The Chicago School of Guitar Making is the only school in Chicago teaching guitar design, making and repair by a professional luthier
Independent Luthier. Historically influenced method and design. Handcrafted in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
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... with the bow saw once, and probably never again. Previous: CSVM Construction Log 9: Finalize Rib Assembly Next: CSVM Construction Log 11: Rough Gouging
Carve Violins, Violas & Cellos Base Plates and Necks creating precise duplicates.
Gallery | Kai Tönjes Handmade Musical Instruments
Hey! We ran out of room on the original Bigsby Files page! We present to you here--Bigsby Files....PART TWO! Part Two picks up where bigsbyfiles.blogspot.com ends: BIGSBY MANDOLIN INDEX Al Giddings' Bigsby electric mandolin, circa 1949. Current whereabouts unknown. Not much is known about Al Giddings, but he appears to have been a friend of Paul Bigsby's. He played with Bigsby in a band that featured all the soloists using Bigsby instruments. Giddings' mandolin is a 10-string instrument presumably made in 1949, however exact build date is unknown. Lawrence Welk guitar alumnus Buddy Merrill did some gigs with Al Giddings in the 1970s. Al was still using the Bigsby mandolin at that time. Below: Al Giddings on mandolin (R) with a Bigsby-riffic band featuring Paul Bigsby on upright bass, Bob Meadows on steel guitar, and Jack Parsons on guitar. Note--the pickguard was changed from black to white at some point. Below: Al in the late 1970s doing a gig with Buddy Merrill, left. Last known photo of Al Giddings. Photo courtesy Buddy Merrill. Paul Buskirk's Bigsby electric mandolin. Ten strings in five courses, five pole pickup. Earliest style Bigsby vibrato with rubber stopper instead of a spring. Currently in a private collection on the East Coast. Eschol Cosby's Bigsby electric mandolin. Tiny Moore's Bigsby electric mandolin, serial #9352. Five strings in single-string configuration, five pole pickup. Currently owned by Skip Maggoria of Skip's Music, Sacramento, CA. Below: Tiny Moore with his Bigsby Mandolin. Note Magnatone amplifier. Does anybody have a good original picture of this? All I have is this crummy looking xerox copy. Below: Tiny Moore with Billy Jack Wills (Bob Wills' youngest brother) and his Western Swing Band, Sacramento, CA, early 1950s. Note Vance Terry with Bigsby steel at left. Photo courtesy Andrew Brown. Below: a later album by Tiny Moore, still using his treasured Bigsby mandolin. "Nudie" Cohn's re-necked Bigsby acoustic mandolin. Kay mandolin body, Bigsby neck in standard 8-string configuration. Inlaid and personalized "Nudie" on the pickguard. Bigsby solidbody electric mandolin, serial number #122552. Currently owned by Dave Westerbeke. Double cutaway, 8-string mandoling completed on Christmas Day, 1952. It is unknown who the mandolin was made for originally. It is the only Bigsby mandolin with this body shape. MISC. REPLICAS, CLONES, AND FORGERIES: Keith Holter's friend Chuck built a replica of his original guitar that is remarkably well done. Chuck started the replica project in 1969 and completed the instrument in the 1990s! In the picture below, the replica is on the left. Note: no Bigsby logo on the headstock, and no inlaid name on the pickguard. Bigsby neck forgery on a real Gibson J-200 acoustic body: This guitar is currently being offered for sale by a well-known vintage guitar dealer on the West Coast. The Gibson acoustic is a genuine old body, but the Bigsby neck is not real. Every detail about it is incorrect. The Hank Thompson pickguard was added recently. Buyer beware! Compare this headstock to other Bigsby headstocks. There are no genuine Bigsby headstocks that have binding. The headstock cap wood does not match any of the figured walnut used by Paul Bigsby. The inlay is sloppy with lots of filler, unlike Paul Bigsby's precise and tight inlay. Interestingly, the guitar does have the correct solid-shaft Bigsby tuners. Bigsby Forgery with Magnatone pickup. Found at a California Antique mall, courtesy Eric Cale collection. R.C. Allen Bigsby-influenced guitar, made for Glen Glenn, 1950s: R.C. Allen Bigsby-influenced guitar, made for Gary Lambert, 1950s: Below: the guitar as it exists today. The guitar lost the original neck in the 1960s and was replaced by a Harvey Thomas 12-string neck. In the 1990s R.C. Allen was commissioned to make a replica neck similar to the one that was on the guitar originally, and that is what you see today. Below: note that the original neck made for Gary Lambert had a bound headstock and binding on the truss rod cover, and the replica neck does not. R.C. Allen Bigsby-influenced guitar, circa 1970s: R.C. Allen Bigsby clone made for Gary Lambert, 1980s: Recent R.C. Allen Bigsby-influenced guitar: Bigsby-influenced guitar by Whitaker, 1950s. This thing floated around for a while and was bought by the Chinery Collection. Unfortunately, this homely guitar was featured in several magazines as a real Bigsby guitar. Here's a hint: if the headstock says Whitaker, it's probably a Whitaker, not a Bigsby. There's no