bigsby pedal steel

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 1 Mar 2009 8:31 am

The Bigsby steels and standards guitars are a unique product of their time. They are a great example of the marriage of fine industrial design, beautiful materials, pride and workmanship, and first-rate utility as musical instruments. I wouldn't want to drive a '49 Packard, listen to music on a 1948 radio, or use a 1951 fishing reel but I'd sure love to own a Bigsby (or a Clinesmith!). They are timeless.

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 1 Mar 2009 8:37 am

Well put Andy, but I do have a '49 Packard in my meager collection. And love it. But I think my Bigsbys are a little more usefull and are ageing a little better, Both sound great! (The Bigsby corners better though,)

Your ole' buddy,

Ray Montee (RIP) · Post by **Ray Montee (RIP)** » 1 Mar 2009 10:01 am

I have no idea what Billy Robinson of the Grand Old Opry did with HIS single neck lap steel Bigsby but.... Todd Clinesmith is making such an animal in his shoppe at this very moment as you're reading this post.

It most likely will have a full bodied, rich tone, just like the other Bigsby's produce.

Why not look into one of these if an old antique, used, hacked up triple-8 Bigsby is going to set you back around $7,500 +/-?

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 21 Apr 2009 1:01 pm

All the derogatory statements here are all from non-Bigsby owners, No Bigsby players in Nashville? Oh how wrong can you be! www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour
bOb, "you can't compare them to Franklin, JCH or Sierra--------what? Darned right you can't compare them, Bigsby is superior on every musical point, starting with sound/tone. A Bigsby set up correctly is a thing of playing and listening beauty. As long as I can get one in my hands I'll play one.

OK, I'm awake now, you guys that have never had one, get one and let me set it up, then you'll have the right to be critical. I don't care how many of you have "sat down behind" or tried, get one then your opinions can carry some weight.
Ever ask yourself why they were and are so expensive? Possibly because they sound good, don't weigh to much?(they don't) Or possibly because of a hundred other good reasons.

I'm going to be playing a Clinesmith D-10 soon assembled from pure Bigsby parts/stock. I'll welcome any close up scrutenizing from anyone.

When it comes to camparing guitars, I have or have had all guitars of every brand , I know of what I have spaketh.

Fender 1000 replaced Bigsby in the 60s? How ridiculous, everybody tried Fender, even Buddy, Maurice and myself, but ask any of us today which is the better guitar.

Why did some true Bigsby lovers and players play other brands? Simple,, We didn't want to wait four years for a guitar again, we could just go down to the local music store and buy a Fender, no waiting and at a big discount!I do still have a Bigsby that that I got in 1964. Just cut my standards CD on it.

Thank you guys for letting me do one of my famous old rants! Been a while.

With great respect for my fellow players and friends,

Bobbe Seymour

Ben Rubright · Post by **Ben Rubright** » 24 Apr 2009 8:22 am

Hey Bobbster:

Great to see you post in depth again. We need more posts by people like you, Jody Carver, the Herbster, etc, etc. Glad to hear you will soon have a 'Clinesmith'. Although Todd could not be at the TSGA in March, he sent a couple of his Single 8's along with Ray Montee. One of those is now mine. I will attempt to upload a photo of it on another post.

Ben Rubright · Post by **Ben Rubright** » 24 Apr 2009 9:30 am

Here are photos of my S-8 Clinesmith.

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 24 Apr 2009 11:16 am

This Is a perfect example of pure perfection, Ben, you did very well!

Bobbe

Tracy Sheehan · Post by **Tracy Sheehan** » 24 Apr 2009 12:45 pm

In 1962 i think it was i was playing with a western swing road band.Some one in Wichita Falls,Tx.
offered to sell me a D8 Bigsby.I didn't like it as the pick ups picked up the pedal noise so bad.
I didn't know if they were all like that or just that one.
Years later i bought a new ZB when Tom B.owned the company.The pickups on it picked up the pedal noise also,but nothing like the Bigsby.Tom recorded with the ZBs tho.
As i look back now,i wish i had checked the Bigsby out to see why the pick ups were so hot,but back then i didn't have the time and knew about as much about working on steels as i knew about antarctica wines.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 24 Apr 2009 1:18 pm

Hey Bobbe!

Yes, they were the bees knees at one time. Then, they faded out.

Of course, since they had this really wonderful sound, it probably stands to reason that at least few players kept right on playin' them.

So, can you give me a list of #1 records that were recorded with a Bigsby between, say...1966 and 1986? (That's 20 years, and there should have been at least a couple.

)

No?

Okay, then, how about just a top-20 chart record made between 1966 and 1986?

(I'll give you awhile longer to compile a list.)

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 24 Apr 2009 3:32 pm

I got a phone call today from a Bigsby evangelist. First he emailed me a bunch of text messages from his phone, then he called me.

