manlian Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Hello i have the Wildkat Black Royale and I'm here to ask if it's normal for my Tune-o-matic Bridge to move every time i use the bigsby vibrato, it's moving a little and then comes back. I am curious because the bigsby does it's job fine and the intonation remains perfrect...but it seems legit... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomse Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Hello i have the Wildkat Black Royale and I'm here to ask if it's normal for my Tune-o-matic Bridge to move every time i use the bigsby vibrato, it's moving a little and then comes back. I am curious because the bigsby does it's job fine and the intonation remains perfrect...but it seems legit... I have a Wildkat Black Royal. Its time for you to put a roller bridge on that guitar. The roller bridge lets the strings roll over the bridge and the tune -o-matice holds the strings . Kind of like pulls them you will see a big difference in it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitmore Willy Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Manlian, Welcome to the forum! I'm with Thomse on this one. Why anyone would build a guitar with a Bigsby and NOT put a roller bridge on it is beyond me. If you use the Bigsby enough the back and forth motion on a standard bridge is bound to loosen up something sooner of later. Not to mention the ware and tear on the strings and the saddles. Willy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poopcicle Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 No the bridge should not be moving, take a look at that asap or have a pro take a look. The longer it goes the more damage/ harder to fix it could be. If its new take it back for a replacement! You are and should be fine with a standard tune o' matic bridge on a trem guitar. Rollers are a great upgrade but there is no written law you need to upgrade your bridge. I would look into a nice bone nut before I upgraded my bridge! Good luck and please report back with how you solve? address the issue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manlian Posted January 14, 2013 Author Share Posted January 14, 2013 No the bridge should not be moving, take a look at that asap or have a pro take a look. The longer it goes the more damage/ harder to fix it could be. If its new take it back for a replacement! You are and should be fine with a standard tune o' matic bridge on a trem guitar. Rollers are nice but there is no written law you need to upgrade your bridge. I would look into a nice bone nut before I upgraded my bridge! Good luck and please report back with how you solve? address the issue! I removed the strings to see what's going on, and i found out that the main body of the bridge is moving, but the screws that hold it on the guitar are stable. So that's whats happening: when i push down the bigsby the strings does not slip on the bridge, but seem to move it because of the tension. Just to check it out, I have removed the strings on my other guitar with Tune o matic bridge which has not a bigsby on it and the same thing happens. The screws are stable and the bridge's body is moving a little, so i supposed that this is normal, but doesn't work gith bigsbys I also found out that the bridge is not moving if I tighten the screws all the way, but that's not a solution because it will change the action of the guitar... I wish i could solve this without sending it back...I bought it through the Internet and it arrived last Friday... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigneil Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 As a quick fix you can put some plumbers thread seal tape on the screw threads. But most people as already mentioned buy an aftermarket bridge as an upgrade with roller saddles, the rollers allow the string to easily glide back and forth over the bridge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manlian Posted January 15, 2013 Author Share Posted January 15, 2013 Today I found this tutorial about how to get a ToM bridge behaving like mine. Not sure what to do...I really don't want to give more money to upgrade a guitar I just bought... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigneil Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 A roller saddle bridge doesn't have to be expensive. .. You could try the mod mentioned in you video..... As long as you plan on keeping the guitar you have nothing to loose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonG Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 I use a Wilkinson roller bridge on my Wildkat Black Royale. WELL worth it, It wasn't expensive either. people have the Wilkinson roller bridges on Ebay for under $20 new. Hello i have the Wildkat Black Royale and I'm here to ask if it's normal for my Tune-o-matic Bridge to move every time i use the bigsby vibrato, it's moving a little and then comes back. I am curious because the bigsby does it's job fine and the intonation remains perfrect...but it seems legit... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldhippie Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 My Wildkat still has the fabric-bridge and it doesn´t move when I use the Bigsby. It stays quite good in tune but I will follow JasonG and change it into a rollerbridge. I also want to do this for my Riviera P 93. To save money, I plan to order both together, when I have the money. If you don´t use the Bigsby very often or very hard, you maybe don´t need to change the bridge!? As I said.....my Kat stays in tune quite well. But if your bridge is moving, I guess there´s something wrong. Take the strings off or loosen them and have a look, if the bolts are tight. I´m not a speciallist in this, so I recommend to follow the profis here in the forum. Good luck and tell us, what you did, when ready. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amx05462 Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 my personal opinion is that any guitar with a bigsby should come either with a bigsby bridge which looks similar to the one on john lennons 325v58 or a roller bridge and roller nut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amx05462 Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 my personal opinion is that any guitar with a bigsby should come either with a bigsby bridge which looks similar to the one on john lennons 325v58 or a roller bridge and roller nut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manlian Posted January 15, 2013 Author Share Posted January 15, 2013 I asked a pro about this (probably one of the best guitar techs we have here in Athens Greece) and told me that the moving of the bridge is normal, since the bridge screws (or pins -don't know what is the right word-) are stable and the tuning is not affected there's no reason to replace it, and that it will not damage my guitar. He told me though that a roller bridge would do better with the bigsby, but I have not to hurry for an upgrade... Later I called another guitar tech I know and he told me the same thing, and that he has a Gretch which has as bridge that is also moving when Bigsby is used.... So after all this I decided to let my guitar as it is and see what happens... