The hunt for Gold Bigsby

I began to look into this recently, and determined that my best bet, following a bit of research, was to look for an authentic Bigsgy B7^[2]NB: B70 and B700 are licensed variations which will are not compatible with a Vibramate plate and require drilling additional holes, which I was loath to do. with Vibramate adapter plate; see the helpful table on the latter’s web site .

I soon discovered a problem: Bigsbys are out of stock across Canada. And in fact, they are out of stock in the U.S.A. and Europe as well, with the exception of a few left-handed units. Fender (which owns Bigsby now) in fact confirmed that due to supply issues they did not expect stock to become available until late 2022 . So much for that ….

Enter the Canadian Guitar forum

Fortunately, the search also turned up, as a by-product, an on-line Canadian guitar discussion form where one member had a used B7 for sale .

I had no success in contacting the individual (the post was a year and a half old, that could be part of it), but another person recommended a Duesenberg Les Trem II as a good alternative.

I checked out the various options I found on the Duesenberg site as the Les Trem didn’t really have the same ‘period look-and-feel’ as a Bigsby (I aim for a 50s and 60s vibe). Two other options looked interesting , but nowhere on their site could I find exact specifications;^[3]I did see indications on a few retailers’ sites suggesting that the Radiator model matched the B7 in dimension, but I wanted to hear it from Duesenberg so I dropped them a line.

I got a response very quickly ; they recommended the Les Trem as a drop-in, reversible replacement. I asked about dimensions on the other products and even sent measurements taken from the Shertaton, but the follow-up response offered no specs and suggested I contact Epiphone or a luthier for help . I can appreciate that they didn’t want to take responsibility for guitar quality and so on, but specs surely ought to be available and would at least have confirmed or denied the B7/Radiator compatibility and so on.

Ultimately, when I looked into it further, I realized that a B7 wasn’t just mounted at the tail end by the strap button, but also required a few new screw holes, and this seemed to be the case for the more B7-like Duesenberg systems as well. In the end, the non-intrusive nature of the Les Trem, alongside ease of installation and/or removal convinced me to go with the Les Trem II rather than the Bigsby.

Installing the Les Trem II

The Les Trem was out of stock with Duesenberg and in many other places as well (likely due to the same supply shortages cited by Fender), but Cosmo Music , which claims to be Canada’s largest supplier, had it! Also, at CAD 149.00 is was quite a bit cheaper—maybe a third, or so?—than a Bigsby, so I put an order in on 27 August and it was here on 1 September. Installation was indeed straightforward, as you can see below.

The Duesenberg kit

The ‘tremolo’ kit came in an impressive quality box with the parts carefully packaged.

Following the instructions, installation should be relatively simple:

1. remove the strings and stop tailpiece
2. determine which set (US, metric) of bolts fit into the tailpiece holes
3. verify that the Les Trem II fits the bolt holes^[4]In theory, if one has measured the post-to-post distance beforehand, whether centre-to-centre, as they say, or edge-to-same-edge, which is simpler but just as valid, this should not be an issue now; … Continue reading and that, once placed, it does not rest on the body of the actual guitar, which can be remedied if need be thanks to the included double pair of washers
4. mount the Les Trem and tighten the bolts, carefully but snuggly
5. instal the ‘tremolo’ arm and tighten the Allen screws moderately^[5]NB: Instal the arm such that the point of the bend faces away from the guitar, as in the photos below; the other way around, it’s far more awkward to retrieve the arm when it’s been … Continue reading
6. string up and tune
7. adjust the arm if need be, then tighten the Allen screws snugly, but not excessively

That’s it! Now let’s look at this in pictures ….

Removing strings and tailpiece

Ideally, one should simply cut the strings near the nut and replace them, as (in the case of this guitar, anyway) it’s not possible to simply unhook them from the tailpiece, and unwinding them and reusing them is tricky and not liable to produce the best results, for a number of reasons. However, as the strings were still in pretty good shape and I wanted to get what life I could out of them before bring the guitar in for its free full set-up with the second set of strings I had on hand , I did the dastardly deed ….

I placed a piece of cloth over the screwdriver when removing the old bolts and inserting the new ones to ensure that I did not scratch the finish.

Matching the new bolts

As Epiphone is a US company, I expect the bolts I ended up using were the US rather than the metric size. In any case, it doesn’t matter: one set fits, one set doesn’t!

Checking fit and placement

The next job was to just double-check that the Les Trem did indeed fit nicely over the bolt holes, and also that the collars on the holes were high enough to ensure that it didn’t touch the actual body of the guitar anywhere between the posts.

