Guildsby on my Bluesbird

[RussB]

When I got my Bluesbird a few years ago, it had a Bigsby B3 on it, The tailpiece was some funky contraption a a former Westerly employee conjured up. It didn't work well. It was barely threaded into the the bushings and flopped around...I took the Bigsby off the guitar.

The Guildsby was in need of some maintenance. The bearings were very gritty and pretty far from smooth. I removed the bushings, and in the process snapped two string pins off (which are 1/16" x 5/16" long spring pins) I cleaned, liubed and re-installed the bushings, and bought a Callaham "pinless" string bar. It's very well made and measure a full .375" in diameter as opposed to the stock string bar which was .371". The Callaham feels very smooth and precise, plus no more messin' with the pins.

The handle stud had stripped threads. I ordered a replacement and installed it. That went OK

I recently came across a product called the Towner Down Bar. It replaces the tailpiece and seemed just what I needed to make the Bigsby work.

I got it all together, and...the upward pressure from the strings pulled a bushing out of the body. I removed both bushings and glued them in. Problem solved.

 

[Los Angeles]

Be still my heart. That looks incredible from both an aesthetic and a functional point of view. The gold standard.

 

[RussB]

Thanks LA...the devil's in the details. :mrgreen:

 

[Jahn]

ooh! towner down bar! gonna have to remember that piece of kit! nice!

 

[NEONMOONY]

Yeah, baby!

 

[Bobo]

Clean installation, looks great!

 

[Walter Broes]

Great solution, but why not look for a later Guild Bigsby with the extra tension bar?

 

[RussB]

Great solution, but why not look for a later Guild Bigsby with the extra tension bar?

Because that's what came on the guitar when I bought it. And the top already has bushings for the tailpiece, so the down bar can utilize them

I also do not like how high a B7 sits when on a Vibramate...if a vibramate even would fit a BB

 

[Los Angeles]

Great solution, but why not look for a later Guild Bigsby with the extra tension bar?

I have a guitar that needs one of those and I can't find one anywhere.

 

[RussB]

...and the guitar still fits quite nicely in its case with the Bigsby installed

 

[RussB]

More & better pics...because we can never have too many pics! :lol:

 

[RussB]

The stock bridge is a Gotoh. Today I tried a "Golden Age" roller bridge from Stew-Mac...here's a pic of it on a different guitar,

Well, I was very surprised at how much the bridge altered the tone. Even without the guitar plugged in I could tell it was louder and brighter. Thing is, plugged in the unwound strings had a real "zing" and over the top shrillness to them when using the bridge pup...with the neck pup it was very clear and articulate.

I just gotta have a good bridge pup tone, so I put the Gotoh back on. I was an eye opening experience. A different bridge can and does have a significant impact on tone

 

[Guildadelphia]

A B-3 and a Towner Bar is a great combo. With a B-7, the break angle of the strings over the bridge is too severe and negatively effects tuning and the smoothness of the Bigsby. With the B-3 and Towner Bar you get less string tension and less severe an angle resulting in better tuning stability, better/smoother Bigsby action, and better playability in general with the slightly reduce string tension.

 

[walrus]

I knew I had seen this set up before! Nice!

walrus

 

[Smitch]

Dig it!

 

[S100]

Anybody try the Chet Atkins arm for a little more length? I'm thinking of getting one.

 

[DThomasC]

I love the Duane Eddy arm. I don't know if it's any longer than the stock (maybe a tiny bit) but there's less play in the swivel. Much more precise feel.

 

[Tiki295]

Looks cool! Maybe CMG Guild can offer Guildsbies as an aftermarket add-on

 

[jp]

Nice job, Russ. That looks awesome! I like the route you went because it looks so clean and natural.

Somewhere buried in a thread from long ago, I seem to recall that one of our Bluesbird-loving members did an all gold hardware treatment using a gold stopbar Guildsby from a Starfire VI that also turned out beautifully.

 

[204084]

Beautiful work. Beautiful guitar. Beautiful pictures. Let me see if I can type beautiful one more time....there...I did it.