BIGSBY GUITAR

Although perhaps better known for the ever-popular, add-on vibrato tailpiece that bears his name, Californian Paul Bigsby was one of the pioneers of the modern electric guitar. The innovative instrument he built in 1948 for country star Merle Travis predated Leo Fender's earliest efforts by a year, arguably influencing the latter and including many features that are now taken for granted.

Bigsby subsequently combined his skills as an engineer, inventor, woodworker, and guitarist to create custom-built instruments for many of the era's leading players. His guitars came in varying shapes and sizes, often with distinctive scrolled body styling, while pickups and much of the hardware were Bigsby's own. Custom needs were also catered for, so some Bigsbys boasted more than one neck, while fancy features were common.

The 1958 catalog included the Standard guitar, offered with one or two pickups and optional vibrato. This set specification implied a certain amount of mass-manufacture was involved, but instead Bigsby always worked on an individual order bass and apart from some templates few concessions were made to speed up the construction process. Bigsby never considered expanding his busrness or increasing production quantities, and the consequent delays could prove frustrating for some customers. However, most clients obviously thought the wait was worthwhile, because big names such as Grady Martin, Hank Garland, and Billy Byrd could be seen proudly putting their Bigsby guitars to good use during the 19505.

Singleand multi-neck lap steels actually formed a bigger part of Bigsby's business and he produced the first example featuring pedals, starting a whole new instrument genre and playing style in the process.

It's estimated that, in addition to custom-order instruments, only around twenty-five standard electric six-strings were built, plus about three times as many steels. In the late 19505, Bigsby focused more on manufacturing his increasingly successful vibrato unit. However, he still couldn't keep pace with its popularity and, overwhelmed with orders, decided that enough was enough, selling his company in 1966 to Ted McCarty, then president of Gibson. The latter resigned this post and took over Biosbv until Gretsch subseduentlv acouired it in 1999