The fit was perfect—not really a surprise, as I had verified the measurements before placing the order. Checking the gap was a little more challenging for me, however, as lighting was not 100% and between the glasses and the floater in one eye, I found this hard to do visually.^[6]Enlarging the left image above reveals its adequacy quite clearly, and indeed, I took a photo and enlarged it on my iPhone, but at the time I wanted better confirmation. It occurred to me to double-check using a tactile rather than visual approach. A thin paper paper slid under the Les Trem quite easily; QED!

Arm, stringing, tuning

Installation of the arm was straightforward. Stringing up with the old strings and their convoluted bends from the last mounting was a bit of a challenge. I tried very hard to make sure I didn’t scratch the head stock with the sharp string ends and found trying to remount them with an over-and-under winding, as before, difficult and I’m not sure I succeeded with that last part, to be honest. Time will tell. All I can say is that in general, I don’t recommend being a cheapskate like me!

The instructions say one should tune up the strings and then readjust the arm as it is likely to move once the strings come under tension. I do my tuning in my ‘bandshed’ to spare my wife’s ears, so I deferred this temporarily, but I don’t think the arm position will be much of an issue.

Actually, as noted above, I installed the arm the wrong way around the first time. I’ve corrected the pictures, but just so there’s no ambiguity, here’s a clear photo of the arm in playing position, more or less.

Putting baby to bed

The last potential concern was whether or not the guitar would still fit into its case as the Les Trem does add some height. I discovered that it was fine so long as the guitar lay deep in the case; it didn’t, the first time, due to the leather strap which I had coiled under the neck, but once I adjusted that, everything was fine. Note, by the way, how the arm is rotated around to the back: this causes it to lie lower and avoids it being compressed by the case lid, which would risk damaging the case and/or the Les Trem itself.

Image credits

All images on this page were taken by me and may be used provided credit is given.

References

I recently bought a set of Ernie Ball Hyper Slinkys to top up a guitar strap order and avoid shipping charges. Then I noticed that they were similar to the Fender 3250L Super Bullets I had been using so decided to give them a try.

The feel and playability seem just fine, but even the small drop in gauge (from .009 to .008) left the neck with insufficient relief^[1]I.e., there was noticeable neck buzz.—either that, or there was a bit of an issue before that; I hadn’t played it in a while, to be honest.

Time apply some corrective measures!

Checking relief

I’ve never really felt a need to horse around with the action on my guitars, so I decided to go check the official specs on Fender’s site.

According to Fender , the recommended relief depends on the neck radius. Ok, fine, I have radius gauges ….

The most likely radius for a Stratocaster was 9.5″,^[2]10″ has apparently become more common in the last decade, but this guitar is considerably older than that. so I tried that first, and that was right.

This means that the relief, following the web page, should be .010″ on the high E string at the 8th fret when the first and last frets are depressed; a capo on the first fret simplifies checking this considerably, since one hand can hold down the last fret while the other checks the relief using feeler gauges.

Well—no relief at all with these strings! As discussed in a video by Fender University , this means that the rod was too tight^[3]The less scary option, as overtightening the rod can be problematic! and needed to be loosened.

Adjusting relief

By trial and error—and contrary to some information I found on-line—I found the proper Allen key size for my guitar to be 3/16″. I turned it counter-clockwise one eighth of a turn, and the string was still tight up against the fret at the 8th fret, so I did another eighth of a turn or so.

At this point, I could more or less get the .010 feeler gauge beneath the string, and a few test strums suggested that this was sufficient. And if it should turn out not to be the case, it will be simple enough to adjust a bit more later. Better to do these things in little steps!

References

When I bought the Epiphone Sheraton II Pro, I wanted to buy a nice hardshell case like the one which came with my Casino. Unfortunately, after several days of searching, I discovered that there was no stock at all anywhere in Canada (that I could find); there was some in the U.S.A. as well as in Europe.

I tried to place an order with an on-line supplier in the U.S.A., but apparently they couldn’t ship across the border, among other concerns. I was able to place an order with Long and McQuade, but apparently there was no way to know how long this would take nor, apparently, could this be queried up the supply chain, would you believe. That was in March.

As of July, no news on this. I did another internet search and discovered that the items I’d seen in Europe were now gone, as were some of the ones in the U.S.A., though the on-line supplier referred to above still had stock. This suggested to me that for the foreseeable future, at least, there wasn’t going to be any new stock.

As it happens, friends from the U.S.A. who live near to us were returning to New York and Vermont for a month, so I had the bright idea of having a case shipped to them while they were there. I contacted the original sales person … and the email bounced. I guess he was no more ….

