Talk to me about Bigsby Bridges

[ThePhilosopher]

I know almost nothing about these bridges - any maintenance issues, recommended upgrades, etc? I'm looking at picking up a Gretsch because I want one, but don't know much about the bridge and want to know what I'm getting myself into here.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Very rudimentary bridges that have remained mostly unchanged the last 70 something years.

So long as you keep the nut slots and saddles clean and lubricated you can do some old school warbles and shakes. If you don't use it, it's basically a ToM/stop tail setup.

Restringing can be a pain in the ass at first, but you'll get the hang of it.

 

[Bearitone]

Because the saddles are fixed it’s dead simple to set up compared to a floating trem. Just string up the guitar, STRETCH THE STRINGS IN, and tune it up.

You won’t be able to dive bomb or flutter like a Floyd but, you can still add some tasteful trem to your playing .

 

[Dumple Stilzkin]

I had some difficulty with getting used to stringing it (I’m a Floyd player) and found it to be pretty cumbersome and not something I enjoyed at all. Certainly go to a local store and try one first.

 

[Demiurge]

They're fun as long as you respect its limits vis-a-vis tuning stability.

You can always look up a restringing tutorial on Youtube and see if it's something you're OK up for.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

The trick to stringing up Bigsbys with the old school peg style string retainers is to wind the string around the tuners at the headstock, leaving just enough string to slip on to the peg. If you do it right you should only have to turn the tuner a little bit to lock the string in place.

A capo is a huge help, frees up a hand. Just put it on your first fret right after the nut.

What most folks do wrong is treat it like a regular stop tail and spend forever trying to keep the string on the peg while fucking with the tuners.

 

[odibrom]

I've plyed a bit with a friend's guitar loaded with one Bigsby. It was a Gretsch guitar of 3k tier. It felt poor quality, reaaly poor quality, like the screws' thread stripping out of nowhere and then there was no grip whatsoever. The only thing we'v done was swapping the arm/lever for a different one, Bigsby branded, and it felt like really garbage metal, really low quality. beside its basic use/functionality, it's cumbersome to store in a case, it simply doesn't feel well thought through. In my opinion, it's a BAD design and manufacturing.

LoPro Edge trems all the way...

 

[spudmunkey]

The trick to stringing up Bigsbys with the old school peg style string retainers is to wind the string around the tuners at the headstock, leaving just enough string to slip on to the peg. If you do it right you should only have to turn the tuner a little bit to lock the string in place.

A capo is a huge help, frees up a hand. Just put it on your first fret right after the nut.

What most folks do wrong is treat it like a regular stop tail and spend forever trying to keep the string on the peg while fucking with the tuners.

Do locking tuners help this process?

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Do locking tuners help this process?

Not really. Since the strings are slack, even if the end is locked, in you still have to hold tension.

 

[USMarine75]

Bigsby trems are great for subtle chord vibrato and bends. When not set up properly they’re a nightmare to keep in tune. And they’re not as bad as some say to restring - the trick is just do one string at a time.

An easy upgrade is a better, stiffer spring. Many of the cheaper models have a cheap spring that doesn’t help with reset and requires more movement (flop) of the arm to get any trem movement. It’s also one of the reasons bending will pull the trem out of tune until you reset it by moving the bar.

There’s also the tone snob argument that all that mass in the caboose gives it more sustain and toanz. My Eastman and Gretsch both have great tone and sustain but there’s no way for me to really A/B them to see if it would be less without. There’s also the argument that the longer string length to the anchor point increases the string tension but I’m in E-flat standard (with 9s or 10s) anyways so what do I know.

Anyways, they’re better than a Maestro Vibrola or Jazzmaster trem. So there’s that.

 

[Big Dumb Bitch]

I've owned a couple of guitars with them and they kinda just straight up suck lol. Strat trems are like 100x better than any kind of Bigsby or anything along those lines.

 

[Hollowway]

I got a SH5XX (can’t remember the exact model) Carvin with a Bigsby a few years ago, also cuz I just wanted a Bigsby. I’m not getting it to be a live, super good players. I got it just to mess around with, cuz I always wanted one.

I have yet to change strings, so I can’t comment on that. BUT, as has been said, if the nut is good, and the tuners are decent, it stays in tune very well. It’s not meant to go all EVH on, so use it sparingly, I supposed.

 

[Ancestor]

They look cool. I know that

 

[mikeymike]

Because the saddles are fixed it’s dead simple to set up compared to a floating trem. Just string up the guitar, STRETCH THE STRINGS IN, and tune it up.

You won’t be able to dive bomb or flutter like a Floyd but, you can still add some tasteful trem to your playing .

you can flutter a bigsby

 

[ThePhilosopher]

Thanks for all the insights - I've not decided, but I'm leaning towards more hassle than I want to deal with (given there are other options to give me the same feel without a Bigsby).

 

[spudmunkey]

It seems the Göldo LT2 fits at least some trem models. Has a sort of similar aesthetic, but seems less finicky.

Seems to be based on the Deusenberg Les Trem (or maybe they are both based on the same thing), which also seems to fit at least some Gretch models:

 

[bracky]

I saw Mastadon recently and was surprised Brent was playing a V with a Bigsby installed. Pretty crazy really.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

I saw Mastadon recently and was surprised Brent was playing a V with a Bigsby installed. Pretty crazy really.

Yeah, the Lonnie Mack thing is a pretty niche of Gibson style V folks.

His buddy Banker offers it too, which is probably where some of the Vs came from, even if they say "Gibson" on them.

Brent is into Bigsbys though. He played a White Falcon with one forever, even before Mastodon. He owns a bunch of Gibsons with them, and even a couple of PRS with Bigsbys, like in the Motherload video.