Stetsbar

Stetsbar with Vintage Arm mounted on Gibson ES137

The Stetsbar Tremolo system is a tremolo arm/vibrato bridge system for the electric guitar developed by Eric Stets during the late ‘80s and patented in 1995. The system was originally designed to offer an extremely stable tremolo system that could be retro fitted to “stop-tail” guitars such as the Gibson Les Paul without the need to make any permanent modifications to the recipient guitar.

Gibson ES137 with Stetsbar mounted

Since its introduction, other mounts for the system have been introduced to enable a wide variety of guitars to be accommodated.

Principle of operation

Stetsbar tremolo/vibrato system mounted on a Fender Telecaster guitar

The Stetsbar is a floating tremolo system where the pull of the guitar strings are held in equilibrium at the scale length of the guitar by two heavy duty springs anchored to a spring retainer block on the base plate of the unit.

When actuated by moving the tremolo arm up or down, the bridge operates with a linear motion in the same plane as the strings of the guitar. A Tune-O-Matic style bridge is mounted on the bridge plate which also holds the string anchor block. The bridge plate moves over a pair of roller bearings installed in the base plate of the unit. Thus, the bridge and string anchors move as one, eliminating any friction over the bridge saddles.

Another advantage of the surface mounting of all components is that no additional holes or routs are needed to the guitar to fit the unit. This is especially nice if you upgrade to a similar guitar (e.g. from an Epiphone Les Paul to a Gibson Les Paul), as you can move the tremolo from the old guitar to the new without losing any functionality/value of either guitar, since its original bridge/tailpiece can be put back on.

The Pro II Stetsbar is further equipped with a 'floating lock' system. When engaged this has the added benefit of keeping the unit in tune in the case of a string break or double stop bend. It also allows drop tuning on the fly. Use of this does mean that up pitch movement is disabled.

Available models

The Stetsbar comes in a number of variants all of which are due to differences in the base plate design only. All other parts are common across the entire range. Various finishes are available for the base plates and other parts to allow for a close match to a guitars existing bright work, scratch plate and pickup surrounds.

Stetsbar tremolo/vibrato system mounted on Hard-Tail guitar

Available models are:

Other Variations – some units are fitted with various makes of piezo pickup saddle or graphite bridges dependent upon requirement.

Accessory items now include a Stetsbar 'Vintage' Arm and a Stetsbar Fine-Tuner device suitable for use with Stetsbars and other guitars with similar stop-tail configurations.

Notable users

Among the professional users of the Stetsbar are artists such as Jan Akkerman, formally of Focus, Snowy White (who tours extensively with Roger Waters and other members of Pink Floyd), Randy Bachman, Elliott Randall, Mike Chain, Reeves Gabrels, Hershel Yatovitz, John Bohlinger and Dave Gutter of Rustic Overtones and Paranoid Social Club, as well as many other US, UK and European guitarists.

External links

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