Hey Sascha, I remember that game & living in north London with Nayim being ex Tottenham against Arsenal it was a huge talking point. Plus, jokes abounded about Nayim lobbing seamen from 40 metres.

B-16 looks clunky?? WHAT!!

y'all need to chew on this (turn off all other apps cuz this website will bog you down if you dont have a decent machine)

http://www.bigsbyfiles.blog...

cant go to that site, Tavo, it crashes my browser -- and my computer aint that old

Well my new laptop survived the bigsbyfiles, crikey, a lot of stuff, I'll take my time & look later.

Mustafa.. Are you using a Commodore 64?

ps. my kid's PC with windows 7 crashes with it but that was a free computer that came in the cereal box. ooooooh.

:^)

works slow even with my Macbook intel duocore II

nope, i may be old, but i aint that old

I found TK's comment on the impact to the tele sound most interesting. I think I agree generally - my ears are hardly the best any more. But I seem to be able to set up my amp to generate an output that pretty closely matches the way it sounded before. Sustain is the main thing I notice - especially on the higher notes, but that might be a function of the little strings I use. I've been thinking a tru-arc or something like it might help a bit, but I am not enough of a physicist to know. Perhaps even a rosewood gibson style bridge set on top of the aluminum base?

/edit - and I agree with the duo-jet meets ES-150 goal. The Lollar CC obviously goes a long way to helping get close.

dont need no stinkin Lollars when you gots one of these Smith'r Swingmasters !!

Regrettably, that wasn't an option when I put this rig together a couple of years ago. But it has been a sturdy, great-sounding daily driver that was under 1k.

oh you know I was fun'n about the lollar I've got one in my baritone right now and its quite nice. I'm not totally thrilled with blades though in the neck position (they remind me of dumbuckers on the low E and A strings in gibsons) so I want to put this new monster magnet in the guitar instead.

and Spike, you totally get bonus points for the relic on the tele I love the aged look.. damn them shiny perfect critters.

Thanks, Tubs!

Spike, did you do the relic yourself? The pattern reminds me of the Fender Roadworn Tele. Not in a bad way.

Nice plank Spike. I'm going with a double bound & sea foam green. I guess I've talked myself into a B16 & that CC in the front is calling to me like a siren on the rocks but they ain't cheap. Is it a Lollar?

Roadworn tele body and neck is correct, sascha. I am not so clever as tony! I got it from a GDp'er second-hand.

Pickups are Lollar CC/Special T, also second hand, for I am also a man of humble means. The B-16 is one from ebay that some kind soul had cut the bottom off, in a vain attempt to fit it to a non-standard body, but made up for it by drilling extra holes on the tail.

So a Frankenstein, but my own, and perfectly suited to the sort of low rent places I work.

...and besides the great tone she's a looker for sure!

When I think about a Tele with a Bigsby, I go here to whet my appetite: The Bigsby Project

so1om... you've not said (or I just missed it) which style Bigsby you're wrestling with?

hi I'm back... It's the B5 kit..

I stopped off at Chicago Music Exchange and by chance, not a single Tele new or old with a Bigsby.

I haven't taken it apart yet as the kids have commandered it for the moment, but i at least need to firmly mount the bar to the casting. Maybe a larger fender washer to also act as a spacer. The end of the bar travels 1"+ before any rotation (so pitch change) of the casting starts. You can see a sizeable gap between the circular end of the bar where where the bolt attaches to the casting. By that point, my knucks are hitting the guard. So that's one problem.

I think this recent B5 (which is the licensed one?) may have a softer alloy, so i'm wary before i start any bending of it. It doesn't take much to crack it.

I also run standard Super Slinkies (thus 9s) on the guitar as i do all my guitars. I've never had a problem setting up the Rally (or strat, floyd, burns, vibrola if you were to include other makes of vibratos). Maybe i need something else.

As i've said, i've put together parts guitars, stuff from garage sales etc, all kinds of stuff and i've never such issues. Not to say it can't be overcome, but all the research i did, it's not a matter of simply slapping it on there.

Giving this a bump.... does anyone had a view of a tele/bigsby (with the B5 kit) looking down as it would be played?

From the low E side (closest).. So the neck, height of the bridge, height angle of the arm, etc can be seen.

Thanks..

The B-16 is a cooler looking assembly, but I prefer the B-5 due to the tension bar. I've owned two Teles with B-5s in the past, but they took already heavy guitars into Les Paul + territory.

LMGTFY...

Click HERE to embiggen to 1600 x 1220 px.

Im putting the F B5 on my parts tele too!

I ordered the aluminum neck shim from TK Smith last week, in preparation for the application of a B16 on my relic Tele project. Nice customer service so far, with a follow-up e-mail thanking me for my order. Hope it's as seamless a fit as I've heard.

Now I'm looking for a nickel plated control plate and knobs. The Chrome units don't relic-down as nicely as nickel.

Crikey, this thread has legs. I'm going for a B16, just waiting for a bargain, I suspect I'll get TK's ali shim as well, I'd still like TK's thoughts on the sound difference between ali & maple shims. Ed, I've had good results aging chrome hardware with muriatic acid fumes, if it goes too far, it's easy to wire wool it back to where you want.

Thanks for the tip Tony! I actually may have some of those fumes in the back of my refridgerator at the moment!

" i at least need to firmly mount the bar to the casting. Maybe a larger fender washer to also act as a spacer. The end of the bar travels 1"+ before any rotation (so pitch change) of the casting starts. You can see a sizeable gap between the circular end of the bar where where the bolt attaches to the casting. By that point, my knucks are hitting the guard. "

That should be easy to fix - the stud that the arm pivots on is a press fit in the steel arm, and has a nyloc nut and a small spring underneath the alloy casting.

You might need to have the main compression spring off to get at it.

H59