Repair And Restoration
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Bigsby B60 vs B70
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Bigsby B60 vs B70
I’ve got a Gretch G2420T with Bigsby B60 on my repair bench. When the customer plays, the strings are coming out of the saddles. We’re thinking of replacing the B60 with a Bigsby B70 to increase the break angle over the saddles and bridge. Any concerns with that? I noticed the B70 is only on center block models. The G2420T is hollow body. Will the inside braces support the B70 enough?
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6 Replies
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I would suggest starting here: https://chasingguitars.com/bigsby-vibrato-upgrades-you-might-consider/
I had a customer with similar issues and once installing these upgrades it played perfect. I can’t see the saddles being used either on that bridge but grooved ones work best.
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It’s a bridge with roller saddles. I did suggest going back to the original saddles. The customer switched it out (before bringing the guitar to me) because he was breaking a lot of strings… I said there could be sharp edges on the saddle easily smoothed with sandpaper or light filing.
I don’t quite understand how making the changes you suggest would keep the strings from coming out of the saddles.
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I usually try to work around changing parts by way of set up. A straight neck, and dialed in nut slots, a lot of times will allow the bridge to come up, giving you better break angle. For string gauges I like 11s here… That style bigsby is going to make everything feel pretty slinky. 11s is a good compromise. If your customers preference is 10s, they need to be realistic about their attack. Simply stated, they need to adjust their playing so the strings don’t pop out of the saddles. Hope this helps.
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This was my next step, getting the setup dialed in correctly – the neck currently has back bow and the action is about half of where I’d start it. I’m dubious it will make a lot of difference. I might suggest going back to the original saddle.
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That B70 appears to have the roller out in front to keep the strings down. If it’s in the financial cards, I’d think that could work. The question is whether the extra length is going to be weird.
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Yes, the roller is what we’re after. The question is really if the top of the guitar can handle the extra pressure and mounting screws. Do they need to be screwed into the internal braces?
That said, without doing a complete setup, just adjusting the neck and action to measurements I like seems to keep the strings in the saddles with hard strumming. So I’m going to propose we leave the guitar as is.
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