Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi I'm new to this forum and I'm thankful that there's a place where smart guys like you all can help newbies like me! Anyways My question was just how hard is it to install the Bigsby B5 Vibrato? Why i'm asking this is because I have the chance to buy an already "lennonized" 325C58 but I wanted a new 325C58 from the Rickenbacker themselves. However I don't wanna hurt the new guitar if i'm trying to modify it! Which would you go with? Thanks!

Welcome Ray. I have a question for you. Aren't you dead?

And why is a famous dead jazz bassist interested in an Rickenbacker guitar?

Lots of folks around here add Bigsbys so I don't believe it is too difficult to do.

hahaha! yes i'm dead and i thought i'd take up guitar in my afterlife!

and yes that's my real name but no connection with the famous one!

To answer your question, it's easy to install (if famously fumble-fingered JL installed one on Hessy's countertop with a penknife and an icepick, so can you!).

But I'd go with an already modded one and leave the stockers alone...

I installed a B5 on my 325C58 myself, and it was fairly easy. You have to make sure it's lined up correctly. The hardest part was knowing that I was about to PUT HOLES in my new $1800 guitar.

It is probably best to measure and mark the holes, and then drill the holes to fit the wood screws, just like you were making a nice piece of furniture. But honestly, I pretty much did it like Lennon. Just laid the thing on a table and used a screwdriver. (I can hear all you ace luthiers out there weeping and gnashing your teeth.) The top is thin enough that the wood screws dig right in.

Warning: Make sure you get it on straight, because if you start drilling holes and you get one a little cockeyed, you'll have it at an angle, and that ain't gonna work (or look) too good. And you definitely don't want to put more holes in this guy than necessary.

Another thing to note is that because of the downslope angle of the tail where the Bigsby will sit, the arm is going to stick up pretty high. Some on the forum have recommended either getting a shorter spring or cutting the supplied spring down just a bit. That will lower the arm when it's in the "in use" position. I haven't done this yet, as I've reached the limits of my "lutherian" capabilities. But others on the forum could probably give you a better idea of what I'm talking about.

I don't have a C (pity me). But my intention was when I got my 360 to put on a bigsby. Why? Well I had a Kustom guitar that had one. It seemed to work well and looked cool.
But when I got the Ric I just could'nt do it.

Actually, Lennon did't do the installation of his B5 and Bigsby bowtie bridge. As correctly stated by Paul, it was done on the counter top at Hessy's but performed by Chris Huston of the Undertakers with john present and probably assisting. Chris lives in Nashville now and is a regular on VT where the story has been told by Chris himself. His nickname on the VT is "Scouser" and he is well liked and respected. A few years back, when the C58 was first out, he installed B5s on a few of the memebers guitars. How cool is that?

I concur I have read the same thing in and article about the refin of Lennon's 325 and his mods to it.

Of course, you're right, thanks for the clarification. The memory is going and I need to learn to check my history before blindly typing from "memory".