Bridge need, Les Paul, Bigsby etc.

[Mark Robinson]

So I've got a newish 2001 Les Paul Custom, upon which I inflicted a Bigsby B-7 actually the one Bigsby makes for the Les Paul which is marked "LP" and has an all gold look as opposed to black on gold. Anyway, when this tailpiece was installed, I also put on a roller bridge, which fits the tuneamatic studs, but is more rectangular and has elevated roller saddles. Tuning stability is only mediocre and I felt that the roller bridge was making the instrument sort of zingy and banjo like, compared to my other L.P. So since the thing wasn't tuning perfectly anyway I think what the hey, just put the stock Gibson tuneamatic back on and listen to that.

The high e string hits the back of the tunematic body as well as the saddle. Crap. Gibson and Bigsby have had what, fifty years to work that out? It's a "Nashville" tunematic with the value engineered voids under the saddles, and the saddles appear to be harder to change than in an ABR-1.
So what are my options? I wonder if an ABR-1, being leaner in the string axis will clear? I'll have to trade one over temporarily to find out. Does anybody make taller saddle pieces for Gibson bridges of either type?

What is the most functional bridge I could get to work with the Bigsby? Right now I'm sort of irritated by it, its so damn idiomatic. Yuck! I'm picky about intonation and want to use the sob, not just look at it.

[dk123123dk]

In my experience Bigsby trems are hard to keep inonation on. I don't know if you will ever get it setup to stay with perfectly inonation. Good Luck.

dk

[operanonverba]

I had an Epi Wildcat recently and it came with a standard ABR bridge. Could not make it work right and the strings stuck constantly on the saddles because of the pressure the roller bar of the bigsby made on it. I read in Dan Earlwines book on it and he suggested bypassing the bigsby roller bar if this is a problem as long as the strings have enough pressure to stay in the saddles. I tried his suggestion and the pressure was released enough that the strings moved back and forth in the saddles with no more problems. I'm not sure if this is what your talking about but it worked for me.

[in a little row]

I finally got rid of the bigsbys on my guitars...i have an sg that had a bigsby which I swapped out for a Maestro and it had a roller bridge...aside from small tuning up after a song or two, ive never had a problem...the saddles do sit higher than the TOM...intonation with trems in inherently problematic

The e string shouldnt rest on the back of the bridge...id lower the bridge and make a tension rod adjustment to preserve the action you prefer

The suggestion to bypass the tension bar on the bigsby isnt a bad one, but youll have a different amount of play in the trem, and e careful there is anough break angle on the strings...but this may help the e string issue...Im a pretty big fan of the roller bridge FWIW


j

[rooster]

Stetsbar.

rooster.

[Giraffecaster]

gibsons that came stock with bigsbys had TOM height adjusters that had an arch to them I believe (concave?) so that allowed them to "rock" with the wobble of the bigsby. Maybe try something like that?