Bending Bigsby's

[NZ__Ninja]

Can you bend them too much? ie: and potentially cause damage?

just bought a gretsch with a bigsby and i wana take care of it.

[raz]

Can you bend them too much? ie: and potentially cause damage?

just bought a gretsch with a bigsby and i wana take care of it.

You're pretty safe with a bigsby, they can take a fair degree of punishment. Watch it when you're changing strings - they can be a pain in the bum to restring - ideally do it one at a time to keep some tension on it. If you restring from no strings then a common trick is to jam an eraser under the end piece to stop the bar from flying over and slamming into the wood when there's no spring under the bigsby. Prebend the ball end when you do restring.

[NZ__Ninja]

Can you bend them too much? ie: and potentially cause damage?

just bought a gretsch with a bigsby and i wana take care of it.

You're pretty safe with a bigsby, they can take a fair degree of punishment. Watch it when you're changing strings - they can be a pain in the bum to restring - ideally do it one at a time to keep some tension on it. If you restring from no strings then a common trick is to jam an eraser under the end piece to stop the bar from flying over and slamming into the wood when there's no spring under the bigsby. Prebend the ball end when you do restring.

thanks for that, yeah i snapped my first string on it last night and it was a bugger to change!!, had to get someone to help me

[Mr Glyn]

I have a pencil with a little panel pin sticking out of it for pre bending strings for Bigsbys. The hole in the ball end goes over the pin and just bend it round.
Makes it a lot easier.
I'll always change a whole set at a time - that way i can clean n oil the board as well as under the strings.

[Rog]

I put a Bigsby on my Antoria in the early '60s. I don't recall it being a pia to restring?? Smegging memory loss.

[Mr Glyn]

They're a lot easier n quicker than a floyd anyway. So maybe your memory's just fine

[bender]

I really like the Duesenberg version of the Bigsby. It has a block with holes in it that you thread the strings through instead of the prongs to slip the ball end over. Quite a bit easier.

I luuuurve Bigsbys.

My favourite bit of wangery.