Bigsby

admin · Post by **admin** » Mon May 12, 2003 7:53 am

I am wondering how many of you that have a Bigsby installed on your Rickenbacker actually use it. It is a carry over from John Lennon and is an important aesthetic feature for those Lennonizing their 325s. I have never seen any live performances in which he used his Bigsby and have not heard any clear indication that he used it in any of his recordings. So why did Lennon choose the Bigsby. The coolness factor or perhaps emulating one of his guitar heros.

The only person that I have seen use a Bigsby on a Rickenbacker in a live performance is John Fogerty in his Premonition DVD/CD. He was masterful at it. Why is he perhaps the only one in modern times or perhaps ever to use the Bigsby on a Rickenbacker for its functional value?

jeff · Post by **jeff** » Mon May 12, 2003 9:56 am

Peter, I've read that Lennon used his original '58 325 during the recording of Yoko's "Walking On Thin Ice". If that is in fact the guitar he used you can surely hear the Bigsby in action on that.

wwittman · Post by **wwittman** » Mon May 12, 2003 9:58 am

I'm with you.
With the POSSIBLE exception of It's Only Love, i cannot think of a clear Beatle Bigsby moment either.
Personally I think the Accent Vibrato looks 'cooler' anyway.
But it seems totally nonsensical to me to buy a guitar with a Kaufman you KNOW you don't want only to put on a Bisgby you KNOW you won't use! <g>

admin · Post by **admin** » Mon May 12, 2003 10:08 am

What interests me is that the Bigsby is used very skillfully and to great effect by John Fogerty.

tracy · Post by **tracy** » Tue May 13, 2003 6:16 am

The Lennon solo portion of 'Matchbox' has a nice Bigsby nanomoment. I might be able to think of others, 'Long Tall Sally' comes to mind but I'll have to rehear it. Lennon had such a great handle on the rock-n-roll guitar thing, long before most American studio guys, and was always adding 'signature' touches to his dynamic and aggressive solos. He's certainly one of my all time favorite guitarists.

grsnovi · Post by **grsnovi** » Tue May 13, 2003 10:13 am

Well, George's Jet had a Bigsby and Chris Huston (of the Undertakers) also had a Bigsby. I'm guessing John just wanted one too. There is a guy over on VoxTalks who recently posted pictures of Chris installing a Bigsby onto his new 325c - so, take your DNA cloned RIC and have the guy who did JL's Bigsby swap do yours - what could be cooler than that?

All four of my Gretsches have Bigsby tailpieces and I love how they sound, and "miss" them on all of my other guitars where they aren't - but to be truthful, I doubt that I use them 1% of the time that I play...

steve350v63 · Post by **steve350v63** » Tue May 13, 2003 10:59 am

I agree 100%. My Duo Jet has a Bigsby and it does look cool. I don't use it all that much.

johnhall · Post by **johnhall** » Tue May 13, 2003 12:39 pm

I've always thought a Bigsby had it's origins as a speculum.

ricnvolved · Post by **ricnvolved** » Tue May 13, 2003 1:26 pm

"Through the Looking Glass, Darkly"

~LOL~ Mr. Hall, your supposition smells pretty fishy to me!

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Tue May 13, 2003 2:35 pm

From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition (1993):

speculum ... (15c) 1 : an instrument inserted into a body passage for inspection or medication 2 : a drawing or table showing the relative positions of all the planets (as in an astrological nativity) 3 : a patch of color on the secondaries of most ducks and some other birds

What the....???????? What am I missing here?????

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Tue May 13, 2003 2:35 pm

From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition (1993):

speculum ... (15c) 1 : an instrument inserted into a body passage for inspection or medication 2 : a drawing or table showing the relative positions of all the planets (as in an astrological nativity) 3 : a patch of color on the secondaries of most ducks and some other birds

What the....???????? What am I missing here?????

grsnovi · Post by **grsnovi** » Tue May 13, 2003 3:31 pm

> What am I missing here????

A sense of humor?

wormdiet · Post by **wormdiet** » Tue May 13, 2003 4:23 pm

or the macabre. . . .

Back to the topic at hand, Neil Young leaps to mind as an effective Bigsby user (though usually with an LP)

ricnvolved · Post by **ricnvolved** » Tue May 13, 2003 4:45 pm

Gary-- The first I ever heard of a speculum, as regards your dictionary's 1st entry of the word's definition, was while watching a television program many years ago. I can't go into graphic detail here in this forum, but the speculum was brought up in a sexual/gynecological context. Mr. Hall's use of the word in his post on this thread is the first time I've seen or heard it mentioned by anyone since watching that program, and the reminder was immediate. I assumed Mr. Hall's post to be in a subtle but humorous vein and wondered if anyone else would catch on to it.

And now that you have this bit of background, perhaps my post right after Mr. Hall's make a little more sense.

tracy · Post by **tracy** » Mon May 19, 2003 2:34 pm

However, it is just speculation.......