all of the mechanical parts of a bass in one location. I could see doing a minimalist headstock, but leaving the tuners there, so you could put the bridge, string height, intonation and bender functions at the butt end.

Going the next step to headless seems like baiting failure. So, why? You seem bent on pushing this "consider myself a fairly intelligent man" thing to the edge.

[grendle]

Buy a steinberger bass trem and be done with it. A trans trem even! The berger stuff is superbly engineered and about as good as you can get. Just my.02