I started playing guitar when I was a teenager, first strumming chords, then taking finger-picking
acoustic lessons, and finally transitioning from finger picking blues to electric guitar. I played
throughout my 20s with some intensity, and then backed off to be more of an occasional player.

When my 30th college reunion approached, we decided to get our old college band back together, to
play a reunion dance. That got me to thinking about buying a practice guitar, and during the
resulting web searches I discovered Steinberger (headless) guitars. They are very small, but
full-scale, and easy to take with you wherever you go. I bought a bottom-of-the-line Spirit, and
then eventually a flagship graphite GL. For more info, see Steinberger World.

Ned Steinberger, who invented the whole headless concept, came up with a special vibrato/tremolo
that allows you to keep the guitar in tune while altering the pitch of the notes. Most tremolos
do not provide this feature, and the resulting product, the Transposing Tremolo (Trans Trem, or
T-Trem) became popular. Because of the mechanical complexity, the T-Trem by itself sold for $700,
making T-Trem equipped guitars quite expensive. The GL came with a T-Trem, which I began to play with.

As wonderful at the GL is, I began to want to build my own. I assembled some Steinberger parts, but
the results were not compelling. I eventually designed and built my own Steinberger clone, using a
graphite neck and making a body out of lacewood. The idea was to have the wood grain be featured,
so I tried to minimize the visible pickups by using a Roland GK-2A hexaphonic pickup right near the
bridge (which was a T-Trem). The result was both interesting visually, and (to my surprise!) a
wonderful guitar to play.



I was interested in the Roland hexaphonic technology not only because it allowed me to build a
guitar that had "no pickups", but because it allowed me to experiment with Roland's "virtual guitar"
technology. These products (VG-8, VG-88, and now VG-99) take six separate signals from the guitar
(one from each string) and process them with a digital sound processor (DSP) to simulate just about
everything about the guitar. You can simulate resonances, and end up with acoustic sounds. You
can simulate pickup positions and pickup types. Every sound effect you can imagine, from revert to
sustain to distortion to phasing to wah-wah to chorusing. And, finally, you can simulate a variety of
amplifiers and speaker cabinets. To top it off, you can simulate a variety of specialty instruments,
including sitar and 12-string guitar. Even more surprising, the guitar can be re-tuned on the fly,
allowing you to switch to an open tuning for a moment, and then back to normal tunings, all at the
click of a switch. This allows a single guitar to provide the sounds that would normally require
many different guitars.

I enjoyed my VG-88 for many years, but eventually wanted to build another guitsr, this time with
piezo electric pickups. With this system, the string sounds are acquired with small piezo electric
sensors (actually microphones) that are embedded in each of the six string saddles. I chose a
GraphTech Ghost system and built my second guitar. This time I made a fixed bridge in my machine shop.



In recent years, the T-Trems became more and more difficult to locate, as production ceased in
preparation for a new T-Trem, version 3. Many owners of T-Trem guitars wished that they could
replace the T-Trems with a fixed (non-tremolo) bridge, so that they could sell the T-Trems, which
started selling for $1000. Members of the Steinberger Yahoo group began to seek out sources for
fixed bridges that would be drop-in replacements for their T-Trems. I explored the feasibility
of designing and fabricating such a bridge, and discovered that I could create a product that
also would be a drop-in replacement for the S-Trem and R-Trems. In theory, my bridges should
just drop into any T-Trem, S-Trem, or R-Trem guitar. In fact, each customer seems to need some
hand-holding, but I've actually enjoyed solving those problems long distance.

Here are some pictures of my fixed bridge, mounted in my lacewood guitar
(the one that originally had a T-Trem):







Here is the bridge mounted in a Spirit (replacing an R-Trem):



Here is the bridge mounted in a Klein (replacing a T-Trem):







This Klein owner had the following to say about mouting my fixed bridge in his Klein:

"The first thing I noticed was the bridge was WAY more present when the
guitar was strummed acoustically. The bass notes rang with piano like
clarity and were full and tight, unbelievably rich. The treble strings
were equally full, but with an extended top. Not the least bit harsh
though. Plugged in, these qualities were only accentuated. I found
clean tones to be very clear and even and high gain tones to be the
same. String separation seemed improved and all notes sustained well.
I definitely recommend the brige for anyone who has no need of the
vibrato/transposing functions of the ST/TT."

Here are some links to some articles about my bridge:
The Bondy Headless Bridge
Owner Feedback

I've started making 6-string saddles that are more like 12-string saddles, as shown in the next
picture. These saddles work just fine on my guitar (after I "softened" the edges that stick out
from the high and low E strings).



Price for the six-string fixed bridge is $350, plus $10 shipping;
add another $10 if you want to use PayPal (it's not free!).

I'm also working on a 12-string bridge system, will start in on a 5-string narrow bass bridge soon,
and am working with GraphTech to see if I can start supplying piezo saddles for both guitars and
basses. Here are some pictures of the 12-string prototype:





Here are pictures of the prototype 12-string bridge, which Rick Canton mounted on a slab of wood,
just to see how it functioned:









Here are some prototype piezo saddles, using inserts from GraphTech (compatible with their Ghost system). I create a metal block, cut a hole through it (for the piezo sensor wires), then a slot (to accept the piezo insert), and glue the insert in place. The metal pieces will either be aluminum or steel, and will be surface treated to be black. Height adjustments are made with set screws as with all other saddles.









Direct all inquiries to Jon Bondy, jon@jonbondy.com.