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Has anyone Bigsby-ed an SG?

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  • Rated: 3 ↑

  Sep 4, 2008 5:16 p.m. cajunpicker:

  BillyZoom said:

  >> That was a popular combo in the day. I don't know why we don't many these days. Possibly too many poeple are obsessed with returning instruments to factory stock, as though everything that ever came off an assembly line was perfect and should never be improved. <<

  THANK YOU!

  A guitar is at it's best when it's at it's best musically.

  I've got an old Guild X180 that I Bixby'd and it's WONDERFUL.

  Last time I saw Steven Stills play (a year or so ago) he had a Flying V with a Bixby. Now there was one horny-looking machine. It appeared to have great steel bars supporting the back end of the bixby from the inner indent of the V. Often wondered how that came to happen. Luthier with machinist connections, I guess.
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  • Rated: 46 ↑

  Sep 4, 2008 9:29 p.m. BillyZoom:

  I think it's interesting that the purists will accept a Duo Jet with a fixed-arm Bigsby, even though it's a PITA to play, because that's what Cliff Gallup used. It doesn't seem to bother them that Cliff added the Bigsby and that Duo Jets came from the factory with those horrible chome G-cutout tailpieces. Why is it OK that Cliff improved the guitar by adding a Bigsby as soon as he got it, but today it's wrong to make improvements? Is it just because they're used to seeing pictures of Duo Jets with Bigsbys?
  BTW, the Flying V Bigsby setup is a tribute to Lonnie Mack. That was his trademark. Google him.
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  • Rated: 41 ↑

  Sep 4, 2008 10:08 p.m. dubkitty:

  Garcia's SG had the Vibrola tailpiece. Barry Melton was still playing an SG with Bigsby in the 1980s with the Dinosaurs, as well as his set at the Chet Helms memorial concert in Golden Gate Park two or three years ago.
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  • Rated: 3 ↑

  Sep 4, 2008 10:13 p.m. cajunpicker:

  >> Lonnie Mack

  Thanks! Learn somethin' new every day...

  I think the whole weirdness stems from back in the seventies when everything started to go cheap and everybody was clinging to everything left that was still decent, so the collector's market went berserk and factory specs became sacrosanct.

  These are better days. You can even get a Gretsch that basically works for not much money. :)
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  • Rated: 6 ↑

  Sep 4, 2008 11:10 p.m. Ripley1046:

  I have a few guitars that are still stock, but it's only because I can't afford the mods yet. I'm all about making my mark on my instruments. My 5120 is still stock, but it's only 4 or 5 months old and it's my first hollow body so I'm not entirely comfortable working on it yet.

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