He spent about half an hour talking about Paul Bigsby. He said that I need to buy the new book and listen to certain recordings to fully understand how great Paul Bigsby was. He said that Bigsby guitars are worth a lot of money, and I think he said that he wouldn't sell his for half a million dollars. He said that in the fifties, just owning a Bigsby guitar would get you work in Nashville. The sound of them was that hot.

Eventually my boss called and I had to hang up on the Bigsby guy and get back to work.

Jussi Huhtakangas · Post by **Jussi Huhtakangas** » 24 Apr 2009 11:44 pm

Donny, can you name at least one hard rock chart hit from the 80's that was redorded with a D'Angelico New Yorker? Catch my drift??

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 25 Apr 2009 4:09 am

Hey, they're not The Guitar for Everyman, but what guitar is? Like Bobbe said, don't talk about it until you've sat behind one.

Comparisons of a Bigsby to a modern guitar are an apples to oranges thing, and I concur with Jussi about the analogy to the D'Angelico. If you play music that is similar to what the Bigsby was used on back in its day, a Bigsby is a wonderful horn.

The guitar is very similar in operation to a Sho-Bud Permanent, yet I don't hear many people knocking that guitar's lack of versatility when compared to a modern one.

True enough, if you can't play steel guitar without a Crawford Cluster and a Franklin pedal, the Bigsby is not for you. Likewise, if you play Jernigan's arrangements of Black Mountain Rag or Orange Blossom Special, ditto. But if you can play, you'll figure out ways to make beautiful AND hot music on it and the vibe of the guitar might totally charm you.

I have a video of me playing with James Hand in 2003, when Pete Mitchell and Jimmy Clark were also on the band. I'm off-camera until my solo, but you can hear my fills in the background. Until the camera got to me, it sounded from the licks like I was playing my Emmons. But when the camera hit me, I was playing my 8-string Bigsby (E9, 2 pedals, no chromatic strings, no knee levers, bar slants on string 8 ). It sounded like 1960's country music, which is precisely what it was supposed to sound like.

Dan Cooper · Post by **Dan Cooper** » 25 Apr 2009 4:48 am

Ulric Utsi-Åhlin wrote:"Bigsby" & "String-Change Hassle" has ME thinkin´
ELECTRIC(Spanish) Guitar...changing strings on a
guitar equipped w/ a Bigsby pin-mount vibrato
tail-piece can,indeed,turn into a great pain in the
old neck-tie...so much for off-topic voyaging.McUtsi

Ulric,

I have a 64 Tele with a Bigsby tailpiece on it. What I do when changing strings is wedge a good old fashioned rubber doorstop between the body and tailpiece to keep the string in. Also, I change the strings one at a time. It's a breeze. Another great idea from a forumite whose name I cannot remember unfortunately.

Dan

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 25 Apr 2009 8:10 am

Dan's post above is minor topic drift.

I've never owned an electric guitar with a Bigsby vibrato, so I can't comment on the ease or lack of same when changing strings, but changing strings on a Bigsby STEEL guitar is easier than changing strings on an Emmons, Sho~Bud, Zum, MSA, et al.; that is to say, any guitar with a modern changer system, and I've performed the maneuver on ALL of them.

Tony Glassman · Post by **Tony Glassman** » 25 Apr 2009 11:07 am

Herb Steiner wrote:Dan's post above is minor topic drift.

Herb you're right......but for any of you who have or are planning to have a Bigsby equipped guitar, Dan's advice is a pearl of information you should file away. Basically the doorstop acts as a third hand, by not allowing the string to slide off the pin......I use one of my wife's little triangular make-up sponges to do the same thing on both my 6 string, as well as my Emmons too.

Usually when replacing a string on my p/p, I put the string through the tuning key and give it a half turn, then place the ball end on the changer pin. The trick is keeping tension on the string with the left hand as you turn the key with the right hand.... so the ball end won't slip off the pin.

Lately I've been jamming the sponge thingy between the string and the back of the neck. There is no space for it to slip off, so maintaining tension isn't quite so critical.

Drew Howard · Post by **Drew Howard** » 25 Apr 2009 12:21 pm

rubber doorstop

Thanks for the tip! Sorry for the topic drift.

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 25 Apr 2009 2:42 pm

And just because it was a top-20 chart hit, regardless of the guitar, doesn't mean it's a great song. Achy Breaky Heart comes to mind...

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 25 Apr 2009 6:17 pm

Jussi Huhtakangas wrote:Donny, can you name at least one hard rock chart hit from the 80's that was redorded with a D'Angelico New Yorker? Catch my drift??

Yeah, I "catch" it (even though it's pretty far out to sea). The "Angie" was never a popular rock guitar. Whereas, the Bigsby was a popular country steel.

