Currently, I have two Bigsby B5 vibratos, two of the roller Tune-O-Matic bridges and two sets of Wilkinson locking tuners, all intended for my Epiphone Les Paul Jr. 90 (for which I've also got a Gibson P90 pickup) and Gibson Les Paul Faded Double Cutaway. Of course whenever I get a chance to actually get these parts swapped, adding the Bigsbys will mean putting a couple of extra holes in the guitar bodies.
For the Epiphone, a couple of extra holes shouldn't be that big a deal...it's a $100.00 guitar, and I'm just looking to perk up an already good thing in a cheap package. For the Gibson, however, I've discovered that Schaller makes a Tune-O-Matic style vibrato bridge that replaces the original Tune-O-Matic and retains the original stop-bar tail piece. If I read the product description correctly, at the Schaller web site, their Tune-O-Matic vibrato bridges have been used by Gibson, which has me second guessing my wanting to put a Bigsby B5 on my Gibson Les Paul.
Should I go ahead with my original idea, to add a Bigsby B5 to my Gibson, or should I go with the Schaller vibrato bridge instead? I know Gibson has used Bigsby vibratos for some of their guitars, including Les Pauls, but the Schaller setup looks awful tempting. I will stick with the Bigsby B5 for the Epiphone, since there's no other way around adding a couple more holes to its body...having only an intonated stop-bar tail piece, which will be replaced by the Tune-O-Matic bridge for that mod.
Matt
For the Epiphone, a couple of extra holes shouldn't be that big a deal...it's a $100.00 guitar, and I'm just looking to perk up an already good thing in a cheap package. For the Gibson, however, I've discovered that Schaller makes a Tune-O-Matic style vibrato bridge that replaces the original Tune-O-Matic and retains the original stop-bar tail piece. If I read the product description correctly, at the Schaller web site, their Tune-O-Matic vibrato bridges have been used by Gibson, which has me second guessing my wanting to put a Bigsby B5 on my Gibson Les Paul.
Should I go ahead with my original idea, to add a Bigsby B5 to my Gibson, or should I go with the Schaller vibrato bridge instead? I know Gibson has used Bigsby vibratos for some of their guitars, including Les Pauls, but the Schaller setup looks awful tempting. I will stick with the Bigsby B5 for the Epiphone, since there's no other way around adding a couple more holes to its body...having only an intonated stop-bar tail piece, which will be replaced by the Tune-O-Matic bridge for that mod.
Matt