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldhippie Posted January 16, 2013 Share Posted January 16, 2013 I asked a pro about this (probably one of the best guitar techs we have here in Athens Greece) and told me that the moving of the bridge is normal, since the bridge screws (or pins -don't know what is the right word-) are stable and the tuning is not affected there's no reason to replace it, and that it will not damage my guitar. He told me though that a roller bridge would do better with the bigsby, but I have not to hurry for an upgrade... Later I called another guitar tech I know and he told me the same thing, and that he has a Gretch which has as bridge that is also moving when Bigsby is used.... So after all this I decided to let my guitar as it is and see what happens... I will change the bridge as soon as I´ve got the money. Greetings to Athens from Germany....send us some sun!! It is snowing here right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manlian Posted January 16, 2013 Author Share Posted January 16, 2013 I will change the bridge as soon as I´ve got the money. Greetings to Athens from Germany....send us some sun!! It is snowing here right now. I think the opposite, why do not you send us some snow ... we are tired of the sun hahaha. Greetings to you too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayyj Posted January 16, 2013 Share Posted January 16, 2013 Just wanted to chime in to back up what the tech is saying - I wouldn't worry in the slightest about a little movement of the bridge. Some bridges, including Bigsby's own, at least some of the Gretsch designs and the bridges on Jaguars and Mustangs, have a little movement built into them to aid with tuning stability when using a vibrato. This way the wound strings are not dragging back and forth over the ridge in the saddle. I have Bigsbys on my Gibson ES-355 and 330, on a Telecaster and on an Epi Casino, and all of them have the stock bridges - only thing I changed was Graphtech saddles in the 355. Tuning stability depends a bit on string guage, as they weren't really designed with 9-42s in mind, but with 10-52s and a good setup my guitars are at least as stable as any Strat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manlian Posted January 16, 2013 Author Share Posted January 16, 2013 Just wanted to chime in to back up what the tech is saying - I wouldn't worry in the slightest about a little movement of the bridge. Some bridges, including Bigsby's own, at least some of the Gretsch designs and the bridges on Jaguars and Mustangs, have a little movement built into them to aid with tuning stability when using a vibrato. This way the wound strings are not dragging back and forth over the ridge in the saddle. I have Bigsbys on my Gibson ES-355 and 330, on a Telecaster and on an Epi Casino, and all of them have the stock bridges - only thing I changed was Graphtech saddles in the 355. Tuning stability depends a bit on string guage, as they weren't really designed with 9-42s in mind, but with 10-52s and a good setup my guitars are at least as stable as any Strat. I use 0.10-0.46 (exept of e string which is an 0.11) When I installed them on the guitar I spent about half an hour stretching and retuning them until the tuning was stable enough. Today I had a jam session with some friends for about 1 hour and I used the bigsby a lot to see what's gonna happen. Well it's still fine tuned and ready for play...I can't see why to change the ToM for a roller. I already spent a week doing nothing because I was afraid of damaging it...Now that I got a professional tech's advice I'll never worry again about the moving of the bridge and just enjoy and explore my new guitar... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xjbear Posted January 17, 2013 Share Posted January 17, 2013 I asked a pro about this (probably one of the best guitar techs we have here in Athens Greece) and told me that the moving of the bridge is normal, since the bridge screws (or pins -don't know what is the right word-) are stable and the tuning is not affected there's no reason to replace it, and that it will not damage my guitar. He told me though that a roller bridge would do better with the bigsby, but I have not to hurry for an upgrade... Later I called another guitar tech I know and he told me the same thing, and that he has a Gretch which has as bridge that is also moving when Bigsby is used.... So after all this I decided to let my guitar as it is and see what happens... Finally a sensible answer to this thread. The bigsby was designed to move the bridge when it is operated. It's not a Floyd or strat trem it's a vibrato bar designed to slack or tighten a small amount of tension. Gretsch guitars have a little more movement built in to their bridges to facilitate it but the TOM has enough to work just fine. I strongly disagree with putting a roller bridge on in place of any tom, especially a cheap one. There is a very huge possibility of sustain loss especially on the lower strings, one Lonnie Mack style Flying V I own came with one and would not hold a d note at the 10th fret of low e until I put a Tom on it and all the strings came to life, huge difference. On the other hand the idea of a roller bridge sounds sensible. It will just suck your tone. You'll do better with locking tuners, ( Grover or Sperzels, no Chinese crap) and nut lube, a tone pro TOM will help a bit to keep your posts from turning. If your so wanky with a bigsby that the strings are 'ticking' through the saddles, then wank less or go to a bigger string with less windings per inch:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomse Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 I have 6 guitars that have Bigsby . and now all six have some type of rocking bridge or roller bridge .My pro Grestch came with a rocking bridge . And that worked great right out of the box box. As for the Wildkat that bridge is not a rocking bridge or a roller bridge with heavy use i found it to take out my strings and the tone values are much better the the roller bridge . yes a 20 dollar roller bridge is not the answer . spend some money and get a good one either rocking or roller but the bridge on the kat is a plain old tune-o-matic which is a great bridge, but not with a Bigsby . My roller bridges are made of brass and they have great sustain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.