Thinking of adding one to my gigging telecaster. i want the subtle palm trem wobble sometimes. MY strat is too heavy and sentimental to me to gig. Its a cheap mexi tele that Ive already put thru the paces so theres no worries about ruining a valuable instrument.
anyone done it? your experiences with install? your experiences after install?
should I just look for one thats already been done instead?
Don't be a wuss... throw in a B-bender, Country Music.
Quote from: Jake on December 22, 2010, 10:15:51 AM
Don't be a wuss... throw in a B-bender, Country Music.
wuss is about right. have you ever tried one? I couldnt get the hang of it. harder than it looks for sure.
I've dropped in two Bigsbys. Not hard, just make sure all the measurements are right, and bolt it in...
no tuning issues afterwards?
what kind of guitars did you do mr. Sunn0)))))?
The Stetsbar doesn't look as cool but it supposedly plays better. I've never bonded with my Tele like I thought or hoped I would. Maybe a Bigsby or some other vibrato would do the trick.
Strangely enough, a tele, and one of those flat-top LP specials... it was kind of a piece... a solidbody non-arch top LP that played like SHIT until it had a fret mill and a new nut. A bigsby doesn't really need any neck angle at the break of the headstock, so they'll go well on a tele. I will go ahead and tell you that tuning stability is going to be... well, it's a bigsby, you can't dip the bar and let it snap back into place. I actually installed one of those Kahler locking nuts, one that doesn't need a shelf cut into the fretboard to lock the strings behind the nut on the tele. The picture below isn't the one I did, but it's the same concept. The scale length doesn't change, since the strings break over the saddles at the 25.5 Fender scale length, so total length of the string doesn't matter at all, just from nut to saddles.
(http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/7904/fzbody.jpg)
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=Fender+tele+bigsby+kit&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=17045524164373517246&ei=NOsSTfqBGcOB8gah2dTsDQ&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEwQ8wIwBQ# (http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=Fender+tele+bigsby+kit&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=17045524164373517246&ei=NOsSTfqBGcOB8gah2dTsDQ&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEwQ8wIwBQ#)
That link is to the bigsby set I used, that bridge plate and saddle assembly replaces the original tele assembly.
(http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:D2k7VuZfSoaZ5M:http://www.kahlerparts.com/images/5513.jpg&t=1)
Kahler nut, just screws in North of the nut.
It's not all that hard, just scary the first time you do it.
Quote from: clockwork green on December 22, 2010, 05:30:35 PM
The Stetsbar doesn't look as cool but it supposedly plays better. I've bonded with my Tele like I thought or hoped I would. Maybe a Bigsby or some other vibrato would do the trick.
Ugly as SIN.
I bend strings behind the nut for faux pedal steel licks (y'all should try it its a great trick).
heres an easy one. This is a walkdown, clucky staccato notes.....E string 5th fret, B string 5th fret, E string 2nd fret, B string 2nd fret,E string open, B string open then press down on the b string behind the nut for the bend, E string open to resolve. This only works on a telecaster because of the string height after it pases the nut.
I guess the bigsby would kill those licks.? Are they like floating trems wher when you bend, the other strings go out of tune? Like my strat? in ohter words if i bend behind the nut, will it pull down the whammy bar a hair?
i guess the next step is to head down to guitar center (after the fucking holiday for sure)and try some bigsbyied teles.
A big part of my schtick on the tele are those pre-bended country licks and they dont work at all on a floating bridge trem because allthe other string go slightly out of tune when you bend a string that hard. I gotta go see whats what. Thanks a ton for the info Sunn0)))))
Yeah, the post-nut bends will pull you out of tune. If you just want a slight vibrato, not a full step, or anything, just hold the body and bend the neck itself. You can't hurt it.
Also, thanks for that little tip, it'll spice up my doomcountry playing... sounds fucking AWESOME...