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I'm curious as to usage of a Bigsby on jazz guitars. It seems as though they aren't that common, and I'm wondering why.
I've been looking at jazz boxes for a while now, and I'm having a hard time pulling the trigger on a guitar built for playing exclusively jazz, since I play other styles than jazz.
I guess I'd like to buy guitar that can cop excellent mainstream jazz tone but also be versatile enough to excel at other tones as well.
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08-23-2015 12:22 PM
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A Bigsby is just a gimmick to me. I've never ever played anything and thought "this would sound a lot better if I could make a whole chord just a little lower".
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I think it's very useful for some styles (not jazz), but I figure one also needs to practice quite a bit before one can use it well. I have never felt tempted to get a guitar with one. When I bought my Strat, the first thing I did was to block the tremolo and remove the handle.
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Personally not a fan of the whammy bar but they are popular with rockabilly style guitars which makes them versatile.
Maybe have a look for a Gretsch they have many guitars that could fit the bill, there is one for sale by a reputable member in the sale section
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I put a Bigsby on my 6193 as I do double duty with it doing rock and swing. I intended to use it more with my swing gigs but find the problem is that common jazz phrasing and chomping leave little room for periods of sustain where a Bigsby would be used. It's not that I don't want to use it but the opportunities just aren't there enough to justify it for
me.
BTW, I'm selling my 17" spruce topped Country Club in the for sale section. And yes it has a Bigsby.
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Ain't nothin' wrong with a wiggle stick
It's an articulation device and you use it or not. The main reason I don't have one on my Tele is I don't want to add the weight. Bigby's can be a bit problematic tuning wise as there are 2 sticking points: 1. the bridge and 2. the nut. A strat has only one, the nut.
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I agree with DG. Use it or not. It can add a nice effect. They can be set up to play just fine and return in tune, they do add weight. They never did seem to catch on with Jazz players. Western guys used them a lot. They were popular though, so popular they caused Bigsby to slow to a crawl his Steel guitar construction and virtually eliminated his Standard production.
Here's a shot of the flyer he used to market them. Single page double sided.
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I love bigsbys, I have two guitars with them. I don't use them much, but I like being able to put some gentle vibrato on chords, particularly those Johnny Smith style closed voicings. Like all embellishments, the key is to be tasteful and not overuse it .
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well i'm of the belief that just about anything the great paul bigsby created was first rate..and worthy of investigation…and thank goodness guys like artisan tk smith are still mining it!!
roy lanham and mickey baker used leo's jazzmasters to pretty good effect..jazzmaster trem is as close as leo got to bigsby..single spring trem
cheers
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Here you go!
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How the hell are you s'posed to play surf jazz without one?? Certainly not Nels Cline, Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell, Brian Setzer, or Duane Eddy.
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I love whammy bars.
Bigsbys are crap. Heavy, don't stay in tune without stupid metal bridges, and they make string changes a pain in the ass. They are an antiquated design that blows.
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Bigsbys need heavy strings to work properly in my opinion. On both my guitars that have bigsbys (one is an archtop, the other is a Gibson L6-S) , the lightest gauge strings that stay in tune with moderate bigsby use would be .11s. On the archtop I have a Gretsch "Rocking Bar" bridge, that works brilliantly. On the Gibson I have a Compton bridge. It is a solid bit of stainless steel, much like the ebony bridge you would find on an archtop, but made of steel. That works brilliantly with the bigsby, and improved the tone of the guitar too.
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I used to be a fan, but somehow once I started to play more jazz, I had less and less use for it, until it became just an annoying appendix. I agree theres not many opportunities to use it in jazz context, maybe on ballads? Also agree it does feel like a gimmick after a while. I prefer left hand vibrato, it could be much more expressive too! Still, I'm a big Brian Setzer fan, and I love what he can do with his Bigsby equipped Gretsch, it sure works for him.
