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Post subject: 1983 Factory fitted Bigsby Telecaster ????????????????
Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 2:53 am
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Hi Everyone I'm a new board member from Melbourne Australia.

I have a few Telecasters.

I have three Elites, a white hot-rod which has a strat neck and a B5, a metallic grey stocker with rosewood and chrome and another rosewood/chrome one in CAR.

I also have a 97 California series in Fiesta which has been striped and has a machine turned aluminum scratch-plate.

I have three black rosewood standards an 83, an 88 and a 95.

Todays question concerns a guitar that I bought about four years ago. It was sold as a "Rare factory fitted Bigsby 1983 Telecaster" I bought it from a shop I have dealt with for over 25 years. I also knew the previous owner who died soon after from a terminal illness. I always figured the guitar had been refinished as it has blemishes, appears to have some filler underneath the finish and also the profile of the edge chamfer is quite rounded.

I recently bought the black 83 standard mentioned above and my plan was to sell the "factory" guitar and fit an F logo B5 to the black one. The reasoning behind this was that I paid a substantial amount of money for the "factory" guitar and never really liked it a lot. My current main gig guitar is the 88 and I figured the black 83 with a B5 would be a nice gig pair for it.

When I began the process of fitting the new B5 kit to the black 83 I noticed several things, primarily the bridge plate would not fit on the guitar with the standard bridge pick-up routing, it would sit 3/8inch too far back. I reasoned that the bridge pick-up routing on the "factory" guitar must be either bigger, or slightly further forward.So I dismantled it to see what was under the bridge plate.....I found this.

Image

Whether it is a refinish or not, that routing was done AFTER the paint. That hole to the left that enters the pick-up cavity concerns me.....but it goes on.

Image

You will notice two sets of three holes, one is for the B5 bridge plate, the other match the hardtail toploader that these guitars came with. That could be explained away if someone had REMOVED a Bigsby and replaced it with the period correct hardtail.You will also notice that the paint appears to go into the three holes that are closer to the tail( suggesting they were there when the tabasco color was shot), they are the hardtail holes which are set further apart. The set of holes closer to the neck are the B5 holes and seem to have been drilled through the latest paint.

Under the bridge plate of the B5 on this guitar I found a number.....which made me wonder did the late sixties factory fit Tele's have a serial stamped on the plate?

Image

to be continued.......

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Post subject: Re: 1983 Factory fitted Bigsby Telecaster ????????????????
Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 2:54 am
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aaaaaaand here is the serial of the guitar in question........

Image

I also mentioned that the chamfer on the body seemed quite soft....here are the two 83's the black one is definitely in its original paint and also has the period correct single layer guard... the shot ain't great but notice the sharper edge on the black one

Image

So here is my question.

Did they actually make any factory fit B5 Tele's at Fullerton in the dying days and if they did, is this one?

if they did, what does the bridge pick-up cavity look like?

Thanks for your patience, interest and expertise people, lets get TWANGIN'

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Post subject: Re: 1983 Factory fitted Bigsby Telecaster ????????????????
Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 12:22 pm
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Didnt they use the FreeFlyte bridges in 1983?

That round hole at bottom of the bridge PU cavity was for a ground screw.


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Post subject: Re: 1983 Factory fitted Bigsby Telecaster ????????????????
Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 1:25 pm
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atolleter wrote:
Didnt they use the FreeFlyte bridges in 1983?

That round hole at bottom of the bridge PU cavity was for a ground screw.


They used the FreeFlyte on the Strats back then (actually 2 versions - it's different on the Elites than on the 2-knob Standards).

I don't remember any Teles from that era with Bigsbys, but then again I didn't pay much attention to Teles back then. :oops:


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Post subject: Re: 1983 Factory fitted Bigsby Telecaster ????????????????
Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 1:55 pm
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Yea, no factory Bigsby come to mind as well, they had FF on Teles as well for some time.


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Post subject: Re: 1983 Factory fitted Bigsby Telecaster ????????????????
Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 3:48 pm
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Thanks guys.

