Tele Bridge for Bigsby

[old wrench]

I'm wondering if anyone has used this bridge or is familiar with it?



(image removed)



Obviously, it's made by Wilkinson.

The picture is from a Reverb listing; sold by an outfit from England.

It looks very well made, machined from aluminum and brass. There is supposed to be a steel plate underneath (at least in the pickup area) to help keep the "Tele tone".

The saddles are supposed to be individually adjustable for height and intonation.

I'd like to see what it looks like from the bottom, but I haven't been able to find a picture of it.

I'm just curious to know if anyone has any experience with the bridge.
.

 

[Boreas]

I'm wondering if anyone has used this bridge or is familiar with it?



(image removed)



Obviously, it's made by Wilkinson.

The picture is from a Reverb listing; sold by an outfit from England.

It looks very well made, machined from aluminum and brass. There is supposed to be a steel plate underneath (at least in the pickup area) to help keep the "Tele tone".

The saddles are supposed to be individually adjustable for height and intonation.

I'd like to see what it looks like from the bottom, but I haven't been able to find a picture of it.

I'm just curious to know if anyone has any experience with the bridge.
.

Never seen one, but it looks very nice. And expensive. I would be interested to know the actual height of the rollers above the guitar body. Most roller bridges I have tried necessitated neck shims, raised pups, and mods to the Bigsby to minimize break angle. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I have always had good luck using Jag rocker bridges because of the lower profile.

Trying to figure out how you set intonation - must be more set screws we can't see.

Someone needs to invent a VERY low profile roller bridge to work with Bigsby's. Hear that Bigsby??

 

[PeterUK]

Wow! I'm a Bigsby Tele fan.

Do you have a link. Nothing shows on a Reverb search for me.

Thanks in advance.

Peter

 

[old wrench]

Here you go Peter .

I found it when I was looking for "Bigsby bridge"

Wilkinson WBTRB4 Polished Aluminium / Brass | Wilkinson Direct | Reverb

.

 

[tfarny]

I am curious if there is a real advantage to roller bridges for Bigsby. My hollowbody Bigsby just has regular TOM saddles and it holds tune fine. If I were to do a tele bisgby I'd surely prefer to the backless style tele bridge sold by Callaham, Rutters and probably others, and keep the 3 saddle setup.

 

[PeterUK]

Here you go Peter .

I found it when I was looking for "Bigsby bridge"

Wilkinson WBTRB4 Polished Aluminium / Brass | Wilkinson Direct | Reverb

.

Yikes! £180!

I went the Mastery Bridge route, which admittedly is about the same price from Nottingham City Guitars:

https://www.nottinghamcityguitars.com/brand/mastery-bridge/

and I liked it so much I've got a long scale and standard scale length Bigsbycaster.

 

[old wrench]

Never seen one, but it looks very nice. And expensive. I would be interested to know the actual height of the rollers above the guitar body. Most roller bridges I have tried necessitated neck shims, raised pups, and mods to the Bigsby to minimize break angle. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I have always had good luck using Jag rocker bridges because of the lower profile.

Trying to figure out how you set intonation - must be more set screws we can't see.

Someone needs to invent a VERY low profile roller bridge to work with Bigsby's. Hear that Bigsby??

I think it probably does have a low-profile, the design certainly has the potential. The picture is from an angle that makes it hard to judge though.

With this design, the string height at the rollers doesn't need to be any higher than the barrels on a regular Tele bridge.

I'd really like to see a shot of the bottom - I'm sure that would clear up our questions.

I'd been thinking of a way to use the roller assemblies from one of the $20 buck Wilkinson roller bridges and incorporate those into a Tele bridge when I came across this on Reverb. Looks like Wilkinson already considered that and came up with this bridge in response .

.

 

[old wrench]

Yikes! £180!

I went the Mastery Bridge route, which admittedly is about the same price from Nottingham City Guitars:

https://www.nottinghamcityguitars.com/brand/mastery-bridge/

and I liked it so much I've got a long scale and standard scale length Bigsbycaster.

I've seen your very nice Bigsby equipped Teles, Peter.

Did the one on the right become your pink one?

Yours and Stefan's and Roland's with the B16's are the ones that got me going on building my own .

.

 

[PeterUK]

I've seen your very nice Bigsby equipped Teles, Peter.

