Bigsby vs Licensedb by Bigsby

Bridgehouse

I have never owned a bigsby.

However, these threads are always a source of much chuckling. 

Can anyone seriously complain that the method required to restring a bigsby requires a modicum of manual dexterity on an instrument that requires a lot of manual dexterity?

"I would like to return this guitar. I'm disgusted. I have to actually move my hands and fingers around in a coordinated way. Why is this product not piss easy to be a virtuoso on for a lazy bastard like me?"

olafgarten

Bigsby stringing isn't hard, I usually use pliers when stringing because I have a set anyway to cut the ends of the string, but it isn't necessary. 

Note I don't own a Bigsby but restring one of my Friend's guitars which has one. (He doesn't trust himself to string it properly) 

Corvus

Is this really still going on?

I use needle-nose pliers because they're always around and making a tight curl does make the string stay sat without need for capo or goring extra limbs or anything else. Especially if you curl it a bit tighter than the bar thickness.

Tuning is nothing to do with re-stringing. Easier than a Strat since you don't have to do anything to the trem itself (unless there's a problem with it), always bridge, break angles, top nut.

@customkits it's a matter of opinion but in well over a dozen Bigsbys inc 7 at one time I've not had any problems with the licensed ones, but have with US ones. Dried bush on one, binding arm brackets on three. All easily fixed though, you can see where to file away at the bracket from the witness marks it leaves on the main unit. All in all not much in it. Have owned & gigged both quite happily.

So ... pinned bridges..?

((ducks for cover  ))

Sassafras

I use an industrial electro-magnet to magnetise the strings and the Bigsby so that that the ball-ends and the pins seek each other out and once located they stay that way. Eezy-peezy.

MartinB

I've had a Bigsby (albeit a knock-off) and used the pre-bending method.  I'd say it's still a mild pain in the bum if you need to restring in a hurry, but the difficulty is often overstated.  I do appreciate the keyhole type string retention on my Duesenberg Les Trem II though.

Blueingreen

ICBM said:

Blueingreen said:

it's all I need to prove.

All you've proved is that you came here to start an argument about something you admitted in your first post you know very little about.

I came here to say that I'd been surprised that the Anderson mod wasn't more popular. Hardly argumentative.

But how few syllables do I need to use before you grasp these simple points:

 - I freely admit that I am technically inept
 - for that reason I have scrupulously avoided expressing any opinion whatsoever on technical matters

If you insist on trying to believe otherwise please quote the section of my post where I expressed an opinion on something I know nothing about.

I am in the fortunate position of having skills I can charge a lot more more for than I could ever earn as a guitar tech.  Since the technical stuff bores me I am quite happy to pay someone to do anything other than the most basic stuff. I have no interest in learning about it.  If people didn't have these attitudes then techs would find it harder to make a living.

BloodEagle

This is the thread which just keeps on giving

Gagaryn

Blueingreen said:

If you insist on trying to believe otherwise please quote the section of my post where I expressed an opinion on something I know nothing about.

Isn't that everything you have said; you've admitted you haven't even tried stringing a Bigsby and would only ever try to string one with an "Anderson Mod". You have no practical experience and are basing your strongly expressed opinions on "stuff you read on the internet".

Experience trumps reading stuff. :-)

Gagaryn

BloodEagle said:

This is the thread which just keeps on giving

It's the best for a while. It reminds me of the flat earth one. And that one about the moon.

Cirrus

I was upset my one last year about freezing all the jizz ever ejaculated and using the resulting solar-system wide spear to slowly kill Donald Trump never went anywhere, but this one isn't bad.

Schnozz

ICBM said:

Schnozz said:

Lol - I've had a B5 for half a decade

Just because you bend the string with pliers/over your thumb, it doesn't make it stay on the peg

If it does for you then show us

Yes it does.



I'm not holding the other end of the string.

If it doesn't stay on the pin for you, you aren't bending it like in the picture above.

I'm really trying to be helpful here, but I feel like I'm banging my head on the table. It just completely baffles me why some people seem to deliberately want to make something so easy into something they claim is so hard, and then will argue about it indefinitely with someone who *knows* it can be done the easy way.

All six strings mind! That one's not even strung.

...N I wanna see you do it in your Knick's

ICBM

Schnozz said:

Unedited video of you using just two hands and stringing all six in one go (particularly the higher strings you can't grip/keep tension on)

Gee us all a good chortle

Schnozz said:All six strings mind! That one's not even strung.

Sorry for the delay, I didn't have a Bigsby guitar to restring at the time .

Feel free to chortle if you like, if you can really be bothered to waste five and a half minutes! No tools were used in the making of this video .

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kis97jr2qk5p6hy/Bigsby.mp4

Cirrus

I restrung mine just before a set on Sunday, sitting in the backstage area. The other bands hailed me as a god.

Strangefan

I have had a few bigsbys and love em, I didnt even think it was a thing that they were a pig to change strings on, the bending the string "technique" was so obvious, and they do stay on as long as the bend angle is right

DaevidJ

I heard no end of horror stories regarding restringing a Bigsby it almost put me off getting an Electromatic. Imagine my surprise to find once you bent the ball end of the string that it was not as bad as some people made out. Perhaps it truly is the achilles heel for some players O.o 

equalsql

Being the owner of three guitars with Bigsbys I can confirm with @ICBM & @Strangefan that stringing them is a piece of piss.
I can't see what all the fuss is about. 

prlgmnr

It's weird how people can make something that is in no way an argument into an argument.

Ideal world:

Person A: I find stringing a Bigsby difficult.

Person B: Oh, that's interesting I find it to be no trouble at all.

The reality we're condemmed to live in:

Person A: I find stringing a Bigsby difficult.

Person B: No you don't, I actually find it really easy.

Cirrus

On the other hand, if someone finds something easy to be difficult, and you're a helpful person, it's natural to want to help them realise that it's easy.

robinbowes

prlgmnr said:

It's weird how people can make something that is in no way an argument into an argument.

Ideal world:

Person A: I find stringing a Bigsby difficult

Person B: Oh, that's interesting I find it to be no trouble at all.

The reality we're condemmed to live in:

Person A: I find stringing a Bigsby difficult, so everyone else does too.

Person B: No they don't, I actually find it really easy.

FTFY.

UnclePsychosis

I for one am grateful that my guitar is playing a key part in this glorious thread. :-D

Restringing it is easy by the way. It's the rewiring a semi hollow bit that was beyond me.