Early counting doesn't bode well for the "83 factory fitted" candidate :|

Maybe his votes will pick up at the end of the day, but I'm not over-confident..........

For a little background; I played maybe 2000+ gigs with my hot-rodded 82 Elite. It came with gold hardware and a big wide flat maple neck which you could have landed a plane on and that laquer that comes off in big pieces. I liked the sound but never the playability. At the time had a reissue 57 Japanese strat, I'd swapped the neck for a rosewood. I loved that neck but Strat's, bless 'em, have a pick-up right where I want to grab the strings and so they've never really suited me......... one day, feeling mischievous I put the rosewood strat neck on the tele, BOOM!!!!! I played it for a year or so four nights a week and then the plating started coming off the Elite bridge really badly. I had a 68 SG with a B5 that had been butchered by a previous owner...once again feeling mischievous I took a deep breath and mounted the B5 on it with a Schaller roller bridge. I played that guitar to death, three times. ( no, I'm not putting up a pic, the purists will howl me down)
Image
I bought another Elite a grey 82 with chrome fittings and a rosewood board because every other guitar I'd used as a backup or slide rig at gigs sounded too different, and had much lower signal level. These guitars have a big output. My main rig during those times was a Musicman RD210 paired with a Fender "Rivera" Concert 4x10 recabbed into a 2x10. Our sound guy would just run them hard left and right. That was nearly twenty years ago when that band stopped touring.

Since then I've played a lot more country and on a whim I bought a standard in 2008, they'd never really done it for me. The Elites fitted nicely with my Country Gent( 64) and a Firebird that I slung for a while but while they're great for raunch those guitars won't snap or twang.

Well, soon after getting the standard I bought a silverface Vibrolux Reberb and I was away, it was rebuilt to blackface specs and things started to get out of control, I've always had a few amps but now it was USA standard teles and hotrodded silverfaces......I've had a few VibroChamps and now I have a Princeton Reverb as well as the Vibrolux, together? They sound like you've died and gone to heaven.

Current count 10amps, 17 guitars.

It's a disease I tell ya, a disease.

Any ideas, facts or opinions on the red 83 wit da Bigsby gladly accepted , thanks people. :D

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Post subject: Re: 1983 Factory fitted Bigsby Telecaster ????????????????
Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2014 2:50 am
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I don't quite comprehend what you want to accomplish by asking for guesses on that red Tele :wink:
Might be wise to email consumerrelations@fender.com with the serial number, you might get the original specs.

But since you asked, my guesswork:
On repaint: filler under the paint isn't alone a sign of a refinish - factory Fenders had filler, too. Paint on those screw holes -> probably refinished. Nice color.
On Bigsby: based on those pics it seems likely that the Bigsby was not factory assembled. The pics don't show the vibrato logo - maybe just someone confused "Fender branded" for "Fender assembled"... As for the effect of this mod: if it's done well, in my books it raises both the playing and reselling value.
On those edges: I'd like to see the neck pocket & in general more pics of the body. Don't think they had CNC machines in the eighties, so individual shape variations aren't totally out of the equasion. No alarms ringing yet, though.


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Post subject: Re: 1983 Factory fitted Bigsby Telecaster ????????????????
Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2014 3:50 pm
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Hi,
I got a call back from the owner of the shop I bought the guitar from(on consignment) who traced the guy who sold it to the guy I bought it from. The Bigsby was fitted by Darren at Guitar Emporium in Albert Park here in Melbourne after it was resprayed by Merv Cargill also in Melbourne.

The reason I posted this topic was because I had bought the guitar as a " factory fitted Bigsby" and paid a premium price, a friend wishes to buy it from me and I had doubts about it's authenticity and thus it's value, I paid almost three times what I paid for the black 83 in the pictures.

What I hoped to achieve is honesty.

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hand me that there guitar and turn up that there amp.

Pedals are for bikes.


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Post subject: Re: 1983 Factory fitted Bigsby Telecaster ????????????????
Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 12:55 pm
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Hi Dr.Goggles and welcome,
sounds like in the end you did get a bit of honesty anyway.

