Simon K Posted September 22, 2015 Share Posted September 22, 2015 Hi All New member here from the UK. I've used the forum in the past to find out about the Wildkat and so having recently made a break through in my long running battle against its tuning issues, I thought i'd join up properly to share my discovery as I've not seen it mentioned here before. Up to now I had tried several things to rectify its ability to go badly out of tune just with normal playing even when not touching the bigsby. Always frustrated me because my other guitar - a 20 yr old strat - seems to stay in tune for weeks. I had filed the nut slots, lubed all contact points, messed around with string guages, (even convinced myself that it was all cured with a wound-g string for a while), put on a roller bridge, all with limited improvement. Then the other night I stumbled on a youtube vid for a product called Biggsfix Tuning Stabilizer which changes the break angle between the bridge and bigsby by replacing the tension bar with one that sits higher off the guitar. I believe the chap makes and sells them himself, link to his website below which has good pictures on it showing how it works. http://bricksbiggsfix.com/ Anyway after waiting for it to be shipped here, it was easy to install and my Wildkat stays in tune perfectly. Also the bigsby feels much less stiff now. So a big recommendation to all of you with a Wildkat that won't stay in tune. I was thinking of selling my Wildkat but not anymore. Now next job is to get it re-wired like others on here have done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve112 Posted September 22, 2015 Share Posted September 22, 2015 Hi All New member here from the UK. I've used the forum in the past to find out about the Wildkat and so having recently made a break through in my long running battle against its tuning issues, I thought i'd join up properly to share my discovery as I've not seen it mentioned here before. Up to now I had tried several things to rectify its ability to go badly out of tune just with normal playing even when not touching the bigsby. Always frustrated me because my other guitar - a 20 yr old strat - seems to stay in tune for weeks. I had filed the nut slots, lubed all contact points, messed around with string guages, (even convinced myself that it was all cured with a wound-g string for a while), put on a roller bridge, all with limited improvement. Then the other night I stumbled on a youtube vid for a product called Biggsfix Tuning Stabilizer which changes the break angle between the bridge and bigsby by replacing the tension bar with one that sits higher off the guitar. I believe the chap makes and sells them himself, link to his website below which has good pictures on it showing how it works. http://bricksbiggsfix.com/ Anyway after waiting for it to be shipped here, it was easy to install and my Wildkat stays in tune perfectly. Also the bigsby feels much less stiff now. So a big recommendation to all of you with a Wildkat that won't stay in tune. I was thinking of selling my Wildkat but not anymore. Now next job is to get it re-wired like others on here have done! Hey Simon K, that's a great post. Even though I don't use a Bigsby, I think you just told me WHY I don't. I never realized the critical nature of that bridge break angle, downforce and its relation to string stability and thus.... tuning stability on Bigsby equipped guitars. I used to like them way back decades ago when a slight quaver or shimmer was all that was necessary in songs and as a result the strings stayed in tune. (more or less). Once the use became more extreme, I gave up entirely using a Bigsby equipped guitar. I found as you did that even a properly cut nut and roller bridge often was of little help in maintaining accurate tuning for even one song! I had missed the last piece in the puzzle, which your video has pointed out. I think now that were I to get a Bigsby equipped guitar, it would have to be the correct size assembly with ALL the correct parameters accounted for, even picking it as an upgrade assembly after purchase.......Thanks, it is an important piece of info and will undoubtedly help other guitarists understand the issues with this type of hardware more completely! Oh, and great that your Wildkat is finally working right and making you happy at last. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brad1 Posted September 23, 2015 Share Posted September 23, 2015 I have 3 guitars with trems; A MIM Strat with full floating trem, a Jackson JS32R with Floyd Rose double locking, and a Wildkat with Bigsby. I must be very lucky. Because these 3 guitars stay in tune better than all my stop tail guitars. They really do; believe it or not. So whenever I hear folks complain about their tuning issues with their trems I just smile and think... I am really lucky. And I sure like those guitars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon K Posted September 24, 2015 Author Share Posted September 24, 2015 I really like the size and feel of the Wildkat, I find it more comfortable than a full size semi hollow. So I thought it was worth trying to sort the issues before trying something else. The severe break angle over the bridge is really noticeable when viewed side-on compared to other bigsby equipped guitars. Seems like a poor design and one they could have sorted given how long this guitar has now been in production. I did try removing the tension bar altogether and then stringing the other way round the end piece on the bigsby, but I found this gave a too shallow break angle. Such little down pressure on the bridge killed sustain and it was easy to knock strings off the bridge saddles. Anyway, tinkering around and trying to improve our instruments is half the fun of playing guitar! I confess to staring at pictures of Wildkats for couple of hours trying to figure out which knobs/selector rings looked best! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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