I like me some Bigsby

[25%moreCOWBELL]

Seeing how you guys are a friggin' wealth of knowledge let me ask yet another question.

I'm looking at the John 5 tele and I'm starting to think a Bigsby would sure look good on my knock around Les Paul copy.

Does anyone have any opinions on adding/using a Bigsby and the quality of the Bigsby design. All I've seen so far is the Bigsby goes out of tune when you look at it the wrong way and touch it in a bad place. Are all bigsbys created equal or is this much like a Floyd Rose where only the Nazi party knows how to make a true Whammy Bar worth a crap(or so I've been told).

[25%moreCOWBELL]

Damn this post got about as much love as Dio at Ozzfest. Throw me a Bone eh!

Has anyone tried a Bigsby with a Schaller Roller Bridge and locking tuners? Any chance of keeping the guitar in tune with a setup like that?

[Don Corleone]

I'll be honest, I don't like them. I prefer a 335 or a Paul without a Bigsby.

[25%moreCOWBELL]

Hey that's cool. Some feedback is better than no feedback.

[Don Corleone]

I know there are probably a few guys that will like them, but I just feel that they fuck up the guitar

[sammysucks65]

john5's tele is very unique looking, les pauls look cool with a bigsby, but id prefer a fixed bridge on a paul. try learning some artificial dive bombs a la jimmy page. haha takes a lot of practice to master that

[DeadOrAlive]

Dive bombs eh? How would you do those?

[Nitro Express]

I used to have an old Gretch guitar with a Bigsby. I love the look of Bigsbys but they do go out of tune. Not great from dive bomb whammy stuff. They were invented to add vibrato and you can get some real cool stuff.

Put it this way, if you want to retune your guitar after every song, get a Bigsby. The strings get caught up in the nut and that one big spring fluctuates the string tension too much.

I think most people like Bigsbys because they look cool. Eddie Van Halen once said this,"Bigsbys are the absolute worst."

[SGV]

I have three or four guitars with Bigsbys. I love them...

There have been shows where I beat the hell out of them, and I'm able to get through the song without being *totally* out of tune. After a song with heavy use of the Bigsby, I just switch guitars.

I usually tune up after every song, anyhow...it doesn't matter whether or not I use the Bigsby.

Will you be able to do divebombs? No. There isn't enough throw in the arm.

Can you get a nice vibrato...absolutely. The best in the business. The reason is...with every other trem application, you have to *pull* the springs. On a Bigsby, you push on the spring...it's a much more subtle technique.

sv

[sagebrush]

Will im more of a floyd man myself but i do have a 1971 sg with a bigsby on it and its cool to play around on but as far as playing it hard ......... NO . The best part of a bigsby is the look it gives the guitar , theres nothing like a old guitar with one on it . 25% don't kill your guitar if you want a bigsby go get a guitar with one it will play better because it was made for the bigsby .

[BrownSound1]

Bigsbys are fine for Brian Setzer type things, but for the way I play they just couldn't hold up. Floyd all the way for me. I can manage with a stock Fender bridge, but it takes some work.

[Nitro Express]

I have an Yngwie Malmsteen Strat I just abuse the hell out of the bar and it amazingly stays in tune very well. You have to use the Fender Bullet strings and I use a special teflon lubricant for the brass nut. Usually the G string goes sharp on Strats but on this one it doesn't. The large wound E string tends to go out because the windings get caught in the nut after a while but all I have to do is tweak it between every other song and I'm fine. I have a BOSS tuner peddle so I don't have to hear me tuning. It works fine. You just can't beat the sound of the old Fender stamped saddle bridge though. Still one of the best for tone in my book.

[GAR]

For a tele I'd rather choose a Hipshot string bender.

[sammysucks65]

Originally posted by DeadOrAlive
Dive bombs eh? How would you do those?

well your not pulling floyd rose bombs, but single string diving is possible on a fixed bridge. bend behind the nut or what i like, bend behind the fixed bridge where the strings are before they go through the body .

[sammysucks65]

listen to page's live solos in heartbreaker to get the jist of things, its basicly behind the nut bends but at the bridge

[DeadOrAlive]

Sweet. Thanks man. Gotta dig this for a while, never really thought of doing this trick before. This'll improve stuff too.

[kentuckyklira]

A Bigsby with the strings running over a tune-o-matic will go out of tune at the first opportunity.

My Tele with a Bigsby and a Jazzmaster bridge doesn´t have any problems whatsoever!

[25%moreCOWBELL]

Being the cheap bastard that I am I added one of these with the Bigsby

http://store.guitarfetish.com/wibrrobrlost.html

I've been yanking on that thing like a scene from Broke Back Mountain and it stays in tune like a mother.

Bigsby why can't I quit you!