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Post subject: tuning pegs and bigsby fitting on a tele
Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 9:38 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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both regarding my fender JA90. it didnt sound right, took it down the shop, the guy said the tuners wern't holding tune. as i went down to get bigger strings for it anyway, he said simply restringing might fix my problem, if not new tuners were needed probably.

question is which ones should i get ? im aware of some tuners not matching up with pre-cut holes etc. will fitting a bigsby mean i need locking tuners ?..........

........which brings me on to the bigsby. i won a Bigsby B50 licensed on ebay last night to fitt to the JA90. does anybody have any tips to fit them ? i also heard its probably worth changing the bridge for something with rollers, is this right ?


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Post subject: Re: tuning pegs and bigsby fitting on a tele
Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 8:46 am
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Location: Mars, the angry red planet.
moochy13 wrote:
both regarding my fender JA90. it didnt sound right, took it down the shop, the guy said the tuners wern't holding tune. as i went down to get bigger strings for it anyway, he said simply restringing might fix my problem, if not new tuners were needed probably.

question is which ones should i get ? im aware of some tuners not matching up with pre-cut holes etc. will fitting a bigsby mean i need locking tuners ?..........

........which brings me on to the bigsby. i won a Bigsby B50 licensed on ebay last night to fitt to the JA90. does anybody have any tips to fit them ? i also heard its probably worth changing the bridge for something with rollers, is this right ?


FWIW, I'd venture to say that the tuners are probably not the problem as they are decent and dependable. If you're having tuning problems, I'd look at the nut and/or your intonation.

On an average, a Bigsby only decreases the pitch of the strings by one fret. So, locking tuners is essentially, "overkill".

Your bridge is an ABR-1 knockoff. The vast majority of Gibsons with Bigsbys have that bridge and they all work just fine. Here too and again, for the half-step down that the Bigsby provides, a roller bridge is "overkill" as well.

As to tips for fitting the Bigsby, it's the old story, "Measure twice, cut once." The biggest tip I could give you is to make absolutely sure that it is perfectly centered so that when the strings come out of the Bigsby toward the neck, they have a perfectly straight 'flow' to where each string will respectively sit on its bridge saddle. Also, keep in mind that the bridge itself is installed at an angle so you do not want to have it creating some kind of optical illusion during the Bigsby's installation process.

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Post subject: Re: tuning pegs and bigsby fitting on a tele
Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 9:20 am
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Aspiring Musician
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the guy said the intonation was fine. :?

so i guess youre suggesting just fit the bigsby and if i need locking tuners/roller bridge do it after. i like your thinking, it saves me money, potentially. :lol: :lol:

i saw a picture of somebody fitting a bigsby by tying string to the first tuning peg, running it down the neck, round the bigsby low E string post, across to the high E post, then back up to the high E tuner. using the string as a guide to whether the bigsby was square with the bridge and the string path was true with the neck.

cheers, cant wait to get it its going to look great


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Post subject: Re: tuning pegs and bigsby fitting on a tele
Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 9:25 pm
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having never had a bigsby inym hands, im assuming most of the placement issue will be dicatated by the fact the bigsby slides over the existing bridge posts ? so i cant go too wrong.........


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Post subject: Re: tuning pegs and bigsby fitting on a tele
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 2:00 am
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Professional Musician
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Posts: 2337
Hi. When I recently received my 2005 60th Anniversary Telecaster
that is highly modified, I had tremendous trouble with the intonation,
two strings jumping off the nut and the action was way too high.
Actually, I hated playing it for three weeks till I had it professionally
reset. Found out there was a shim under the neck and they removed
that as well. Now, this is one of my favorite smooth and comfortable
playing guitar, ever. Just needed a pro tuneup.

As for the Bigsby, I believe the custom shop added the Bigsby.
I added two roller string trees (not pictured) and a chrome volume knob
and left the black 1-10 skirted tone knob.

The custom shop added:
Bridge - 6-Saddle Adjustable Bridge w/Fender Bigsby "F" Vibrato Tail-Piece
Machine Heads - Fender/Ping Vintage Style Tuning Machines
Image

Image

Image

Man. this guitar cooks. The Bigsby tremolo system is awesome and does not
get out of tune.

Go for it on your axe. Customize it to the hilt! Make it your special baby.
Take care. Toppscore 8)

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Last edited by Toppscore on Mon Jul 23, 2012 1:23 am, edited 3 times in total.

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Post subject: Re: tuning pegs and bigsby fitting on a tele
Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 11:31 pm
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Roadie
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locking tuners won't hurt.....neither will a roller bridge......I "divebomb" w/my Bigsby a good bit.
installation instructions come in PDF from Bigsby if yours doesn't come w/hardcopy instructions.

here's mine w/the B-7 I installed.....

Image


take your time......as Martian said, measure twice drill once !!
you can't go wrong unless you don't follow the inst. instructions.

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Post subject: Re: tuning pegs and bigsby fitting on a tele
Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2012 1:19 am
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Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Sun Nov 20, 2011 3:16 am
Posts: 2337
Yes. My Bigsby just showed up on the guitar :)
Good to know about the online PDF instruction manal.
Hope to never need it, but you never know.

Toppscore 8)

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