Have spent the past week watching Bowie concerts on YouTube and have decided Earl Slick may be the coolest guitar slinger in the west. Keep trying to fool myself that my Trad is like an R9 - but it isn’t, so I need to be less precious about it.
Slick got some cool tones from his Bigsby loaded LP and it’s got me thinking about putting one on mine.
Are they a massive faff? Does it mess up tuning? Does it alter the core tone significantly? Can I still play some grunge and GnR stuff, or will Slash be terribly disappointed?
Any advice from people who’ve done this would be much appreciated.
Comments
As Whitecat said you can try with a Vibramate. There’s also the Towner system, where you’d use a B3 with their tension bar, or you could try a Duesenberg Les Trem.
(formerly customkits)
Ian
Lowering my expectations has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
They're not a faff. Tuning depends on the nut and the break angle over the bridge. The LP/B7 angle is steep so I have tuning issues if I go down more than say a minor third, but it's stable other than that. I don't have any issues at all on my SG or 335. I play heavy styles with em it's fine
Once a Bigsby has been setup nicely, they’re joyous things to use.
Now my classic has the Towner system and domed thumbwheels under the original bridge, works great and controls are accessible. The only problem I had was with the raw plug (spl) holding the strap pin in which needed additional cocktail sticks to take the strain.
I suffer from phantom Bigsby now when I play a guitar without one