short bigsby for bluesboid?

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bigsby-Les-Paul-Arc ... dZViewItem

According to this ad, this short Bigsby bigsby will work on a Les Paul. If so, wouldn't a short Guild Bigsby work on a Bloozebird? What determines if you need the long type that screw down? For example why do starfires with 18 frets to the body need a longy?

HF

 

[Default]

ebay now...

As my betters explained to me, it has to do with the shallowness of the neck set. You need the tension bar to get the proper break angle on the bridge.

Man, that would look goooooooood sitting next to the Astro Jet.

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

Asphalt,

What kind of mobile is that? About a 50s Mercury?

That's a nice color on the S100. They get trebles like no other guitar I've heard.

Why would the neck angle be different on a guitar that's 16 frets to the body vs one that 18 frets to the body?

Also, if the seller of those Bigsbys is right, why would anybody screw a bigsby to the top if it's avoidable?

Hatted Frau

 

[Default]

Asphalt,

What kind of mobile is that? About a 50s Mercury?

That's a nice color on the S100. They get trebles like no other guitar I've heard.

Why would the neck angle be different on a guitar that's 16 frets to the body vs one that 18 frets to the body?

Also, if the seller of those Bigsbys is right, why would anybody screw a bigsby to the top if it's avoidable?

Hatted Frau

Not sure what the car was, I like old Buicks, myself.
I suspect that the extra two frets clear might have changed the break angle over the bridge to the point where the tension bar was necessary. I thought before I came here that my SFIII needed a neck reset because the angle was so "flat" to the top. Now I'm not so sure....

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

I remember when Buick went to its first V8 in 1953 (same year Guild started). My brother put one in a 1941 Merc.

I also remember when Buick went to the V6 in the 1960s. I don't remember if they were the first. Maybe Olds and Buick came out with them at the same time and they were the same engine. I don't think any other GM cars had them.

In about 1952, some guy kept racing up and down our residential street in a Buick. I remember it because of the four thingamajigs on each front fender. Our neighbor was a six-foot-seven ex-football player, and he threw a brick at the guy and hit him in the face. (In those days, everybody drove with the driver's window down--unless it was cold or rainy.) Bloody and crying, the driver came back with a cop and whined, "You could have killed me." And our neighbor said, "You dumb S.O.B., I was trying to kill ya."

But again, 1953. That's why this post has not drifted off topic.

 

[Default]

I briefly owned a 1956 Buick Special 4 door hardtop with the 322 4 barrel engine and a 3 speed manual. Ran fantastic, had a busted driveshaft and a cracked torque tube.

It was like it had been built on Mars, as far as getting parts.

Dreamlander picked up the Polara pictured so he's going to be the go-to guy on Bigsby/solidbodies.

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

A three-speed sounds incredibly old-fashioned now. Was it on the column?

 

[Default]

3 speed on the column, 3.91 gearset, one of less than 200 manuals built that year. It was the car that taught me that restoring old cars was a rich man's game.

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

Even if you have the $, it's danged hard work, and you really have to know what you're doing. I wish I could work on cars because it would save me a lot of money. Also, I'd like to drop a high-powered engine in my old red Volvo and scare a few punks. Might even pick up some chicks.

 

[Default]

I've got pics of it and me around here somewhere. I'll put that on the list too.

 

[GuildFS4612CE]

Also, I'd like to drop a high-powered engine in my old red Volvo and scare a few punks. Might even pick up some chicks.

Does it sound to you guys like Darryl is feeling better....alot better :!: :roll: :lol:

 

[california]

My Birdie has a an aftermarket Bigsby, it was there when I bought it.

It has two small screws on the top and rests over the screwholes from the original bridge.

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

Cal,

What year is it? Are those stock pickups? Nice top, but that's the norm in California.

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

I've been on the net (I'd rather be on Annette) looking at pics of bluesbirds and bluesbird-shaped Gibsons and Gretsches. All Guild bluesbirds and Gibson Les Pauls have screw-to-the-top bigsbys, but most of the bluesbird-shaped Gretsches (duo-jet, silver-jet, Lear-jet, etc) don't. Would somebody please explain (or exjet) why the Gibs and Guilds must get the screws put to them when the Gretsches don't?

 

[california]

Cal,

What year is it? Are those stock pickups? Nice top, but that's the norm in California.

Its an '02, I believe Corona. Pickups are original, pretty sure the Bigsby is aftermarket. I think the guy who I bought it from either worked at, or knew someone at the factory -- I bought it at a guitar show not far from there -- he was also selling unfinished bodies from Guild Archtops and other parts.

 

[Walter Broes]

Bluesbirds and Les Pauls have a post-mounted bridge, Gretsch Jets have a floating archtop style bridge on a wooden base. (taller).

This is how these things were designed, and the posts-in-the-body mounted bridges sit lower, hence the need for a B7 (or B5) style Bigsby with the extra retainer bar. A ("short") Bigsby B3 wouldn't work because you wouldn't get enough string angle on the bridge.

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

Thanks Walter. Would a bigsby B3 work on an aristocrat if I used a floating bridge? Or would that fit as bad as a Hammond B3?

 

[Walter Broes]

I'm guessing you mean "old style hollow bluesbird" - if so, the answer is sadly "no". The bridge on them is floating, but it's not taller than a post mounted bridge, so the neck angle is too flat for a B3.....

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

Yes, I meant the ones that were made until about 1963.

So if I put a high enough bridge on an Aristocrat, the strings would be too far off the fretboard up the neck, and there would be no way I could do anything about that, right?

 

[Walter Broes]

short of resetting the neck/re-building the guitar, no.