User Manual

7
The Bigsby
®
Vibrato Tailpiece
The Bigsby Vibrato Tailpiece is a time
proven design and has been used by Gretsch
®
Guitars for more than 45 years.
Since the 1950’s the Bigsby Vibrato
Tailpiece has been the choice of guitarists
worldwide - and the choice of world class
guitar builders for standard equipment
on their premium guitars. Following Paul
Bigsby’s original formulas from the early
 fties, Bigsby tremolos are still hand cast,
hand polished and hand assembled. Hand
cast aluminum frames, stainless steel handles,
and nickel-plated string bars assure years of
trouble free service.
Re-Stringing the Bigsby Vibrato
1. Crimp the string at a 45
o
angle next to the
ball end (A).
2. Feed the string underneath, around and
over the axle (B).
3. Place the ball end of the string onto the
axle pin (C), keeping tension on the string to
hold the ball in place.
4. Push a foam wedge (D) into the space
under the axle to keep the string in place on
the pin while winding.
5. Wind the string onto the tuning machine,
tune to pitch and remove the foam wedge.
6. Repeat for each string.