The revitalisation of the Bigsby.

In the 50's it was 'the' vibrato then for some unknown reason it disappeared for a while. This may well have been due to patent reasons or simply because Jimi Hendrix came along? Vibrato's, or tremolo's as Leo called them (but that's for another blog) were designed as a pitch altering device to emulate the pleasing sound of the Hawaiian laps steel guitar.

Sure, guitarists could create a technique to 'vibrate' a single note but it wasn't until Paul Bigsby came along with his invention of the Bigsby Vibrato where all six guitar string could be pitch affected with the one wobble of the arm.

To je snad nekrásnější čistej zvuk u kytary co jsem

kdy slyšel, uplně mi přeběhl mráz po zádech. *

The geometry of Bigsby's invention was dead simple as most great inventions are. Instead of the strings terminating in a tailpiece the vibrato unit would replace the tailpiece where the ball ends of the strings would be pinned around a rolling shaft. The shaft would be balanced by a spring against the tension of the strings. Depressing the lever attached to the roller will lower the pitch while pulling up on the lever will increase the pitch. With an up and down motion you can achieve a vibrato effect as in the wavering motion of a steel on the strings of a lap steel guitar.

Gretsch guitars obtained the patent from Bigsby very early on where they used the vibratos on their own guitars, licensed its use to other manufactures and made it available as a retro-fit item.
I have had several guitars with a Bigsby Vibrato unit and after reading the many myths regarding tuning issues I would love to have a Bigsby equipped instrument again. If course in it's neutral position it can be perfectly in tune, even after a severe wobble. Saying they don't hold tune is nonsense on a well set-up instrument.

There are two things that really bug me on some of today's (shove 'em out the door) guitars. First is that I come across many Bigsby equipped guitars where the spring hasn't been seated properly. With the arm sitting at a 45 degree angle to the deck it fails me that no one seems to  notice this?? The other thing that the manufactures don't seem to consider is the spring tension. Back when this thing was invented we all used #8 wire for strings, that's heavy gauge for the no-farmers out there. The heavy strings would provide much more tension against the spring allowing the arm to sit quite flat above the pickguard. At one time optional springs of varying tension were available so we could replace the fitted spring with a lighter tension spring to compensate for light gauge strings. You may well find springs of a different rate if you search the Internet, pay through the nose and wait weeks for delivery. Wouldn't you think Gretsch would realize most guitarists today no longer use heavy gauge strings and provide a softer spring as standard? It's the little things that go to making a great guitar.

* And if you're wondering what the caption reads?? "This is perhaps the most beautiful clean sound with guitars I've ever heard, I completely ran cold"..  an anonymous listener