However, they put me on to a new salesperson who said it would be no problem to ship to me (??), so I placed an order with him and cancelled the one with the Canadian supplier. The original cost was USD 129, the shipping USD 56, and the customs and brokerage fees another CAD 32.00. But all told, this was still in the ball park of what I’d paid had I been able to buy one here, and in any case, I couldn’t get one here!

Ironically, it took 2 days from the U.S.A. supplier to the FedEx depot nearest to me (about 1.5 hours’ drive), and another 5 days to get it the rest of the way, following a theoretical delivery attempt which somehow never happened and 3 delays after that. But it’s here now, and the Sheraton is safe and sound in its new case!

The other day, I was looking at my Fender Stratocaster which I’d not used lately and decided that it should be restrung. I typically use Fender Super Bullets, light gauge (which I order in bulk from here),^[1]Restringing was definitely overdue, as you can tell from my annotation on the package! but when I saw that the Ernie Balls were similar in gauge, I thought, why not try those out?

Installed them and took it for a test drive, meaning, I tried to learn the opening sequence of Purple Haze, which I have in my Rocksmith library. First impressions were good, but it will take a little time to form a more informed opinion.

Here are the technical details for comparison:

A few years ago, I decided to add an archtop guitar to my repertoire. Of course, the first thing which comes to mind is the Gibson ES-335 made popular by such artists as Chuck Berry, Bob Weir, Alvin Lee, and B.B. King, among others, but the price was prohibitive.

So I did some hunting around. I was delighted to find the Epiphone Inspired by John Lennon (IBJL) Casino^[1]This particular edition is no longer available, but the current one is pretty similar. in exactly my price range,^[2]This was $1025 at the time. and the associated artisted was just an extra bonus!

It’s a beautiful guitar, and what’s more, it was a favourite among British Invasion musicians—think Beatles (of course), Rolling Stones, Animals—which was my primary interest at the time.

Over the course of time, as I read discussions of guitar styles and hardware, I began to become aware of various kinds of differences such as fully hollow vs. semi-hollow, P-90 vs. humbucker pickups, flatwound vs. roundwound strings, and so on. On the advice of a friend, I acquired a set of Pyramid Gold flatwounds for the Casino^[3]This required fashioning a new nut as I had opted for 11 gauge strings while the original set-up had featured 10s, but that’s another story. and I’ve never turned back. However, everything else remained strictly theoretical.

Revisiting the issue

I recently decided that I should revisit the ES-335 issue and look into alternatives as I was intrigued by the differences a semi-hollow body and/or humbucker pick-ups might make. I found a number of interesting choices, such as

• the so-called Epiphone ‘Dot’
• the Epiphone Riviera
• the Gretsch Country Gentleman (and others in the Gretsch line)
• the Epiphone Sheraton II Pro
• the Eastman T386
• the Hagstrom Viking

and on and on it goes….

I spent some considerable time reading specs and reviews, and I’m blessed if I can remember all the details, but for one reason or another—including cost and the option to actually try the things out first hand without too much inconvenience—I decided to start with a comparison between my Casino in its current incarnation and the Sheraton II Pro.

As it happens, there was a Sheraton at my local music shop so I waited for an opportune time to pay them a visit, which I did this past Wednesday, February 16, 2022. I’m excited to share my findings with you here!

The comparison

Appearance

The IBJL Casino was available in two editions:

• the ‘1965’ version (top) and
• the ‘Revolution’ version (bottom).

Note: the image technically corresponds to a slightly earlier version, the USA Collection John Lennon Casino, but for our purposes they can be treated as the same.

The differences between the two are, for all intents and purposes, cosmetic. The 1965 reflects the state of Lennon’s guitar when he first purchased it, while the Revolution was sanded down to natural finish at a later date (ostensibly to improve the tone) and fitted with new Grover tuners.

For technical data on these guitars, see their Unofficial Epiphonewiki Archive page.

The Epiphone Sheraton II Pro also comes in two editions:

• Ebony and
• Starburst.

For technical data on this guitars, see its Unofficial Epiphonewiki Archive page.

On the whole, the instruments are very similar, externally speaking. Bodies are the same shape and size, pot and switch arrangement are identical, scale length is the same, nut width nearly so. Fretboard inlays differ slightly, as do the headstocks. The Casino neck is slightly thicker (SlimTaper™ “D” profile) than that of the Sheraton (60s SlimTaper™). The Casino has Grover small-button silver tuners while the Sheraton sports somewhat larger gold tuners. Hardware is nickel on the Casino, gold on the Sheraton.

