Some years ago I was asked why I played a PRS guitar. “Because it plays and stays in tune, ” was my reply. Over three decades later, while many makers have been influenced and inspired by PRS, not all have paid attention. There are a colossal number of guitars that leave factories all over the world that don’t play – let alone stay – in tune. Most, but certainly not all, have vibratos often based on designs that date back to the 50s.
Two of my favourites, Fender’s offset Jazz-master/Jaguar type and the good ol’ Bigsby, might appear very different, and while in design they are, in function they’re very similar. Both are two-piece designs in that, unlike the futuristic Stratocaster vibrato, they have a separate bridge in front of the vibrato mechanism. It means that the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece,
