This handy little invention by Christian James Towner solves the two major problems that can occur when you try to install a Bigsby Tremolo.
If you have a guitar with a Tailpiece like the one pictured, then installing a Bigsby Tremolo can be problematic.
You will be left with two unsightly holes where the tailpiece is bolted on, and you may find the strings don’t have enough tension.
I asked Christian James Towner about his clever invention designed to fix these problems, and this is what he had to say…
“It began when I bought a Gibson ES 335. I wanted to install a Bigsby vibrato bar and spoke to some guitar techs
and was completely turned off by the idea of having two empty holes in the guitar after installing a B7. Well. one
guitar tech told me to install the B3, so I did… It didn’t work properly. The strings would fall off the bridge because
there wasn’t enough down tension aft the bridge before the vibrato bar. So I began thinking and made a few
prototypes, running them by my guitar tech to see what he thought (Andy Greenberg at Andy’s Guitar Shop in San
Diego, CA.) and, after a couple of years, finally settled on the one you see at the website.
Premier Guitar posted my product in their August issue, new product section. Daniel Lanois has one on one of
his Les Paul guitars. His guitar tech, Pavel Masloweic found my kit a few months back and has bought 3 of them.
An hour after the first purchase came through, Pavel called to thank me for inventing the kit! Pavel’s co-worker Doc
Pattillo has bought 10 kits. Both are well know guitar techs in the world of rock n’ roll.
”
All you have to do is screw in the kit where the tailpiece usually is, then go ahead and install a Bigsby B3, Bigsby B30, or Bigsby B60 tremelo.
This video shows you how it works:
And the final result will look something like this:
It costs $49.99 for the silver version, and $79.99 for the gold one – both can be ordered at www.townerusa.com
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Bigsby 1953 Original Telecaster Shim