I have a one-off guitar, made by Mike Voltz, who later became some sort of R&B big-shot @ Gibson. Something about the way it sounds/feels, I keep reaching for a Bigsby, but it's not there :roll:
So I'm kind of itching to install one, but I'm not too sure what will fit best. The guitar is right at about 2" rim thickness. It had an ES-175-style pointy trapeze TP on it when I got it and I swapped it for one of the generic Byrdland-style ones a long time ago. So it's drilled for a full-depth hinge plate. Underneath that is a sloppy-ish 1/8" hole thru which the ground protrudes and it won't look very pretty with a TP that doesn't completely cover the butt end of it. It also has an already shallow break angle past the bridge, too, so I definitely need a Bigsby with a tension bar.
I've never been a Bigsby expert, but, from what I've just read online, looks like the B7 has the tension bar, but has a shallow hinge plate and the B6 has a long plate, but no tension bar. It looks like I can get a replacement long hinge plate for $16.50 thru eBay, then I could presumably get a B7 somewhere, grind off the hinge rivet, and swap plates, which I'd then have to reattach with either a machine screw and an acorn nut or some sort of rivet from god knows where. Is this feasible, madness, ??? Or was/is there a Bigsby that already has the long hinge plate and a tension roller?
Here's a few pics of the guitar, BTW. There a lot of little custom touches here and there. Construction is pretty unique, too. It's all carved mahogany and is fully hollow. The top is carved pretty thin on the edges, but the middle section is about 1" or so thick all the way down the center, extending maybe 1.5" wider than the string spread. It is also completely solid all the way across in the areas of the horns and under the end of the neck. So it's pretty stable and might have originally been meant to be constructed with a stop tail, as there's a pretty hexagonal piece of marquetry under the TP hinge plate (that's all goobered up and drilled thru for the ground and totally covered up by the TP anyway). When I got this guitar, there was a Gruhn letter w/ it that explained that it was an incomplete luthier-school project that Voltz acquired and finished. It had a real hodge-podge of parts on it when I first got it: mismatched pickups, gold screws throughout, gold bridge, but chrome TP and chrome Imperials (w/ gold screws). So who know how much it differs b/w current configuration and original intent.
So I'm kind of itching to install one, but I'm not too sure what will fit best. The guitar is right at about 2" rim thickness. It had an ES-175-style pointy trapeze TP on it when I got it and I swapped it for one of the generic Byrdland-style ones a long time ago. So it's drilled for a full-depth hinge plate. Underneath that is a sloppy-ish 1/8" hole thru which the ground protrudes and it won't look very pretty with a TP that doesn't completely cover the butt end of it. It also has an already shallow break angle past the bridge, too, so I definitely need a Bigsby with a tension bar.
I've never been a Bigsby expert, but, from what I've just read online, looks like the B7 has the tension bar, but has a shallow hinge plate and the B6 has a long plate, but no tension bar. It looks like I can get a replacement long hinge plate for $16.50 thru eBay, then I could presumably get a B7 somewhere, grind off the hinge rivet, and swap plates, which I'd then have to reattach with either a machine screw and an acorn nut or some sort of rivet from god knows where. Is this feasible, madness, ??? Or was/is there a Bigsby that already has the long hinge plate and a tension roller?
Here's a few pics of the guitar, BTW. There a lot of little custom touches here and there. Construction is pretty unique, too. It's all carved mahogany and is fully hollow. The top is carved pretty thin on the edges, but the middle section is about 1" or so thick all the way down the center, extending maybe 1.5" wider than the string spread. It is also completely solid all the way across in the areas of the horns and under the end of the neck. So it's pretty stable and might have originally been meant to be constructed with a stop tail, as there's a pretty hexagonal piece of marquetry under the TP hinge plate (that's all goobered up and drilled thru for the ground and totally covered up by the TP anyway). When I got this guitar, there was a Gruhn letter w/ it that explained that it was an incomplete luthier-school project that Voltz acquired and finished. It had a real hodge-podge of parts on it when I first got it: mismatched pickups, gold screws throughout, gold bridge, but chrome TP and chrome Imperials (w/ gold screws). So who know how much it differs b/w current configuration and original intent.
