HOW TO INSTALL A BIGSBY ON A GIBSON ES-335
Only relic finishes cause more of a commotion in the online guitar community than the humble Bigsby tailpiece, but converts to the waggle-wand of pure shimmering joy will tell you that these chunks of sandcast aluminium still represent the most expressive and musical vibrato system ever invented for guitarists. Here, I’m taking a recent Gibson Memphis 1958 ES-335 reissue and swapping the stopbar for a Bigsby B7.
There are, of course, several innovative ways to install a Bigsby without making permanent modifications to your guitar, but the prevailing feeling in this office is still that sonically speaking, there’s no substitute for screwing that thing directly into the body.
With that commitment made and the guitar in bits on the workbench, it seems sensible to take the opportunity to make some further upgrades – including the pickups. Time to see if an already very good guitar can be made into a great one…
WIGGLE ROOM
It’s vital to get a B7 positioned on the centre line, but Bigsby hinges always have a bit of play in them. This means you can fine-tune the position of the front section to ensure that the strings follow as straight a path as possible over the
