Anybody have experience with the Bigsby 'Palm Pedal' ?

I've been scoping these Bigsby Palm Pedals out for a while, as well as other bridge mounted string benders, & I finally scored a deal on a vintage unit that was still in the original box!



For those of us that haven't heard of these modified Bigsby units (Hey I hadn't until stumbling over one in another related online search) they basically replace the Bigsby handle with individual string controlling levers and ...
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The string goes through the hole on the lever shown in the above picture. The string then goes under the levers cam & out under the front roller bar.



The string gets to ride in its own 'plastic roller' on the front 'hold down bar'. (shown below from underside view)



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This allows for a nice Pedal Steele or B Bender sort of sound.
String tension when tuned will hold the pedals up off the front roller bar and can be adjusted to raise string pitch when pushed from 1/2 step up to 1 & 1/2 steps.

This 'score' (lol) actually came with it's original & hard to find 2 pages of instructions (believe me, they're hard to find).


I will be posting those 2 hard to find pages for future people looking for this information to find when I get around to taking my own pics (probably during installation) & posting things up for others to see.


I will be installing this unit on one of my Bigsby B5 equipped guitars (same screw hole pattern) but I haven't decided which guitar to put it on!

What do you guys think... put it on the 71 SG???



(The 71 Deluxe should have lots of room for those lever handles with little bridge overhang)

Or the Schecter Ultra III?



Which has a little less room between bridge & Bigsby & most definitely will leave the handle ends hanging over the bridge a bit? (forget palm muting etc)

I sort of see the obvious answer but I must admit that I truly dread removing that original Gibson embossed Bigsby from the guitar as everything on that guitar is still original & unaltered except for the pup covers being removed so (which I do have), keep that in mind & lend your opinion, comments & questions to this yet to be discussed topic on the Bigsby Palm Pedal & let the guitar related fun begin.

Rock On Rock On

Put it elsewhere, b

ELSEWHERE

That thing looks like it will be incredibly in the way.
I know where I would put it.
E-Bay.

chilipeppermaniac said:

Put it elsewhere, b

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eSGEe said:

ELSEWHERE

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Tony M. said:

That thing looks like it will be incredibly in the way.
I know where I would put it.
E-Bay.

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Daaayaam!
Is 'elsewhere' code for putting it 'up the grand wahzoo' er what? It seems that you guys are saying (with very few words btw) that I should find another guitar to try this on??

And Tony, I just got it off Ebay! These smaller B5 sized Palm Pedals are a little less available than the larger B7 looking types. Win, loose or draw, they are rare & collectable & having the box & installation instructions really helps to make this one a nice little collectors item for guitar nerds like me. But my real intent & desire is to get it to work well & master using it.

As for the handles being 'in the way', I have both seen these cut down & also seen handles that have a joint that allows the handle ends to swing away from the bridge.

Here's one that somebody cut down to size (below)


Here's one with a 'twist' lol


Looks like there used to be some handle variations available..


Here is one with the positional handles..


For $#itz & giggles, here's some of the more elaborate contraptions out there that bend our strings!

Yikes! Check this six banger out! The ultimate Bigsby Palm Pedal!??


This one will get you Bent B's, Push'n G's & Drop'n D's!


And Then, there is always the old fashioned way of routing the hell out of your guitar to bend a B!

Yup B, don't put it on the old vintage bigsby equipped guitars. Find a cheap donor to experiment on.

So if i understand this palm pedal Bigsby it just trems ill call it certain strings ??? i mean you got 2 levers there so it will bend the 2 strings of ones choosing ?? Looks damn cool . and the one contraption that bends and bows and all the other is somethin else.

JohnnyGoo said:

So if i understand this palm pedal Bigsby it just trems ill call it certain strings ??? i mean you got 2 levers there so it will bend the 2 strings of ones choosing ?? Looks damn cool . and the one contraption that bends and bows and all the other is somethin else.

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Correct JG!

If you look closely in the pic below you will see the main tremolo handle (that moved all the strings both up & down in pitch) has been removed & these two handles are in position to control the B & G strings (raise pitch only).



If you look closely again you can see that the string eyelet pins have been removed too & now the string simply go right through the rear roller instead of attaching to the eyelet pins rendering the strings stationary & unaffected by any handle movement (except for the strings goping through & attached to the new handles.

On the Palm Pedal handles as viewed from the bottom (see below) you can see the hole on each bar that the string goes through..



The string then heads toward the bridge while riding on that rounded cam built into the handle, then forward to the front roller bar & resting in one of the nylon string holders (which spin freely) before heading to the bridge.

It seemed confusing to me also when I first looked at these things & I really wondered why there was no retention type of groove on those cams to keep the strings in place!?? I guess it doesn't need that?? lol We'll see soon enough.
I hope..

chilipeppermaniac said:

Yup B, don't put it on the old vintage bigsby equipped guitars. Find a cheap donor to experiment on.