The Sheraton is 2 pounds heavier at ≈ 8.7 lbs^[4]According to this site. compared to the Casino’s 6.7 lbs, attributable to the solid centre block, regarding which more will be said below. Believe it or not, this difference is notable when hanging from the shoulders!

Another difference—due to my customization—is that the Casino has slightly heavier flatwounds mounted and, as this required a nut change, a lower action, while the Sheraton features roundwounds and the Epiphone standard action.

Functionality

There are three main functional differences between the two guitars which contribute to their separate personalities:

What does this mean? Well, from a theoretical point of view, based upon what I’ve read,

• A hollow body effectively amounts to an acoustic guitar of sorts with pickups; sound dissipates in the same way that it does in an acoustic guitar. Thanks to the centre block, a semi-hollow guitar is able to sustain notes for a longer period of time. This is of greater or lesser importance depending upon the style of music being played.
• P90 pick-ups are various described as being ‘punchy’ or ‘bright’. Humbuckers, on the other hand, are less prone to interference and thus less likely to hum (as the name implies).
• The Casino pick-ups operate in one mode only. The Sheraton pick-ups, though they default to humbucker, can be ‘split’ by pulling out the volume control, effectively offering a single-coil option as well.

In historical application, Casinos have notably been played by beat groups (i.e., British Invasion bands) while ES-335s and similar guitars have been preferred by rythm and blues, blues, and jazz players.

Though I knew all this, I really had to do the live comparison to get a real appreciation of what it all meant.

Road test

First impressions

On the whole, the two guitars struck me as being of similar quality—not terribly surprising considering that they are made by the same manufacturer and roughly the same price.^[5]The Casino was $1025 with case when I bought it, the Sheraton is listed at $999 now without case, some 6 years or so later.

I liked the larger tuners on the Sheraton. The bridge/neck pick-up switch seemed comparable, though I had the feeling the one on the Sheraton was a little wobbly in middle position, unlike the one on the Casino. I also had the feeling that in some respects the Sheraton’s ‘gold’ had an overtone of imitation compared to the Casino’s real nickel—a downside of which, mind you, is that it corrodes and is hard to polish, in my experience.

General playability

As noted above, the Sheraton is heavier by 2 lbs, and at the time, and being otherwise ignorant of the essential differences, it was part of the reason I bought a Casino rather than a semi-hollow archtop. That said, given the fact that the Sheraton did not have a strap and I was thus forced to play it sitting down, I can’t really give good feedback on how it would feel when hanging from the shoulders other than to say that my shoulders may be less tolerant than most.

The narrower neck profile on the Sheraton was definitely a pleasant switch. I don’t really have an issue with the Casino’s ‘D’ profile as such, but it does take some getting used to, especially in comparison with a Stratocaster, say, which is my other guitar.

The last thing I noticed from the get-go was the higher action and round strings on the Sheraton. I mentioned earlier that I replaced the nut due to the thicker gauge strings I installed on the Casino,^[6]When I first wanted to instal the 11 gauge flatwounds, they bound a bit in the slots, which is not great. I could have filed out the slots but that would have meant an irreversible change. I decided … Continue reading and tinkered with the action; thus, it’s not a fair ‘out-of-the box’ comparison, but I must say I prefer the action on my Casino. As for strings, having played flatwounds, mostly,^[7]The Stratocaster has roundwounds, but they are 9 gauge so less tactile. the extra bite on the fretting fingertips was noticeable. From a theory standpoint, roundwound strings are said to be brighter than flatwounds, so that’s a potential consideration from a tonal point of view.

Actual sound production

For the sake of keeping things as close to what I was used to as possible, I chose a Vox AC30 amplifier. It was not identical to my handwired Vox, so it took a moment to adapt to the controls, but that was not a big deal, ultimately.

I’m not a great player as I lack practice, so I wasn’t able to put the hardware through extensive testing; instead, I played the bits I knew from the following songs:

• Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (lead)
• Johnny B. Goode (mostly lead, a bit of rhythm)
• Rock around the Clock (lead)
• some exploratory tinkering.

The very first thing I noticed was the Casino’s propensity for feedback. I knew about this, of course; being hollow, it is very sensitive to external vibration, so the result is an eigenvalue effect. The room I was in was quite narrow, and though I had the controls on the amp quite low, I had to turn away from the amp and face in the opposite direction to play it. The Sheraton didn’t seem to care much at all.

