Bigsby vs Licensedb by Bigsby

lincolnblue

My Gretsch Electromatic has a licensed by Bigsby on it. Just wondering what the main differences are between those made by Bigsby and the licensed ones? In terms of use, quality etc. Is it worth upgrading to a Bigsby one?

Corvus

imho the licensed ones are if anything better - the castings are more accurate. I've had to file & fiddle some US ones. The dimensions are different, the tail brackets are different but can be swapped with some faff, the US ones have a bronze or oilite bush, licensed have nylon. Which is fine is a very low stress use like this and doesn't need oil. All in all the differences don't add up to much.
The V-cuts look the dogs on a Gretsch though, as per Proline & vintage etc.

Blueingreen

I'll admit I know very little about Bigsbys but I can never understand why the Tom Anderson mod (drill holes instead of pins) hasn't become more widespread or even standard.  It's the only type of Bigsby that wouldn't be a deal-breaker for me on a guitar.

lustycourtier

Blueingreen said:

I'll admit I know very little about Bigsbys but I can never understand why the Tom Anderson mod (drill holes instead of pins) hasn't become more widespread or even standard.  It's the only type of Bigsby that wouldn't be a deal-breaker for me on a guitar.

Why? It takes no longer or no more difficult to restring if you know the simple tricks. 

ICBM

Not this again! As lustycourtier says, it's dead easy if you learn how to do it. Just pre-bend the strings round the end of your thumb so they look like the old ones that have come off, and then it's a piece of cake. No special tools or gimmicks needed.

Don't remove the pins and drill the bar, that makes things much harder because it's now a real pain to remove the old strings...

The genuine Bigsbys work much better than the licenced ones in my experience - it's the quality of the bearings that really counts, regardless of the accuracy and finish of the castings.

impmann

ICBM said:

The genuine Bigsbys work much better than the licenced ones in my experience - it's the quality of the bearings that really counts, regardless of the accuracy and finish of the castings.

This.

WezV

Lets not distract from the questions with silly stringing  stuff.


For me they are comparable.  They feel a little different but both work really well.  The decision between a B5 and B50  comes down to aesthetics.   I like the vintage look from the original castings, but it never looks right  on a brand new shiny guitar.  The decision between a B5 and B500 comes down to budget

Lozboy

I found the electromatic ones work well enough.To warrant the cost of an upgrade needs some serious thought.Like all things Gretsch spare parts are pricey.Bigsby and Bigsby parts are also very pricey.Even S/H prices are high unless your lucky.

ICBM

WezV said:

Lets not distract from the questions with silly stringing  stuff.

… agreed - but almost every time Bigsbys are mentioned, someone comes along to say how hard they are to restring, and/or you need all manner of gadgets and nonsense to do it.

It's always worth replying to, because it's simply completely and absolutely wrong. Maybe one day it will get through, who knows .

WezV

ICBM said:

WezV said:

Lets not distract from the questions with silly stringing  stuff.

… agreed - but I am going to do it anyway

FTFY

ICBM

WezV said:

ICBM said:

WezV said:

Lets not distract from the questions with silly stringing  stuff.

… agreed - but I am going to do it anyway

FTFY

It wasn't me who posted the silly stringing stuff! I just helped lustycourtier correct it .

Sassafras

I just buy a new guitar when it comes time to restring a Bigsby.

Schnozz

Sassafras said:

I just buy a new guitar when it comes time to restring a Bigsby.

There's no tension on the string to hold it on the pin, so you can use a capo (as a third hand) to keep it taut when restringing

If you just had to bend it round your thumb then no one would complain about them...Vibramate wouldn't have made a unit especially either

End of

ICBM

Schnozz said:

There's no tension on the string to hold it on the pin, so you can use a capo (as a third hand) to keep it taut

If you just had to bend it round your thumb then no one would complain about them...Vibramate wouldn't have made a unit especially either

End of

Well that is all you have to do - end of . Why some people seem to make such a complete faff of it I really do not understand.

If you bend the string properly it doesn't even need you to keep tension on the string, let alone capo it, and it will stay in place.

Vibramate make a special unit because some people always prefer not to bother learning a simple technique to make something work...

