| Home recording and general music post from the archived Yabb Recording Website Message Board. Some of the info here may be outdated but many of the audio recording and home studio tips are still good. Note: The only tags I made and attempt to convert are italics, bold, center and underline. So if you see some gibberish surrounded by brackets, just ignore it.
Recording Website Archived Yabb board Post
Febuary 2001 Yabb Message Board Archive
Subject: o/t LP w/Bigsby: Do I need specific saddles for...
by Nimbo | 03/09/01 at 13:37:24
...this set-up? I have a LP copy with a Bigsby tremolo, and when bending the Bigsby, the strings catch in the saddles a bit, ching ching. The Bigsby was not factory and I was wondering if the stock saddles are not appropriate for this setup. I imagine if someone made a roller type saddle, it would be ideal, but I've never seen any. Thanks for any help. I've posted this ? to a couple other boards, if you could recommend a good guitar message board I would appreciate it. I've read a few of the replies here before and there seems to be some very knowledgeable people here. Sorry for the off topic. P.S. Please don't e-mail me as I hardly ever use that account. Thanks.
Subject: Re: o/t LP w/Bigsby: Do I need specific saddles fo
by country gentleman | 03/10/01 at 01:37:58
You might try lubricating the saddle slots with a spot of oil.The type of string may have some effect as well.A round wound string may not catch as often.
Subject: Re: o/t LP w/Bigsby: Do I need specific saddles fo
by old_dan | 03/10/01 at 01:54:39
Good advice from country gentleman. When Eddie checks in he should be able to give you some advice too. He's an expert at guitar mods.
The best guitar forum I know of is at
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro&BypassCookie=true
It's one of those forums that make you register and they email you a password. those are a real pain in the butt :) It is a really good forum tho.
Take care,
Dan
Subject: Re: o/t LP w/Bigsby: Do I need specific saddles fo
by jb | 03/10/01 at 07:25:37
I have a '62 Paul with a Bigsby and the standard Gibson tune-o-matic
bridge but have never noticed the sound you are talking about. Could your
pickups be a smige too high causing the strings touch when the bar
streches them? Just a thought.
I would guess the flat wound string idea mentioned above may yield
some really cool thick tones besides eliminating the noise.
Subject: Re: o/t LP w/Bigsby: Do I need specific saddles fo
by Tedster | 03/12/01 at 02:27:13
I'm thinking that he said he had a Les Paul copy...and the saddles may be a bit sharper than those on regular Pauls. If not the only problem, you could really find yourself churning up the strings.
I'd take it in to a guitar shop and ask what type of saddles to put on, definitely more rounded. You might try to see what sort of saddles were used on Bigsby equipped Gretsches.