Never had a Bigsby'd guitar in my life until recently and now have two. I have a couple of totally noob questions:
1) On one (actually a Telecaster onto which I bolted the B5 with Vibramate) the unit really doesn't have much effect at all - you really have to give it some humpty to get anything more than the mildest of shimmers. Could that be remedied by a softer spring?
2) Do the arms on all Bigsbys stay exactly where you leave them or is it possible to loosen it so it simply drops to 6 o'clock when you let go under it's own weight?
TIA
Comments
2) All of mine have, but there is a nut inside where the spring sits that keeps the arm attached. Loosening that would loosen the arm, and not cause a problem if it's one of those nuts with plastic on the threads to let you do just that. They probably have a name. @ICBM will know...
http://store.reverendguitars.com/product/soft-touch-spring/
2) If you slacken the nut that adjusts the arm tension, you'll find that you'll waggle the arm and bugger all with happen at the fulcrum. You slacken the adjuster and the spring that holds the arm to the fulcrum goes slack - then all the effort put into the bar waggles the spring not the fulcrum.
1. Probably the arm bolt is loose. This will allow the arm to rock on the cam rather than it moving the cam up and down. You need to tighten the arm bolt - by holding the nut with a pair of long-nose pliers and turning the arm (the bolt is locked to the arm with a square boss so it turns with the arm).
Personally I don't think a softer spring is the solution - quite the opposite, a stiffer spring holds the cam up higher so it has more travel range, albeit at the expense of a stiffer action. I don't get the appeal of soft springs at all, I've often replaced mine with stiffer ones made from cut-down air rifle springs! (So I could also make them longer, further increasing the arm height.)
2. No. They're never loose enough to swing under their own weight, and if they are there will *definitely* be the first problem.
Bigsbys seem to come with a vital component missing though - under the cam, there is a spring which tensions the arm. Usually, there is no washer between it and the cam - there needs to be, and there is a recess designed to take one. The right washer is one that fits perfectly into it. Fitting the washer allows you to tighten the arm much more without the nut working loose and without making it so hard to move the arm. Grease the washer thoroughly on both sides and the arm will move much more smoothly.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
And that proves there's no right or wrong way to do this!! :-)
I preferred the squishy spring because it made those gentle shimmers happen - I found with the stiff spring, the action of the arm was damped out too much by the arm tension spring. However, as with all these things its probably just preference.
Thats is interesting info, mate. Thanks. I wasn't aware of that and thinking about it makes 100% sense.
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OK, thanx.
Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder
My trading feedback - I'm a good egg
I agree with John, softer spring doesn't help any mine when I tried it
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Telecaster American Deluxe, Cornell Romany amp, without the talent to use them properly
What I can say with certainty is there will be a significant change in the body weight and balance to what you are used to. You may also need to shim the neck at an angle, which again will change the feel of your tele and the string/body response you have previously been used to.
I think that part of the Tele tone is the way the strings are anchored. Most classic Teles have the through body stringing. Whether through body or toploaded makes a difference is something that gets argued about, but the Bigsby might well change the tone.
I did talk to a guy in a shop once who was in the process of selling a Bigsby loaded Custom Shop Tele. He said it just didn't have the tone of a hardtail one.
There is something on the market to fix this, it'll turn your B50 into a lush springy trem, light to handle, stable tuning, and a joy to use,
Plus - @impmann has a lightly used kit for sale here in the UK. If you don't buy it, I will.
Cheers
Marlin