Bigsby electric guitars: a detailed overview

[Jussi Huhtakangas]

Deke Dickerson has done an impressive work compiling detailed information about PA's work. Never before have you seen such detailed pictures of these legendary and rare guitars. Read here:
http://www.bigsbyfiles.blogspot.de/

Thanks Deke, this is great!!!

[Mike Neer]

Wow, that Jack Rivers proto-type is fonky!

The Les Paul guitar resemble a Rickenbacher pretty closely in body shape. I wonder how much Paul apid attention to Rickenbachers. I remember Joaquin's guitar with the horseshoe pickups.

[Andy Volk]

Deke, this is one impressive feat of scholarship and to share it via a free website is very generous. A mind-boggling display of Bigsby's unique output. No we need the same thing for the steels!

[Jerome Hawkes]

wow - i got into that blog and was there for an hour! - i didnt know Deke was into Bigsby hunting as far back as the early 90's - man back then hunting down old guitars really was like an Indiana Jones adventure with ornery old coots with guns livin up in the hills and back woods roads to nowhere....ah those were the days.

i can add that i know of 1 re-necked Bigsby Martin D-28 that has failed to show up and if it can be added, this is my recollection of it for the list - i'm surprised it didnt show up as it was offered on ebay some 8-10(?) years ago - though i think it wasnt listed with Bigsby in the title, thus wouldnt come up on a title search and i recall just stumbling on it by accident.

Anyway, i talked with the lady who owned it - i believe in GA/AL (i'm going on dreaded memory here) and the owner relocated out to CA after the war and had his 1949 Martin D-28 re-necked by Paul. the guitar had his name painted on the lower bout (very pro job, as most country musicians did) and had an original bigsby soundhole pickup...lord i should have bought that guitar, but i think i had just purchased some large ticket item around that time - i recall she wanted $8000 for it but it didnt sell. it was in fine condition.

[Ron Whitfield]

I wonder how much Paul apid attention to Rickenbachers. I remember Joaquin's guitar with the horseshoe pickups.

Les and Joaquin hung out plenty, and he's said to have remarked that he wished a guitar could sustain like a steel.

In the Grady Martin section, below the way cool shot including Stringbean, is a pic with Grady and Red Foley and a young ? on steel. Billy Robinson/Ernie Ball?

In 1990 I had a shot at Hank Garland's Bigsby, for 10K, and nearly had it.

[Jussi Huhtakangas]

^Yes, that's Billy Robinson. Also, in the Stringbean photo, you can see the headstock of Billy's single neck Bigsby lap steel.

[Eric Stumpf]

What an impressive chronicle of the sexiest lumber on Earth.

[Jerry Hayes R.I.P.]

Hey Jussi, I noticed that one of the double necks near the center of that article you posted was owned by a guy named George Johnson who played in a group called "The Conte Four". In the large photo of the double neck it seems to have maybe been originally a five string mandolin neck on top but there were three additional keys for a total of eight. The guitar only had four strings on it in the photo. Would PB have added the extra three tuners or did the owner? I didn't see anything mentioned about them......Thanks...JH in Va.

[Jussi Huhtakangas]

Jerry, since that guitar is missing in action it's hard to say for sure. My guess is that it was originally 5-string mando neck and the owner added the 3 extra tuners for 8 string mando neck. If the original Bigsby PU was there you could easily tell, or if we'd have a chance to examine the guitar in real. But even judging by the photo it defenately doesn't look like PA's work, and add the fact that it was modified with Gibson humbuckers. Leads to believe that GJ had those tuners added by someone else than PA.

[Bill Hatcher]

i enjoyed this!