The "idea" isn't what Bobbe's ranting about, either. Nobody here said the Bigsby steels didn't have a good sound. So did the old Wrights. But people stopped playing them. Fenders were modified high and low. Sho~Buds were, too. Pedals were added (even to non-pedal guitars), strings were added, and pickups were changed. Nobody did those things to the Bigsbys, though. They just plain stopped playing them. Sneaky Pete kept on adding things to his old Fender and kept right on playing it. Why (if they were the best sound steel ever made) didn't any famous player do that with a Bigsby???

It just seems that for 20-25 years, they went into oblivion, relics of the past (like that '49 Packard) that no one really cared to drive. Then, when the speculators got involved (they had seen what happened to old Martin and Fender straight guitar values), and the prices for them went up into 5-digit territory, they (all of a sudden?) became the best made and best sounding guitars ever built, along with the most valuable.

And who, mostly, is telling us this? Why, of course, the people who own them!

There's real "objectivity" for 'ya!
$:\$

So, do I think they sounded good? Yes (as did most every other guitar). To me, bad sounding guitars are very rare, and good sounding guitars are pretty common. But then again, I'm not trying to get rich off of them.

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 26 Apr 2009 5:28 am

Au contraire, Donny. There have been frequent modifications to Bigsby steels that I'm aware of. Guitars were sent back to P.A. to have pedals added, Shot Jackson added wood necks to guitars that previously had metal necks, triples were dismantled and made into singles, pedals were added by Rudy Farmer and others.

Granted, there weren't as many mods made to Bigsbys as there were to Fenders. The reason being that there were so many multiples more Fenders churned out than Paul ever dreamed of. Bigsbys were hand-made, individualized instruments made one at a time for particular players, while Fenders were slabs of wood without grain character, routed out and assembled factory-style, covered by thick coats of paint, and available by the thousands at music stores all across the country.

It's generally considered that there are far less than 200 Bigsby steels that were made, with a waiting list years long to get one.

Obviously you have your opinion and I have mine, so I'm not gonna belabor any of the points made above. Other than to say, and not to beat a dead analogy to death, but you might pay as much for a dead-mint 1952 Telecaster as you would for a D'Angelico, but that doesn't mean they're comparable. Fender Telecasters were hacked from here to eternity, D'Angelicos were cherished by their owners. That being said, my late friend Dan Del Santo owned a D'Angelico New Yorker that someone had cut a hole in the top and installed a Gibson humbucker. Now THAT takes some serious brain damage, IMHO.

Bill Duncan · Post by **Bill Duncan** » 26 Apr 2009 6:28 am

That being said, my late friend Dan Del Santo owned a D'Angelico New Yorker that someone had cut a hole in the top and installed a Gibson humbucker. Now THAT takes some serious brain damage,IMHO. (Herb Steiner) .

Didn't Chet Atkins cut a hole in his D'Angelico guitar for a pickup. I don't think Chet Atkins was ever accused of being brain damaged.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 26 Apr 2009 9:41 am

Obviously you have your opinion and I have mine, so I'm not gonna belabor any of the points made above.

Herb, mine aren't opinions as much as they are questions. Perlman kept on playing his Strad, and Kleinow kept on playing his Fender. Even Townsend occasionally played his Angie. But...those Bigsby pedal steels?

I guess some questions just can't be answered.

Brian Herder · Post by **Brian Herder** » 26 Apr 2009 9:53 am

Well, Chet's D'Angelico did have a pickup mounted. What kind of pickup? Bigsby.
As for the analogy of a D'Angelico not being used for rock, and the lack of Bigsby's on hit records- Jazzer's that have a D'Angelico I am sure use them from time to time. People that have a Bigsby steel and are playing an appropriate "real" country gig, use them from time to time. I believe Bobbe and Herb both use them on such occasions (plus Bobbe's videos where he's just playing great steel music), and Jeremy Wakefield uses one playing the style that Bigsbys were so popular for when they were new guitars. Ry Cooder used his PA Reissue that Paul Warnick made to record "Mambo Sinuendo" with Manuel Galban.. a record that has nothing at all to do with vintage country.

Lee Jeffriess · Post by **Lee Jeffriess** » 26 Apr 2009 10:59 am

The Bigsby non pedal T8 I used to own, was played by Dusty Stewart from 51 into the mid 70's.
Donny, I think your questions have been answered, Jussi layed it out pretty well, from a historical prospective.
Lee

Jussi Huhtakangas · Post by **Jussi Huhtakangas** » 26 Apr 2009 11:11 am

And I've recorded with My Bigsby ever since I acquired it in 2002. The records never made it to Top 20 but you can't blame the guitar

Ulric Utsi-Åhlin · Post by **Ulric Utsi-Åhlin** » 27 Apr 2009 12:03 am

Dan,the door-stop trick sounds simple & right-on,
I´ll keep that.McUtsi

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