Have had an Ibanez ART100 for a little while--my only LP-ish guitar--and I have recently fallen in love with the Bigsby vibrato thanks to my new
Hot Rod. So I started thinking about getting a Silver Jet (oooh, sparkly) but the price wasn't in my budget. I've heard a few negatives about the Korean-made Electromatics so I ruled those out.
Well, slodave's epic Les Paul build thread got me thinking "hey, I can do that!" (
). So after a trip to stewmac.com and a few hours of fiddling around, I think I'm about 95% where I want to be.
Parts list:
1) Bigsby B7
2) No-name humbuckers
3) 4mm MOP dot inlays in fretboard
4) Sperzel Trim-lok tuners
5) 3-ply pickguard
6) Too-small polished aluminum knobs
7) Gretsch strap knobs (love these!)
Things left to do:
1) Get decent knobs that fit the cutouts in the body.
2) Replace bridge with a floater--the current one is FUGLY.
3) Get some p'ups from Wolf when the budget recovers.
In the meantime my guitar teacher no longer complains that he can't tell what frets I'm hitting, I get to fool around with another Bigsby, and the new tuners don't feel like they're lubed with sand.