doubting where the influence came from though, with it's birdseye maple top and contrasting walnut pickguard, and six-on-a-side headstock. Bigsby-influenced guitar possibly made by Whitaker, 1950s. No other information. Bigsby replica made for John Lewis, Penarth, Wales, UK: Bigsby acoustic replica built by John Lewis, Penarth, Wales, UK: Bigsby replica made for Jyrkki "J.J." Juvonen, lead guitarist for Wildfire Willie & The Ramblers, Jack Baymoore and the Bandits, and many other fine rockabilly and hillbilly groups in Sweden: Bigsby-influenced guitar made by Johnny Dilks for Jim Campilongo, 1990s. Bigsby Ukulele Courtesy of Nathan Gibson Bigsby Vibratos: Merle Travis stated in an interview that the first thing he ever had Paul Bigsby help him with was a vibrato. Travis wasn't talking about the Bigsby vibrato, he was talking about the Kaufmann vibrato that he had on his Gibson L-10 archtop guitar. THE BIGSBY VIBRATO WAS NOT INVENTED UNTIL 1952. The first known photos of a Bigsby vibrato date from July and August, 1952. Below: Merle Travis and the Kaufmann vibrato on his Gibson L-10. Note long arm with looped handle. THIS is the vibrato that Merle said Paul Bigsby helped him with first. A few years later, Bigsby developed the cast-aluminum vibrato Merle used on his Gibson Super 400. Below: The original 1952 Bigsby vibrato flyer, note fixed arm and rubber stopper instead of a metal spring. Below: 1956 Bigsby vibrato flyer, note Duane Eddy-style "swingaway" handle. British Rose-Morris Licensed Bigsby vibrato, manufactured in England, 1960s. This is what John Lennon put on his Rickenbacker 325. The Rose-Morris vibratos are slightly thinner and more fragile all around than their beefy USA counterparts. They also measure a fraction smaller all around than a standard B-5. They can be identified by the "Made Under Licence Granted by Bigsby USA" stamp on the bottom of the vibrato. BIGSBY PALM PEDAL: The Bigsby Palm Pedal was the only Bigsby product invented by the 1965-1997 era of the Ted McCarty-owned Bigsby company based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It allowed players to select 1, 2, (up to all 6) strings to bend with special handles, to emulate steel guitar effects. Here is the original product flyer, circa late 1960s: Other miscellaneous Bigsby ephemera: Display of Bigsby templates at NAMM museum: Assorted Bigsby ephemera offered for sale at Gruhn's a few years back: The All-Bigsby Band! A once-in-a-lifetime event happened at the 2008 Guitar Geek Festival in Anaheim, California. The "All-Bigsby Band" featured a stage full of Paul Bigsby's instruments, gathered to make music and history (and a good photo for the Bigsby book!). The All-Bigsby Band can be viewed in action by purchasing the 2008 Guitar Geek Festival DVD here: Special thanks to Tatiana Sizenenko of the NAMM museum for transporting the J.B. Thomas doubleneck guitar to and from the show; Dave Westerbeke for bringing his guitar and mandolin; R.C. Allen for bringing his Bigsby electric and acoustic guitars; and to Marty Smith, Jussi Huhtakangas, Dave Westerbeke, R.C. Allen, Gary Lambert, T.K. Smith, Dave Stuckey, Ashley Kingman, "Crazy" Joe Tritschler, and Jeremy Wakefield for playing. It was a special event, never to be repeated! The Blog Author's Statement: The story of Bigsby guitars is important to me, not only as a person interested in guitars, but because of the people who played them and the music they made. Time and time again I'm asked about the value of Bigsby guitars when all I really want to talk about are the great records Merle Travis made, or how funny Hank Penny was in person, or how much fun it has been to tear it up playing guitar duets with Larry Collins. To this regard, I have posted the following pictures of myself with people intrinsic to the Bigsby story, not as bragging rights but instead to illustrate the fact that this has been a lifelong passion for me. Anybody who might doubt my integrity or challenge my version of the stories can see that I did indeed know and play music with and talk to these people when they were still alive and walking the planet. I miss the ones who have died and am glad that I was there at the right time to know them and get their stories before they were gone. Deke Dickerson Below: With Hank Thompson, 1995. Below: With Speedy West, 1992. Below: With Hank Penny (in goatee and cap), 1991. Below: With Larry Collins, 1995. Below: With Les Paul, 1998. Below: With Jody and Rose Lee Maphis, 1999.
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Shredders take note: the Epiphone Prophecy Les Paul Custom Plus EX is back, and it's loaded with high-output EMG 81 and 85 active pickups and black hardware.
Japanese Saw Sets that cover all of the sawing tasks you are likely to encounter when making furniture. Great value when bought in a set and make ideal gifts.
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Aspects of the violin maker's art, tonewoods, tools and processes in the violin shop, including some examples of violin maker Jamie Herrmann's draftsmanship, and some images taken in the violin shop for more esthetic reasons.
