Darryl Hattenhauer
Venerated Member
Billy,
I just went to your site. It says you have a CD, but I can't find it. Do you have some for sale?
I just went to your site. It says you have a CD, but I can't find it. Do you have some for sale?
I believe you and the luthier are right, and I hope we get some posts from the technical wizards (like Jeff the woodworker).All I've got to do is drill three small holes, which should be as wide as the "inner diameter" of the screws according to the luthier. My father-in-law who is a carpenter thought I could drill even smaller holes - but maybe that will make the screws expand the hole too much - not good, right?
Again, I think you're right. This is what I do.But what about the old holes? Do I need to fill them, before drilling the new ones? The Luthier suggested doing that. And then I thought, hmm, but what if I would like to remove the bigsby and put the old tailpiece back again?
I've often wondered the same thing, and I hope we get some posts from the technical wizards (like Coastie the woodpecker).why was the original tailpiece mounted a little bit off center?
gilded said:He said that, in his experience (35 years fixing guitars), the pull of the strings will torque a lot of tailpieces in towards the treble side of the guitar. Accordingly, he thinks that some manufacturers 'cheat' their tailpieces towards the bass side of the guitar to compensate for this.
He said that a hinged Bigsby will definitely flex at the hinge and 'lean' towards the treble side, because of string pressure.
northbayj said:Fascinating - I ran into the exact same issues when I put a Bigsby on my X500. Posted about it here a little over a year ago:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1807
It's a bit disconcerting when you expect everything to be dead center and then you take the tail piece off and find otherwise. The good news is that it's really not that hard to get it done right. Mine came out fine in the end - even with the Bigsby on it now, the guitar stays in tune remarkably well. Also, I didn't use the clamp method that Gilded describes, but I did use a capo at around the 12th fret to keep the strings from flying all over the place. This helps, but it's not a cure all. Where you're likely to run into trouble is that your strings won't stay attached to the Bigsby when you move it around - without string tension, the bar that the strings attach to is going to spin backwards. You might want to try taping the strings to their posts, or using rubber bands or something to keep them in place. And definitely cover the top with paper or an old t-shirt or something while you're working. Bigsbys have felt pads on the bottom, but you never know...
Go for it!