Smithsonian Bigsby

Will Ellis · From: Nashville TN, USA

Stopped in the American History museum in DC today before playing 9:30 club tonight and was delighted to see Bigsby on display with a little paragraph about Buddy Emmons. I figured I’d look up the lineage of the guitar on the forum, but after a little searching it seems maybe this hasn’t been discussed on here. Does anyone know more about this guitar? They also had Elizabeth Cotton’s Martin and Steve Cropper’s Esquire+Harvard on display.

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Sho~Bud Professional D-10 (1972)
Fender Twin Reverb (1979)

Colin Swinney · From: Wisconsin, USA

Did players have to get a roadie underneath to operate the pedals on that? Seriously, how did anyone reach those lol?

David Ball · From: North Carolina High Country

Interesting 8,10,8,10 neck setup.

The Smithsonian has so much great stuff that lives in storage areas and is rarely displayed to the public. I used to make appointments to study specific instruments in their "hidden" collection, and it was always such a treat to see what other treasures that had squirreled away.

Back in the 80's or 90's, I was in one of those special rooms measuring some instruments I had made an appointment to see, and the archivist who was with me asked me to extra careful not to step on "any of Ella's stuff." The folding tables taking up much of the room held the newly acquired Ella Fitzgerald's stuff. I was practically leaning on her Presidential Medal of Freedom. So very cool.

It would be interesting to know the history of that particular Bigsby--bet that dropping a line to the Musical Instruments Curator could get an answer.

Dave

Kenny Davis · From: Great State of Oklahoma

Wow - Complete with an ashtray!
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Robert B Murphy · From: Mountain View, Arkansas, USA

There you have it: The Smithsonian spells it Buddie!

Paul Bigsby did beautiful work.

The last time I was there Libba Cotton's 000-28(?) was in a display case to the left of the pendulum clock in the lobby. I'm glad to see this room is there.
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Bob, small o.

Kenny Davis · From: Great State of Oklahoma

I think the name spelling has been discussed in the past on the Forum. It was spelled incorrectly on the guitar. The information card within the display spells his name Buddy.
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Best lyric in a country song: "...One more, Moon..."

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

No mistake. Buddy spelled his name "Buddie" for a while.

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Chris Lucker · From: Los Angeles, California USA

Doug is correct. In fact, the 1964 Emmons brochure still uses the Buddie spelling and his autographed photo even has Buddie. The new Emmons Resound materials use the same photo but changed the autograph to say Buddy.

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Chris Lucker
Red Bellies, Bigsbys and a lot of other guitars.

Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

Chris - Do you have any info on the Bigsby? I believe you have mentioned there were very few quads built.

Chris Lucker · From: Los Angeles, California USA

There were six quads after November 1949. I don't know if any were built before November 1949.
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Chris Lucker
Red Bellies, Bigsbys and a lot of other guitars.

Tony Oresteen · From: Georgia, USA

Very interesting. The two middle necks have the pedals. The 8 string has 2 pedals and the 10 string has 3. Anyone know the tunings and the copedent used by Buddie?
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Tony
Newnan, GA

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Jerry Jones · From: Franklin, Tenn.

More info on that guitar HERE
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Jerry Jones

Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

Thanks, Jerry!

~Lee

Will Ellis · From: Nashville TN, USA

Chris Lucker · From: Los Angeles, California USA

Paul Warnik had PeeWee Whitewing, this quad, Dick Waring and Vance Terry.
I got Vance from Warnik and he really wanted to sell me this quad, but it was too heavy and too deep to carry around in the case.
It was a bargain compared to Vance.
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Chris Lucker
Red Bellies, Bigsbys and a lot of other guitars.

John Troutman · From: Washington, DC

Hi all,

I had not logged into the forum in way too long and came across this post. Iʻm excited that the National Museum of American History's 1954 Bigsby was sighted by a forum member! We felt it was important for the Smithsonian's permanent collection to include a Bigsby steel, so we went big with the quad. We placed it on display in a prominent location in 2019. It is still on view, and it is always fun to see visitors reacting to it--it is quite a sight to behold for folks familiar with Bigsby guitars as well as for people who have never before seen anything like it!

In December we opened a major, long-term exhibition on entertainment, called Entertainment Nation. On view in that gallery you will find Sam Nainoa's circa 1934-1936 Rickenbacher "frying pan." Sam was Joseph Kekuku's cousin and duet partner since they were small children in the 1880s, growing up and attending school together on Oʻahu. Sam later became extraordinarily adept at Hawaiian steel guitar and developed a unique style while touring North America and eventually running a Hawaiian music conservatory in Los Angeles. In 2018, descendants donated this guitar to the Smithsonian. Eight descendants travelled to D.C. in December for the opening event! It was an incredible experience. We are excited to keep this guitar on view for many years to come.

I hope you can come visit the museum to see these historic instruments on display, with the prominence that they deserve (note: this is what happens when a steel guitar fanatic is hired as a music curator!).

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