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

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: