TOWNER’s BIGSBY Retrofits

For decades Bigsby tremolo tailpieces have been installed post manufacturing by guitar players who’ve desired the wave a tone found in country, blues, rock n’roll and more creative tonal eras like surf music and rockabilly. And for decades Bigsby never thought to design alternative solutions to protect the integrity of the guitar for the players installing them.

The solution was very clear after a guitar technician suggested I install the Bigsby B3 tremolo because the Bigsby B7 has a down tension bar you have to drill into the guitar body. Well, I installed the Bigsby B3 tremolo and found as soon as took a strum on the guitar the strings fell off the bridge. I immediately realized the strings needed that downward tension between the Bigsby B3 and the bridge and I could do that by retrofitting a bar like the Bigsby B7 on the stop tailpiece studs. So I ran off to a machine shop with a clear vision of the down tension bar in mind and made one… Easy, bang! It works!

After the down tension bar had come to fruition I whittled down the 1/4” roller to an 1/8” wire with a shoulder bent into it. I found the bar needed to be simplified to relieve steep break angle of the guitar strings between the bridge and down tension bar like the Bigsby B5 and B7 on SG and Les Paul guitars. Then a benefit became clear… The stop tailpiece studs enabled the down tension bar raised or lowered and set to any height best for the guitar strings to be set up.

This was the pinnacle making the string setup and performance of a Bigsby with a TOWNER Down Tension Bar perfectly ideal for any and every guitar player who wanted to enjoy the performance of a Bigsby tremolo tailpiece. No matter what string gage or bridge height the guitar player preferred the TOWNER Down Tension Bar and stop tailpiece studs enabled the Bigsby to perform equally to the guitar players desired string tension via the down tension bar. Ultimately giving any guitar player a custom string setup to manage string tension and sustain.

A couple of years later in 2013, the TOWNER Hinge Plate Adaptor was invented to retrofit the hinge plate of the Bigsby B3 and Bigsby B6 (with “ex-short” hinge plate) to the guitar provided with a 2” strap button screw, felt pads and tin rivets to dress the holes. The Hinge Plate Adaptor with 2” strap button screw securely retains the ex-short hinge plate to the guitar and also provides a flat surface for the strap button to sit clearly on top of the ex-short hinge plate so there is easier access to your strap button. In almost cases with the strap lock buttons you would have to cut a small piece of the strap lock button to fit between the slot of the Bigsby B7 and Bigsby B3 ex-short hinge plate.