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Post subject: Telecaster and Bigsby
Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 12:42 pm
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Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2007 4:54 am
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Location: Laurel, MD
Greetings to all the other Fenderfiles out there on the forum. For a few months now I’ve noticed an interest in Telecasters with Bigsby Vibratos. I do agree that they look really cool on Telecasters. The two parts seemed to be made for each other.

Unfortunately I owned one of these beasties and I was a bit disappointed. The Brigsby worked great. I got a smooth vibrato that went back to pitch just fine. I also go some other stuff that I wasn’t happy with.

The guitar lost tone and sustain due to I believe the fact the strings don’t go through the body of the guitar.

The Bigsby is a pain in the butt to change strings. Every time you change strings it takes forever due to the fact that the strings pop off in the middle of restringing. The only way that I have found to stop this problem is to bend the string about a ¼ of an inch above the string end.

Also there was this really bad metallic buzzing or rattling sound that I could not get rid of no matter what I did. After several minutes I tracked the sound down to the bridge. I find that the Jaguar style bridge that Fender uses on this guitar is inadequate for the Bigsby.

I still believe in having a Telecaster with a Bigsby, but I also believe that some changes could be made to make it a better guitar.

1. Change out the Jaguar Bridge with a bridge that is more like the ones that are found Gretschs and Gibson.

2. Make the guitar out of a mahogany or ash. Using a different wood could compensate for the loss of tone and sustain.

3. Bend the string posts on the Bigsby to a 45-90% angle. If the posts were bent then the strings wouldn’t slip off.

Please let me know what you think of my ideas and add any of your own. I believe that the best person to ask for about making guitars better is the player. Leo Fender felt the same way and always asked players what they wanted. In fact we wouldn’t have Stratocasters today if it hadn’t been for Leo asking players what they wanted.

Paris


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Post subject: Re: Telecaster and Bigsby
Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 1:40 pm
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Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2007 1:22 am
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Location: The Netherlands
paris wrote:
Greetings to all the other Fenderfiles out there on the forum. For a few months now I’ve noticed an interest in Telecasters with Bigsby Vibratos. I do agree that they look really cool on Telecasters. The two parts seemed to be made for each other.

Unfortunately I owned one of these beasties and I was a bit disappointed. The Brigsby worked great. I got a smooth vibrato that went back to pitch just fine. I also go some other stuff that I wasn’t happy with.

The guitar lost tone and sustain due to I believe the fact the strings don’t go through the body of the guitar.

The Bigsby is a pain in the butt to change strings. Every time you change strings it takes forever due to the fact that the strings pop off in the middle of restringing. The only way that I have found to stop this problem is to bend the string about a ¼ of an inch above the string end.

Also there was this really bad metallic buzzing or rattling sound that I could not get rid of no matter what I did. After several minutes I tracked the sound down to the bridge. I find that the Jaguar style bridge that Fender uses on this guitar is inadequate for the Bigsby.

I still believe in having a Telecaster with a Bigsby, but I also believe that some changes could be made to make it a better guitar.

1. Change out the Jaguar Bridge with a bridge that is more like the ones that are found Gretschs and Gibson.

2. Make the guitar out of a mahogany or ash. Using a different wood could compensate for the loss of tone and sustain.

3. Bend the string posts on the Bigsby to a 45-90% angle. If the posts were bent then the strings wouldn’t slip off.

Please let me know what you think of my ideas and add any of your own. I believe that the best person to ask for about making guitars better is the player. Leo Fender felt the same way and always asked players what they wanted. In fact we wouldn’t have Stratocasters today if it hadn’t been for Leo asking players what they wanted.

Paris


I think the Bigsby causes loss of tone and sustain.
Nothing to do with the wood, maybe a better bigsby?
Always change you're strings one at the time, especialy with
tremelo equiped guitars.
Why not a strat tremelo?


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 11:24 am
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Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2007 12:50 pm
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Location: Bloomfield, NJ
I have a Bigsby on a partscaster and it seems to stay in tune and I don't seem to have any of the above problems. Changing strings can be tedious, but not as difficult as I am reading. I just keep a finger on the ball end of the string till I get enough tension before attaching to the tuner. I also change strings one at a time.


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