Sassafras

I like to braze the string ends onto the pins. Makes restringing so much easier. Means I don't have to clamp the strings down with a G-clamp. Only takes me a few hours.

Whitecat

ICBM said:

Schnozz said:

There's no tension on the string to hold it on the pin, so you can use a capo (as a third hand) to keep it taut

If you just had to bend it round your thumb then no one would complain about them...Vibramate wouldn't have made a unit especially either

End of

Well that is all you have to do - end of . Why some people seem to make such a complete faff of it I really do not understand.

If you bend the string properly it doesn't even need you to keep tension on the string, let alone capo it, and it will stay in place.

Vibramate make a special unit because some people always prefer not to bother learning a simple technique to make something work...

Or you can argue they make an easy thing even easier so why complain?

ICBM

Whitecat said:

Or you can argue they make an easy thing even easier so why complain?

Because they cost money, look ugly, and perpetuate the idea that they're hard to restring otherwise .

Sassafras

ICBM said:

Whitecat said:

Or you can argue they make an easy thing even easier so why complain?

Because they cost money, look ugly, and perpetuate the idea that they're hard to restring otherwise .

You're spot on.
Before the internet came along., I never realised how impossible it was to restring a Bigsby and I wondered how I'd managed to do it so easily for all these years.
Now that everything is computer controlled, people seem to have lost the knack of working out the simple logic of mechanisms.
The yoof of today, they don't know they're born.

pintspiller

I prefer the genuine Bigsby on my Rockingham over the licenced one on an Electromatic I tried. However, the Electromatic did sound a little better. I imagine they were previously probably made in the same factory (both were Chinese), perhaps it was pickups, rosewood, or just the mojo of the brand.

Blueingreen

I regret bringing up the Anderson mod in view of the predictability of the replies.  If I'm not willing to have the extra hassle of a Bigsby when it comes to re-stringing a guitar, it's not because I haven't read dozens of forumites, here and elsewhere, pointing out how easy it is if only you take the trouble to learn some little insider's techniques.

I've also personally known, and read plenty of posts from, people who've bought Bigsbys, put time and effort into mastering this supposed technique, and still ended up selling the damn things because it's turned changing strings into a massive PITA for them.  I have not a scintilla of doubt that if I bought one i would be one of the worst of the strugglers.  Aptitudes for this sort of thing greatly vary, as do interest levels in learning to do it properly. 

I detest changing strings on a guitar at the best of times, even though I've been doing it for decades;  practice has not made perfect: I take far too long to do it, still don't do a very tidy job and too often end up with a bleeding finger.  I'm happy to pay for locking tuners to minimise the hassle and for coated strings to reduce frequency.  I'm certainly not going to invest in a piece of kit that makes it harder.  And for that reason I have absolutely zero interest in buying a guitar with an unmodded Bigsby. 

(Well that along with the tuning issues;  and before someone charges in to say that the tuning on a Bigsby is just fine and dandy if you're not the sort of cretin who doesn't know how to set one up properly, let me say that in the first place I've done plenty of research on that issue and don't believe you, and secondly that even if I did I predictably AM the sort of cretin who doesn't know how to set one up properly. I'm not proud of that, but neither am I ashamed of it - we all have our strengths and weaknesses; and I know enough about mine to think that there are far more profitable uses of my time than trying to turn myself into the kind of person who knows how to quickly re-string or set up a Bigsby.)

ICBM

The only reason the replies are predictable is because the nonsense about how hard it is to restring them is equally tedious. Bending the ball end is not some esoteric 'insider' trick, it's so easy that I still can't believe anyone thinks you need to do anything more complicated.

And I'm not prepared to shut up about it because the problem is *not* the Bigsby, and anyone considering fitting one or buying a guitar with one on deserves to know this before they make things needlessly difficult for themselves.

And really, the 'Anderson mod' makes things far worse because it's then difficult to get the old strings out of the bar. Even cutting them as close as you can to the bend doesn't always work and you then need to grab the ball end with pliers and pull it out, with the risk of slipping and gouging the top of the guitar. So I would definitely not call it any kind of upgrade, in fact quite the opposite.