03/11/2026
Steinberger GL2T #3285 — A Piece of TransTrem History
When Ned Steinberger introduced the graphite-neck Steinberger guitars in the early 1980s, they completely reimagined what an electric guitar could be. The GL series combined a headless design, carbon-fiber neck construction, and remarkable tuning stability that immediately caught the attention of top professional guitarists.
The breakthrough feature was the legendary TransTrem. Unlike a traditional tremolo, the TransTrem allows players to transpose entire chords up or down while maintaining perfect tuning relationships between strings. It’s an engineering innovation that opened the door to sounds and techniques that simply didn’t exist before.
Because of this technology, Steinberger guitars quickly appeared in the hands of some of the most influential guitarists of the era, including Eddie Van Halen, Allan Holdsworth, Mark Knopfler, Buck Dharma, and David Gilmour.
These instruments can be seen and heard in iconic performances such as Summer Nights and Get Up from the album 5150, where Eddie Van Halen used a Steinberger GL with a TransTrem to create dramatic pitch-shifting chord effects.
This particular instrument, Steinberger GL2T serial #3285, recently came through the HeadlessUSA shop and has now been carefully restored and placed with a new collector.
At HeadlessUSA, our mission is to preserve that legacy—through meticulous restorations, rare parts, and our JCustom TransTrem systems, helping keep these revolutionary instruments performing for the next generation of players.
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