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Vega-Trem, the innovative floating bridge that has captivated the historic brand Fender
Isaac Vega is one of the founders of the company Vega-Trem, which markets the VT1 Ultra Trem and VT2 Teletrem floating bridges for the well-known Stratocaster guitar.
Vega began his career as a guitarist in the 90's in Madrid with his own bands of the Trash Metal genre. He studied classical guitar and modern guitar and worked as a professional guitarist in the circuit in Mallorca.
The peak of his career as a guitarist came in 2015 when he had the opportunity to participate as a guitarist in Amaia Montero's tour, although his experience on stage is not limited to being in the front line, as Isaac Vega was in the first division as a backline technician.
"I started by chance, a friend called me to work on a tour with Nacho Cano and from then on I was hooking tours" recalls Vega, who worked with artists such as Manolo García, Andrés Calamaro, M Clan, Fito y Fitipaldis and even Luz Casal.
The paths of love led the guitarist to Mallorca, where he moved to start a family with his wife. In 2005, after the birth of his son, he wanted to focus professionally on the island, since "I didn't want to miss being a father, I didn't want to see my son grow up without being at home".
VT1 Ultra Trem, a revolutionary solution
Professionally, he had a period of uncertainty after the closure of the academy he owned with a partner, who decided to abandon the project that would later close. It was then that Isaac Vega came across, almost by chance, the idea from which Vega-Trem was born.
"It was something like that", he says, "like the comics when a light bulb comes on and you get an idea. I was playing at home one day with a Stratocaster and I had a kind of illumination. It was crystal clear to me", Isaac says amusingly. "I stopped to think about the tremolo, I don't know why, but I was playing and I thought: why have people always tried to adapt the guitar to floating bridge tremolo systems when the logical thing is that the accessory, which is the bridge, is the one that is designed according to the body of the guitar." It was at this point that Vega thought of compressing the dimensions of the bridge so that it could fit through the hollow of the guitar.
After this enlightenment, Isaac Vega contacted a friend of his, who is a luthier, to design a prototype of what we know today as the VT1 Ultra Trem. "We lowered the block and gave it those dimensions, changed the piloting system to the synchro system it has now and all this. We realized that it worked well, that it didn't throw the guitar out of tune, that it kept the tuning, that we didn't need to lock the strings and from there I went ahead with the adventure."
From a prototype in a small lutherie workshop to worldwide commercialization
Despite the great idea it was, this floating bridge tremolo would not see the light of day until 2018, as the process according to Isaac, was "very tedious". "We designed the first prototype in 2013 and the first attempt we made, which was in 2017, was through a crowfunding platform. It took four years, go figure." Vega says that it seems like a simple process for those who have not embarked on it, however, the difficulty lies, in his own words, in making the idea count.
"When you have an idea you have to decide how to approach it, think about whether you are going to sell the patent or whether you are going to develop the product yourself." Vega-Trem's founder opted for the latter: to develop the product himself. After making the decision, he contacted Andrés Salleras, his current partner, since he had experience at a commercial level, and thus began the adventure.
With a small family funding and after finding a factory that had the necessary machinery to develop their product, the founders of Vega-Trem jumped into the pool with their first production, which went on sale internationally in 2018.
This floating bridge tremolo adds versatility to the guitar and because of its compressed size, it prevents you from having to drill holes or modify the instrument to insert bridges that previously existed, for example, such as Floyd Rose type bridges. In addition, with Vega-Trem bridges the guitar gains in richness of overtones and sustain.
The floating bridge tremolo that captivated Fender
The revolutionary design of the VT1 Ultra Trem has earned them international prestige, so much so that they are invited year after year to participate in the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants), an annual meeting of music products held every year in January in the United States.
At the last edition, which was held in person, internationally renowned musicians such as Dweezil Zappa and Adrian Belew were interested in the VT1 Ultra Trem. "Adrian Belew told me: tomorrow a master builder from Fender, from the Custom Shop, is coming to talk to you, because I want this bridge to go on my signature. When he left I literally got emotional and started crying because it was like a mind-blowing thing. And sure enough, the next day Ron Thorn came to talk to me about the system. He gave me a total examination, he even asked me about the components of the materials. When he was done he congratulated me."
VT2 Teletrem, the tremolo that gives the T-Style a new sound, without changing a single millimeter of Leo Fender's fantastic original design.
Just a year after their success with the VT1 Ultra Trem tremolo, they started looking for a formula to insert a bridge with the same characteristics, this time in a Telecaster. The challenge was the same: to design a bridge with which the guitar would not have to be modified at all. The result was to insert some springs in the natural hollow of the guitar and make the tremolo work.
Following the same successful concept as the VegaTrem VT1, in 2021 they succeeded in creating the definitive prototype of the VT2 Teletrem. This is, once again, a revolutionary creation, since the Telecaster was conceived, 70 years ago, as a fixed bridge guitar with no room for a vibrato. The solution was to take advantage of the 6 holes that cross the body of the guitar from bottom to top, and place springs that would allow the classic tremolo movement and, at the same time, enrich the tone and sustain without going out of tune.
One year later, VegaTrem's audacious solution sees the light of day and is marketed on the international market. A design that Isaac Vega was very excited about and that he finds even more beautiful than the VT1 Ultra Trem.
Vega also hints at the possible creation of a VT3: "For me, what I would like to do is to launch things that personally, if they were launched by another company, I would be the first one interested in that new product. In that vein, I'm spearheading the process of a new thing for fingerpicking guitarists."
Discover the new Vega-Trem tremolos
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