Fitting a Bigsby on my SG. Help/advice needed.

freakboy1610

For some time I've been thinking about putting a Bigsby B5 style tremolo on my Epiphone SG. Not a real Bigsby but one of those £25 made in China jobs from Ebay that Jooky has used. I was poised over the buy it now button when I realised that I would have to remove the stop tail post mounting thingies. I Googled that and it looks fairly straightforward but then I read that the electrics are grounded to the cup that holds the bottom post. Presumably if I remove it then I would have to ground it somewhere else. I want to put the Bigsby over the holes and I wondered if I could just extend the ground/earth wire up the hole so it contacts the back of the tremolo. Can anyone advise if this would work or if there is a better method?

professorben

That would work, but could you not drill and reroute the wire to the bridge mounting post? 

ICBM

Put a long spring like a pickup height spring or an old biro spring into the stud insert so it sticks out of the top, and screw the Bigsby down over it so it makes contact. It needs to be tall enough that it will squash sideways and make a good contact with the sides of the hole.

You may also find this useful - how to make sure the Bigsby is in the right place to drill the screw holes. You can move it around a bit and check the alignment and measurements to the bridge before you mark the positions...

Gagaryn

And don't fit it when you are still have pished from a night out otherwise despite using the string method illustrated above, you will still fit it a bit off centre, and a bit squint!.

ICBM

Gagaryn said:

And don't fit it when you are still have pished from a night out otherwise despite using the string method illustrated above, you will still fit it a bit off centre, and a bit squint!.

Or this famously wonky example, which was fitted by the salesman in the shop where Lennon bought the Bigsby - he just put the guitar up on the front counter and screwed the Bigsby on… not straight. It's so off square that the low E string almost rubs against the side of the Bigsby, and it apparently went terribly out of tune with any use at all.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m6QRu1m4vDw/U8bHLzVLjFI/AAAAAAAAENM/mQgHpqEI-c8/s1600/Rickenbacker+capri+John+Lennon+5.jpg

guitars4you

ICBM said:

Or this famously wonky example, which was fitted by the salesman in the shop where Lennon bought the Bigsby - he just put the guitar up on the front counter and screwed the Bigsby on… not straight. It's so off square that the low E string almost rubs against the side of the Bigsby, and it apparently went terribly out of tune with any use at all.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m6QRu1m4vDw/U8bHLzVLjFI/AAAAAAAAENM/mQgHpqEI-c8/s1600/Rickenbacker+capri+John+Lennon+5.jpg

To be fair the salesman did ask for some HELP whilst he was fitting it but no one else around, so John just said 'don't worry about it, as WE CAN WORK IT OUT'

Gagaryn

ICBM said:

Gagaryn said:

And don't fit it when you are still have pished from a night out otherwise despite using the string method illustrated above, you will still fit it a bit off centre, and a bit squint!.

It's so off square that the low E string almost rubs against the side of the Bigsby, and it apparently went terribly out of tune with any use at all.

Sounds familiar! Mine was saveable luckily and with the Bigsby on there is no visible sign of my foolishness.

freakboy1610

Well my Bigsby (Chigsby?) finally arrived from China but it's not wide enough to cover the stop tail holes. Searched the internet again for solutions and I definitely don't have the skills to fill the holes, sand down, repaint/stain etc. Some people have a little plastic plate across the holes with Custom Made printed on it but that looks crap. I'm going to try to get some button head socket screws that will go into the holes and see how that looks. Only upside is that I will have to mount the Bigsby farther away from the bridge. Or I may not bother at all!!

gavin_axecaster

Assuming it's the same footprint as B5 you could move it back like this.
http://www.zeblog.com/blog/uploads/i/ik/pouet.jpg

https://a2-images.myspacecdn.com/images03/13/f5efc879bddf4c76bdbbe041e79cd875/full.jpg