The punchiness of the Casino’s P90s was very evident: clear, crisp tones, each clearly separated from the next due to the quick fade of the tone. The flatwounds didn’t seem to me to impede the brightness significantly, but then again, as I only had it strung the one way I couldn’t really do a before-and-after sort of test of this. The roundwounds on the Sheraton (D’Addarios, presumably, as per the specs) didn’t strike me as significantly brighter, to tell the truth. This could be the brand, of course: I have only ever bought D’Addarios once, for the Vantage acoustic guitar I was playing then (many years ago) and they seemed to me much inferior to the Martins I was wont to purchase.^[8]But then again, I was quite the novice, and this could very well just have been in my head.

The ProBuckers, on the other hand, struck me as more mellow, especially in comparison to their sound when coil-split. I’m not entirely sure they were all that fantastic in single-coil mode, especially when compared to the dedicated single-coil P90s, but then one never does expect a general purpose tool to compare favourably with something specifically designed for the job. That said, it’s a handy feature: carry one guitar and have two options, should one need them.

The effect of the centre block was quite clear: especially in tinkering mode, where I would pluck a string and just let it ring out, the additional sustain couldn’t be missed. It’s pretty clear that for certain types of music, this is a real must. Case in point: even when I think I’m getting the hang of Johnny B. Goode (on my Casino, I mean; and the Strat just isn’t the thing for this), I don’t feel very accomplished. On the Sheraton, it just felt right the first time, even at my hackneyed proficiency level!

In summary

My time was limited (as was my ability) so this wasn’t the most extensive road test. However, it did bring home to me the reality of all those theoretical descriptions I’d read of differences between this and that.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the Casino is the thing for beat and British Invasion. One might say this is a circular argument; after all, given that the historical bands played Casinos to a large extent, if one wishes to emulate their sound, one must do likewise. To that, I would reply that I have difficulty conceiving of that style of music being terribly satisfactory played on other instruments. The whole point of beat music was, well … beat, a.k.a. punch, a certain degree of staccato. And while one might argue that those musicians initially played Epiphone Casinos due to their lesser cost, the fact is that years later when they’d ‘made it’, they still played them.

But it’s now equally clear to me that for the music of the 50s, or anything requiring a high degree of melody, an ES 335-like instrument is definitely the thing, and in that regards, I think the Sheraton performs just fine and at a reasonable price. Between the pick-up switch and the coil-splitting ability, the instrument is definitely very versatile, as advertised.

The one thing I missed was something like a Bigsby vibrato which would come in handy for certain songs (the Casino doesn’t have one either, but the Strat does have vibrato capability). As it happens, there was a Gretsch with Bigsby hanging on the wall where I was playing, so I took it down and tried it out. I had, after all, thought about a Gretsch since that was a favourite of rockabilly artists like Eddi Cochran and Brian Setzer (of Stray Cats fame), for example…. Played it for a minute or two, then put it back. Didn’t turn me on at all, somehow!

So, in general, I’m favourably impressed and inclined to add one to my collection. However, I would definitely

• replace the strings with flatwounds
• likely lower the gauge to 9 (more on that below)
• likely lower the action or have it lowered for me
• possibly have a Bigsby mounted.

And that’s it!

A short note on string gauge

The reason I upped the gauge of the Casino strings when I went to flatwounds was that I felt that this would be closer to what the original beat groups had in fact used, historically. It turns out that I was right and I wasn’t; the Beatles, for example, apparently used just whatever they could find, though George Harrison apparently commented that their strings in the early days were hard on the fingers.^[9]Heavier gauges are more resistant to pressing down and bending. I’ve since read that in fact tone isn’t affected all that much by going to a heavier gauge, so there may not have been a lot of point in having gone this route. But I seem to manage with them alright, and 11 isn’t that much heavier than 10, anyway.

As for the Sheraton, I understand that people like Chuck Berry would actually buy the lightest gauge strings they could find and mount then ‘one up’, that is, put the first string in the second slot, the second in the third slot, etc., and then mount a banjo string in the now-vacant first slot, the effect being having effective 8 gauge. That explains the kind of bending he was doing, which would certainly be much easier to do! And as roundwound strings only came out later, he would have been playing flats as well.

Now, I’ve looked about, and as far as I can see, without resorting to that sort of hocus pocus, the lightest gauge one is going to get these days^[10]I’ve read that Pyramid had 8s, but they certainly do not now, so that could well just be an error. in flatwounds is 9. Two brands come under consideration here:

• ghs and
• Curt Mangan.

Both are stainless steel (as opposed to the Pyramid Golds I use now, which are nickel) and I don’t know anyone who uses either, so that’s an area for experimentation!

Bibliography