Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Ric620+Bigsby B5 = is possible ?

I have never seen it personally, but it seems plausable!

Hmmm ....

Why not? I've got a 610 with an Ac'cent vibrato, and it's great.

simple, Not enough room between the bridge and the end of the guitar on a 620. Well there isn't on my 620/12. Not sure about 620/6s but I assume they're the same.

Please do correct me if I am so horribly wrong

I'm thinking the B5 may be too big as well.

Maybe this would work.

http://www.rickresource.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?tpc=578&post=293077#POST293077

The Bigsby B5 on my 325 measures 3 3/4" from back to front. My 620 measures 4 1/2" from the back of the guitar to the back of the bridge. That only leaves 3/4" to work with. I'm not sure if that's enough.

It would be close, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. But would it look right?

The problem with a B5 is that it has a tension bar when the Rick bridge is already high.

A way to solve it would be I guess to remove the tension bar.

Even better, there were these 70s and 80s Japanese B5 copies without the tension bar. They even had holes in the main (and only) bar so the guitar would be much easier to string than with a regular Bigsby: you just put the string through the bar. They seem to have been well made, but the problem is that it may be hard to find these vibratos.

hunting down those made in japan bigsby clones on ebay could be tough. much easier is to get b5 and cut away anything that is in the way. it easy to work with since it is aluminum. the other option is take b16 and slice that one so it would fit closely to 620/660 too.

I don't think ebay is a good source, Japanese guitar stores would be better, but much more complicated.