Did the one on the right become your pink one?

Yours and Stefan's and Roland's with the B16's are the ones that got me going on building my own .

.

Yes. The B16 became this one which I'm still shocked as to how good it is. It's a 17 out of 10!

Apologies for posting it again!

 

[Sea Devil]

It looks pretty good to me. Very curious about how the intonation adjustment works.

It does seem a bit expensive, but perhaps the price will come down once they've reeled in some cash from the small group that just has to have it right away.

 

[Cableaddict]

I just bought this Tele off Ebay.
Something about it was calling to me. What can I tell you?

I don't have it yet, but I'll let you know what I think once I have it.

The one thing that concerns me is the aluminum plate and titanium saddles. The latter could be great, who knows? I'm going to order Callaham brass saddles as well and try it both ways.
-But The guy who owns Wilkinson is adamant that you need a steel pickup plate to get the authentic Tele bridge pup sound. He says that the steel plate distributes the pup's magnetic field over its entire area, which changes things. Hmmm....

Worst case scenario: I'll retrofit a Mastery bridge. (Thanks, Peter ! )

The BIG issue with this Tele, which I didn't realize until I placed my bid: You can't use a Bigsby B5 on a Tele, unless you want to lose some spank. Angle over the bridge is critical. That's why the B5F is designed to sit closer to the bridge. I'm going to rettrofit one of those, as I think it should cover the existing holes.
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FWIW, my only other Tele is an early Trussart Steelcaster. That's my "bury me with it" guitar. Astonishingly wonderful, but not exactly a true Telecaster sound. I know that a tele with a Bigsby can never be exactly right, but I love using a trem, so hoping this one comes close.

 

[bender66]

This thread is so old the image has been removed. Any chance you have a pic of the bridge in question?

 

[Cableaddict]

Sure, but just the same auction pics, until I actually have the gtr in my hands:

 

[Cableaddict]

Too early to say, but I'm thinking that a rocking bridge shouid certainly help, as long as it only rocks in the forward direction. If it is floating, I'll probably have to shim the back-side.

Also, while the bridge is aluminum, hopefully the pup plate is steel. I'll report back when I know.
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The neck pocket thing doesn't bother me much, although it is surprising. It's a high end Guitar Mill body, and a musikraft Blackguard repro neck, so you'd think they'd match.

 

[Boreas]

This thread is so old the image has been removed. Any chance you have a pic of the bridge in question?

And possibly repeat the question. Or maybe start a new thread.

 

[Boreas]

Too early to say, but I'm thinking that a rocking bridge shouid certainly help, as long as it only rocks in the forward direction. If it is floating, I'll probably have to shim the back-side.

Also, while the bridge is aluminum, hopefully the pup plate is steel. I'll report back when I know.
------------------------

The neck pocket thing doesn't bother me much, although it is surprising. It's a high end Guitar Mill body, and a musikraft Blackguard repro neck, so you'd think they'd match.

I have always CENTERED my rocking bridges so they rock in BOTH directions. As soon as you get any string slippage on the saddles, you run into friction and subsequent tuning issues. They key is to eliminate or minimize string slippage.

 

[TheOtherNeill]

Yikes! £180!

I went the Mastery Bridge route, which admittedly is about the same price from Nottingham City Guitars:

https://www.nottinghamcityguitars.com/brand/mastery-bridge/

and I liked it so much I've got a long scale and standard scale length Bigsbycaster.

Can we talk about that texture on the control plate and bridge? Wow.

 

[Cableaddict]

And possibly repeat the question. Or maybe start a new thread.

Sorry about that. I found this thread while searching, and din't notice how old it was. Well, we're here now, so....

 

[Deeve]

And possibly repeat the question. Or maybe start a new thread.

https://reverb.com/item/25383940-wilkinson-wbtrb4-polished-aluminium-brass

Image wouldn't transfer over, but here's the link from Reverb dot com

WBTBR3 Deluxe Style Bigsby* Bridge - Wilkinson

wilkinsondirect.com

 

[Cableaddict]

Can we talk about that texture on the control plate and bridge? Wow.

The seller said he used all Gotoh relic (distressed) parts. I do love the look. Not overly bludgeoned and darkened, like so many other relic'd parts.