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But it looks like it is the right distance & will fit perfectly! lol

Hey besides, I currently won't play that SG at gigs because of that Bigsby throwing the guitar out of pitch when I use it! Why not make it playable & store the original trem nicely in it's case?

Guess that Bender will need a good Fender Twin to get that proper twang. Speaking of which, when u gonna plug some of those axes into my JMP, Bro B?

I have a Palm Pedal fitted on my lap steel. I used to have it on my old Coronet self-built guitar but decided it was a better bet for steel.



That's it without the pickup. It now has an old Teisco unit, a favourite of Ry Cooder, supplied by Brew.
I now have it set up with the bends on the 3rd and 4th strings with (usually) a C tuning, that is from the 1st: G-E-C-G-E-C. That allows for 6th and 9th chords when operating the arms. The arms are easily moved by undoing the circlips. I anchor the other strings through the stop-tail rather than the Bigsby.
I think it's definitely a lot easier to use on a lap steel than a regular guitar. The technique involves sort of rolling the palm of the picking hand across the levers which I think would be a lot harder to achieve in a standing position with the guitar on a strap. I suppose what I'm saying in a roundabout way is, "Put it on a lap steel"!

javamagic said:

I have a Palm Pedal fitted on my lap steel. I used to have it on my old Coronet self-built guitar but decided it was a better bet for steel.

That's it without the pickup. It now has an old Teisco unit, a favourite of Ry Cooder, supplied by Brew.
I now have it set up with the bends on the 3rd and 4th strings with (usually) a C tuning, that is from the 1st: G-E-C-G-E-C. That allows for 6th and 9th chords when operating the arms. The arms are easily moved by undoing the circlips. I anchor the other strings through the stop-tail rather than the Bigsby.
I think it's definitely a lot easier to use on a lap steel than a regular guitar. The technique involves sort of rolling the palm of the picking hand across the levers which I think would be a lot harder to achieve in a standing position with the guitar on a strap. I suppose what I'm saying in a roundabout way is, "Put it on a lap steel"!

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Nice!! Welcome javamagic! Your name rings a bell from elsewhere, but I could be wrong. In any event, nice to have you here!

LoL RVA,,,,,,,,,,,, Java from ETSG

javamagic said:

I have a Palm Pedal fitted on my lap steel. I used to have it on my old Coronet self-built guitar but decided it was a better bet for steel.

That's it without the pickup. It now has an old Teisco unit, a favourite of Ry Cooder, supplied by Brew.
I now have it set up with the bends on the 3rd and 4th strings with (usually) a C tuning, that is from the 1st: G-E-C-G-E-C. That allows for 6th and 9th chords when operating the arms. The arms are easily moved by undoing the circlips. I anchor the other strings through the stop-tail rather than the Bigsby.
I think it's definitely a lot easier to use on a lap steel than a regular guitar. The technique involves sort of rolling the palm of the picking hand across the levers which I think would be a lot harder to achieve in a standing position with the guitar on a strap. I suppose what I'm saying in a roundabout way is, "Put it on a lap steel"!

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What a great idea!

I have tried my hand at both lap steel & even have a single neck Fender 8 string pedal steel. Despite a couple years of effort I have found it to be extremely difficult to have everything be on pitch the way I want it to be. I mean I get close & can pull off a whole lot of stuff but,.. I just haven't developed the accuracy or proficiency I have on the guitar! Go figure. Maybe I'm too pitch sensitive, too demanding or just too hard on myself but whatever the reason I have abandoned lap & pedal steel playing for the more fruitful & enjoyable playing of fretted guitars.

But it is a great idea that looks rather good on a lap steel.

I nice to see ya here bro. Welcome!

Since the screw patterns will line up on the '71, that's the one I'd use.

smitty_p said:

Since the screw patterns will line up on the '71, that's the one I'd use.

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I'm leaning towards that too Smitty. Too bad those handles don't slide away just like the regular Bigsby handle does eh??

Smitty, I had an interesting conundrum to address when I asked a certain Forum member a how to wire up a single coil guitar with Humbucker pups. Out of nowhere, despite my saying, " no way, I can't accept that,,,,,,,,,,," I was being asked for my address to become the new owner of a beautiful dual Bucker loaded Strat pick guard. The only problem being I only own 2 1989/90 SSS Am Std Strats that I really was not thinking of swapping the guards out of. Well, after I actually got the Pickguard, I solved the donor guitar issue when I remembered my nephew had my girlfriend's daughter's HSS Strat shaped Starcaster guitar that would be the perfect guitar for it.

The new guard screw pattern fits perfectly, I have the wires cut from the old guard to remove it and the new guard is test fitted in.
Now I just have to solder the jack wires to the new guard and find a new set of tuners and it will be ready to give a test drive.
How lucky was I to get a generous gift when I asked the humbucker swap question due to my having an extra set of buckers I was thinking of getting a donor husk for?

I sure didn't expect that outcome of my question.

As for the Swap for you, Barry. If you wanna try it on the '71 do so.......... If you don't like it, it is only removal then re install the original Bisgby and a new set of strings.