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Although I'm not vibrato bar fan, I have had two guitars with Bigsby's and I never had issues keeping them in tune with 10's, 11's, or 12's. Just had them set up by my buddy/speed dial luthier.
This was in my rockabilly phase. It was a period where I spent a fair amount of time studying classic and contemporary rockabilly (if not closely related) artists. I still have love for it but just don't focus on it anymore. The only vibrato I do is rare and with rapid, shallow bends.
How do I work on a song that is heavy in Bigsby use? I work around it. Just keep the spirit of the thing and no one cares.
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So what is the "best" whammy bar? You got a non-Bigsby favorite, Jeff?
I've got whammies on my Tokai Springy Sound (strat clone), and on a PRS Custom 24--but I almost never use them. They're not even mounted. They stay in the case most of the time.
The PRS has perhaps a better precision, more control. But the Strat, for all it's flaws, is a sound well-etched in my brain.
I'm more from the "do it with the left hand" school. At least in theory. The playing is marginal, as usual. It's only me.
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Lots of good choices. For subtle stuff, the Fender Jazzmaster/Jaguar vibrato can't be beat. For wilder stuff, of course locking trems like a floyd or ibanez's version are great, but string changes aren't easy.
Best whammy i ever used was on a freind's Jeff Beck strat. Simple, effective, felt like a good old strat but stayed in tune.
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Tell us how you REALLY feel :-)
Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
It's funny, just when the Gretsch craze got the must have bigsby is a mystery. The majority of classic Gretsch guitars did NOT have one, now you cannot hardly find a Gretsch without one. Go figure. Oh you forgot they go out of tune if you break a string :-)
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honestly you could have just as many intonation problems with a 5 spring strat trem as a single spring trem ala bigsby, jazzmaster/jaguar or mosrite...
just happened to be talking to bigsby rep last week, and they now have 4 different sized springs…so that string gauge issues can be avoided and solved..
the usa bigsby is a work of art..sandcast in usa..true vintage..surprised that jazz purists who appreciate the value of hands on archtop making would find fault with them
sure they are old school
but then so is the archtop, the p-90, the gibson g50 amp, flatwound strings, etc etc..and yet they remain iconic jazz gear
cheers
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I don't see them as a gimmick at all. It's not surprising they were used by Rockabillies. By the last 1/2 of the 50's they were readily available in different models on lots of guitars and that music was happening at that time. I think it would be safe to say some of the Jazz players tried them or had guitars with them onboard. Bob Bain used a blackguard Tele with one for years.
They aren't hard to get working well. Changing a string set isn't terrible either, though changing a string quickly on stage can be a hassle. They will add weight to the guitar but so does a set of Grover Imperials.
The fact they're still made says something. Considering Bigsby had no real Lutherie training he turned out great stuff.
Despite what the book says, (in the title no less) his standard guitars were not solid but a neck thru design and a lot of it is hollow. Solid is solid and they aren't, but don't get me started on that book!
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arguably, the three greatest electric guitar theorist giants of the 20th century had no lutherie training…ie bigsby, leo & les
cheers
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I love the TK Smith designs and sounds Originally Posted by neatomic
well i'm of the belief that just about anything the great paul bigsby created was first rate..and worthy of investigation…and thank goodness guys like artisan tk smith are still mining it!!
Funnily though another R'n'R revivalist and TK Smith acolyte; Pat Capocci, has been sporting a Squier JM Jazzmaster-a single spring trem!
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I've been using that name online for almost 20 years and it's not because of the tailpieces. I'd say the same thing about Fender Trems or any other similar TP that worked. Frankly, I would have rather they weren't invented. Then there would be more of his instruments around.
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There really no other alternative to Bigsby's for an arch top guitar. The Stetsbar vibrato will work w' a stop tail peice set up. But aside from Neal Schon who put a Floyd Rose on his PRS achtop model guitar, I can't think of any alternatives. I had read the reason John McGlaughlin uses one is to emulate Miles Davis trumpet phrasing.
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I used it to mimic slide guitar.
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