I've said before and will say it again....."never say never".......but what I CAN say is that in my own time on the CBS Fender final guitar line, I never saw a Bigsby Tele cross my path.
The other thing i would note, though it's nice of folks to plug our consumer relations folks, is that our digitized serial number database only goes back to about 1993-1992 (if you're lucky). All other lookups are pretty much covered on our support page...not to mention some 3rd party sites about serial numbers.

That being said.......Elite Teles were pretty nice......I have a fond recollection for them as well as a leftover impression of the screaming pickups on them as well...but that's just me being wistful in my old age ;O).

Cheers,
rob

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Post subject: Re: 1983 Factory fitted Bigsby Telecaster ????????????????
Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2014 11:09 am
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Thanks Rob.

Absolutely! I think the Elite Strats may have been an "also ran" but the Teles were awesome guitars, especially with an amp that could cope with their high output. Thanks for your response.

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Post subject: Re: 1983 Factory fitted Bigsby Telecaster ????????????????
Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 5:37 pm
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I live close to a guitar shop that specializes in modifications (especially Bigsby's and strange pickups), it's called The Guitar Centre here in Brisbane, Australia. Here's a site link to one Bigsby modified Tele you might find interesting. It also has a TV Jones neck pickup. http://guitarcentre.net.au/product/vint ... er-bigsby/
Here's a picture:
Image

Even though you live in Melbourne, I'm positive they ship anytime, anywhere, and I'm sure they'd be happy to answer any DIY queries. They have quite a few modified guitars with Bigsby's and so I'm sure they would've encountered most problems before and might be able to offer some time saving advice.
Good luck anyway!
8)

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Post subject: Re: 1983 Factory fitted Bigsby Telecaster ????????????????
Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 8:45 pm
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Dr Goggles wrote:
Thanks guys.

Early counting doesn't bode well for the "83 factory fitted" candidate :|

Maybe his votes will pick up at the end of the day, but I'm not over-confident..........

For a little background; I played maybe 2000+ gigs with my hot-rodded 82 Elite. It came with gold hardware and a big wide flat maple neck which you could have landed a plane on and that laquer that comes off in big pieces. I liked the sound but never the playability. At the time had a reissue 57 Japanese strat, I'd swapped the neck for a rosewood. I loved that neck but Strat's, bless 'em, have a pick-up right where I want to grab the strings and so they've never really suited me......... one day, feeling mischievous I put the rosewood strat neck on the tele, BOOM!!!!! I played it for a year or so four nights a week and then the plating started coming off the Elite bridge really badly. I had a 68 SG with a B5 that had been butchered by a previous owner...once again feeling mischievous I took a deep breath and mounted the B5 on it with a Schaller roller bridge. I played that guitar to death, three times. ( no, I'm not putting up a pic, the purists will howl me down)
Image
I bought another Elite a grey 82 with chrome fittings and a rosewood board because every other guitar I'd used as a backup or slide rig at gigs sounded too different, and had much lower signal level. These guitars have a big output. My main rig during those times was a Musicman RD210 paired with a Fender "Rivera" Concert 4x10 recabbed into a 2x10. Our sound guy would just run them hard left and right. That was nearly twenty years ago when that band stopped touring.

Since then I've played a lot more country and on a whim I bought a standard in 2008, they'd never really done it for me. The Elites fitted nicely with my Country Gent( 64) and a Firebird that I slung for a while but while they're great for raunch those guitars won't snap or twang.

Well, soon after getting the standard I bought a silverface Vibrolux Reberb and I was away, it was rebuilt to blackface specs and things started to get out of control, I've always had a few amps but now it was USA standard teles and hotrodded silverfaces......I've had a few VibroChamps and now I have a Princeton Reverb as well as the Vibrolux, together? They sound like you've died and gone to heaven.

Current count 10amps, 17 guitars.

It's a disease I tell ya, a disease.

Any ideas, facts or opinions on the red 83 wit da Bigsby gladly accepted , thanks people. :D


The Elites were introduced in 1983.


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