One of Paul Bigsby's creations. Too durn cool! Pedal operated.
http://tinyurl.com/6krele
http://tinyurl.com/5cyahp
Pre Parsons/White B-bender
Moderator: Dave Mudgett
-
John Billings
- Posts: 9344
- Joined: 11 Jul 2002 12:01 am
- Location: Ohio, USA
- State/Province: Ohio
- Country: United States
-
Jussi Huhtakangas
- Posts: 2134
- Joined: 27 Aug 2001 12:01 am
- Location: Helsinki, Finland
- State/Province: -
- Country: United States
That's the origins of the Bigsby Palm Pedal, invented by a San Diego guitar player Tommy Turman. I recently got an email from my buddy and a forum member Deke Dickerson about this. Tommy had previously told him about this thingy but we've never actually seen one until now. Here's what Deke wrote ( hope you don't mind me posting it here Deke!! ):
"There was a really hot guitar player in San Diego named Tommy Turman
that always claimed he invented
the Bigsby palm pedal in the 1950's. Well, I knew that the actual
Bigsby palm pedal didn't come out until the late 60's under Ted
McCarty's ownership, so I always thought he was just pulling my leg.
Last year, I decided to press him further about it, and he then told
me that he had invented this thing that used a foot pedal and a
motorcycle cable-wire to control the b-string, like a B-bender but
with a foot pedal. I asked him if they ever made any and he said
maybe 10 or 20, that it never actually went into production.
He also told a cool story about going to see Chet Atkins with Paul
Bigsby in about 1957 when Chet was doing a show in Los Angeles. Of
course Bigsby already knew Chet so they got backstage and Bigsby and
Tommy demonstrated this thing. Chet said it was cool but that it
should be adjustable for either a half step or a whole step change,
because at the time it could only do a whole step change. Pretty
cool, huh?
Except up until I saw these links, I had never actually seen one
before, and wondered how it looked like! Now I see it was
actually called the "True Tone Changer" and that it appeared to clamp
on the regular Bigsby tailpiece."
"There was a really hot guitar player in San Diego named Tommy Turman
that always claimed he invented
the Bigsby palm pedal in the 1950's. Well, I knew that the actual
Bigsby palm pedal didn't come out until the late 60's under Ted
McCarty's ownership, so I always thought he was just pulling my leg.
Last year, I decided to press him further about it, and he then told
me that he had invented this thing that used a foot pedal and a
motorcycle cable-wire to control the b-string, like a B-bender but
with a foot pedal. I asked him if they ever made any and he said
maybe 10 or 20, that it never actually went into production.
He also told a cool story about going to see Chet Atkins with Paul
Bigsby in about 1957 when Chet was doing a show in Los Angeles. Of
course Bigsby already knew Chet so they got backstage and Bigsby and
Tommy demonstrated this thing. Chet said it was cool but that it
should be adjustable for either a half step or a whole step change,
because at the time it could only do a whole step change. Pretty
cool, huh?
Except up until I saw these links, I had never actually seen one
before, and wondered how it looked like! Now I see it was
actually called the "True Tone Changer" and that it appeared to clamp
on the regular Bigsby tailpiece."