Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Is there any way of putting a bigsby on a Ric without damaging it? Or a Stetsbar, or any kind of tremolo bar, other than the Rickenbacker tremolo bar? If you did have to drill for a bigsby, would the original tailpiece cover the drill holes? I want a 330, but I really like having a whammy bar, but cannot bring myself to damage a Rickenbacker. I hate the look of the stock Rick tremolo bar.

pocaloc wrote: If you did have to drill for a bigsby, would the original tailpiece cover the drill holes?

Nope, if you're talking about a B5 model.

Do you have to drill for a Rickenbacker accent vibrato?

pocaloc wrote:Do you have to drill for a Rickenbacker accent vibrato?

No, the Accent tailpiece bracket its held on by the standard strap bolt on the tail. However, the modern factory fitted Accent tailpiece brackets are mounted further towards the back of the guitar (i.e. the strap bolt hole is drilled slightly further towards the back of the guitar rather than centred as on an R bracket). So if you retrofit an Accent to an R guitar the bracket will sit higher off the front of the guitar than a factory fit. I've done it a couple of times and been happy with the result, but there are some on here that didn't think it worked out so well.

See pics below - top pic is of a guitar which was built with an R and I retrofitted the Accent. Bottom pic is a standard factory fit Accent bracket position (you can see the strap bolt is off centre towards the back).

Do you think if I drill for a bigsby that the holes would be covered by the original R tailpiece if I chose to put it back on the guitar?

pocaloc wrote:Do you think if I drill for a bigsby that the holes would be covered by the original R tailpiece if I chose to put it back on the guitar?

Not even close. The footprint of a B5 is quite a bit larger than an R tailpiece. Also be aware that the Rickenbacker accent vibrato will eventually damage the finish underneath due to how the vibrato system works. Had a friend confirm.

I'll have to really think about whether I should do that or not. A bigsby looks great on a 330 in my opinion, but so does the R tailpiece. Maybe I'll pick up a Squire Jazzmaster for my trem arm needs.

k43rover wrote:

pocaloc wrote:Do you have to drill for a Rickenbacker accent vibrato?

No, the Accent tailpiece bracket its held on by the standard strap bolt on the tail. However, the modern factory fitted Accent tailpiece brackets are mounted further towards the back of the guitar (i.e. the strap bolt hole is drilled slightly further towards the back of the guitar rather than centred as on an R bracket). So if you retrofit an Accent to an R guitar the bracket will sit higher off the front of the guitar than a factory fit. I've done it a couple of times and been happy with the result, but there are some on here that didn't think it worked out so well.

See pics below - top pic is of a guitar which was built with an R and I retrofitted the Accent. Bottom pic is a standard factory fit Accent bracket position (you can see the strap bolt is off centre towards the back).

I think Winfield Vintage has a solution for this.

As for a Bigsby B5, Vibramate makes no-drill solutions for Telecaster and guitars with stop tail pieces like Les Pauls and SG's. I've often wondered it they could do it for Rics using the strap button and screw holes for the R tail piece. Contact them - maybe you could lead the next wave of product for them.
http://www.vibramate.com/vibramate-faq.php

I will, what the hell, it's worth a try.

pocaloc wrote:Maybe I'll pick up a Squire Jazzmaster for my trem arm needs.

You should do this regardless. The Squier J. Mascis Jazzmaster is an unbelievable guitar, not even taking into consideration the price point. Much better than every AVRI I ever had and even my '68.

Wow, that is high praise. I just was able to play on one for a really short time a few days ago when my local store finally got one in. It's feels very high quality. All the amps in the store weren't working because they had blown a fuse somewhere so I couldn't hear it plugged in. Going back today though.

It's been a while since I 1st was looking into this. I'm thinking of putting a B5 on a 330 again and I guess I forgot to ask, does a B5 work well with a Rickenbacker. I thought I read somewhere that there were problems with doing this. I'm now not so concerned about drilling to put one on and I'm just curious if the end product will be nicely working guitar or if there are some inherent problems when installing a B5. Thanks

Check this out: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=408501#p792041

Thanks!

pocaloc wrote:It's been a while since I 1st was looking into this. I'm thinking of putting a B5 on a 330 again and I guess I forgot to ask, does a B5 work well with a Rickenbacker. I thought I read somewhere that there were problems with doing this. I'm now not so concerned about drilling to put one on and I'm just curious if the end product will be nicely working guitar or if there are some inherent problems when installing a B5. Thanks

I put a Bigsby on my 480 and also got a roller bridge from Winfield Vintage. No issues and never goes out of tune. Absolutely love it!