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Paul Adelburt Bigsby (1899–1968) was the designer of the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece (also known as a tremolo arm
Tremolo arm

A tremolo arm or tremolo bar is a lever attached to the bridge and/or the tailpiece of an electric guitar or archtop guitar to enable the player to quickly vary the tension and sometimes the length of the strings temporarily, changing the pitch to create a vibrato, portamento or pitch bend effect....
) and proprietor of Bigsby Guitars. He built an early steel guitar
Steel guitar

Steel guitar is a type of guitar and/or the method of playing the instrument. The name steel guitar comes not from the material of which the guitar is made, but from the name of the steel, a slide held in the left hand....
 for Southern California steel guitarist Earl "Joaquin" Murphy of Spade Cooley
Spade Cooley

Donnell Clyde 'Spade' Cooley was an United States Western Swing musician, big band leader, actor, and television personality. His career ended when he was arrested and convicted for the murder of his second wife, Ella Mae Evans....
's band, then built an electric guitar
Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickup to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker....
 conceptualized by Merle Travis
Merle Travis

Merle Robert Travis was an United States country and western singer, songwriter, and musician born in Rosewood, Kentucky. His lyrics often discussed the exploitation of coal miners....
 to have the same level of sustain
Sustain

Sustain may be a parameter of musical sound in time. As its name may imply, it denotes the period of time during which the sound is sustained before it becomes inaudible, or silent....
 as a steel guitar by anchoring the strings
Strings (music)

A string is the Vibrating string that is the source of vibration in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family....
 in the body
Solid body

A solid body electric instrument is a string instrument such as a electric guitar, bass guitar or violin built without its normal sound box and relying on its electric pickup system to directly receive the vibrations of the strings....
 instead of on a tailpiece
Tailpiece

The tailpiece, found on many musical instruments of the string instrument family, anchors the tail end of the strings, the end opposite the Scroll or headstock....
. This instrument, which Bigsby completed in 1948, likely had an influence on the Telecaster later produced by Leo Fender
Leo Fender

Clarence Leonidas Fender , also known as Leo Fender, was a Greece-United States inventor who founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, now known as Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, and later founded MusicMan and G&L Musical Instruments ....
, as it had all six tuners in a row.






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Paul Adelburt Bigsby (1899–1968) was the designer of the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece (also known as a tremolo arm
Tremolo arm

A tremolo arm or tremolo bar is a lever attached to the bridge and/or the tailpiece of an electric guitar or archtop guitar to enable the player to quickly vary the tension and sometimes the length of the strings temporarily, changing the pitch to create a vibrato, portamento or pitch bend effect....
) and proprietor of Bigsby Guitars. He built an early steel guitar
Steel guitar

Steel guitar is a type of guitar and/or the method of playing the instrument. The name steel guitar comes not from the material of which the guitar is made, but from the name of the steel, a slide held in the left hand....
 for Southern California steel guitarist Earl "Joaquin" Murphy of Spade Cooley
Spade Cooley

Donnell Clyde 'Spade' Cooley was an United States Western Swing musician, big band leader, actor, and television personality. His career ended when he was arrested and convicted for the murder of his second wife, Ella Mae Evans....
's band, then built an electric guitar
Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickup to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker....
 conceptualized by Merle Travis
Merle Travis

Merle Robert Travis was an United States country and western singer, songwriter, and musician born in Rosewood, Kentucky. His lyrics often discussed the exploitation of coal miners....
 to have the same level of sustain
Sustain

Sustain may be a parameter of musical sound in time. As its name may imply, it denotes the period of time during which the sound is sustained before it becomes inaudible, or silent....
 as a steel guitar by anchoring the strings
Strings (music)

A string is the Vibrating string that is the source of vibration in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family....
 in the body
Solid body

A solid body electric instrument is a string instrument such as a electric guitar, bass guitar or violin built without its normal sound box and relying on its electric pickup system to directly receive the vibrations of the strings....
 instead of on a tailpiece
Tailpiece

The tailpiece, found on many musical instruments of the string instrument family, anchors the tail end of the strings, the end opposite the Scroll or headstock....
. This instrument, which Bigsby completed in 1948, likely had an influence on the Telecaster later produced by Leo Fender
Leo Fender

Clarence Leonidas Fender , also known as Leo Fender, was a Greece-United States inventor who founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, now known as Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, and later founded MusicMan and G&L Musical Instruments ....
, as it had all six tuners in a row. Its headstock shape was later made famous by Fender's Stratocaster model. Bigsby also made a doubleneck model for Nashville guitarist Grady Martin and an amplified mandolin
Electric mandolin

The electric mandolin is an instrument tuned and played as the mandolin and amplified in similar fashion to an electric guitar.As with electric guitars, electric mandolins take many forms:...
 for Texas Playboy Tiny Moore
Tiny Moore

Tiny Moore was a musician who played the electric mandolin and fiddle with Western swing legend Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys in the 1940s....
.

Bigsby, a motorcycle racer known as "P.A.", also built a pedal steel guitar
Pedal steel guitar

The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal slide to stop the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar....
 for Speedy West
Speedy West

Wesley Webb "Speedy" West was an United States pedal steel guitarist and record producer. He frequently played with Jimmy Bryant, both in their own duo and as part of the regular Capitol Records backing band for Tennessee Ernie Ford and many others....
 that West used on many of Tennessee Ernie Ford
Tennessee Ernie Ford

Tennessee Ernie Ford an American recording artist and television host who enjoyed success in the Country music, Pop music and Gospel music musical genres....
's early recordings as well as records by Travis, Red Ingle
Red Ingle

Best known for his comedy records with Spike Jones and his own Natural Seven sides for Capitol Records, Ernest Jansen "Red" Ingle was an American musician, singer and writer, arranger, cartoonist and caricaturist....
, Jean Shepard
Jean Shepard

Ollie Imogene Shepard, known professionally as Jean Shepard is an United States country music singer-songwriter, who was one of the first female Country music stars and had a series of hits between the 1950s and 1970s....
, Johnny Horton
Johnny Horton

Johnny Horton was an United States country music singer who was most famous for his semi-folk, so-called "saga songs" which launched the "historical ballad" craze of the late 1950s and early 1960s....
, Ferlin Husky
Ferlin Husky

Ferlin Husky is an United States singer who has become well-known as a country music-pop music chart-topper under various names, including Terry Preston and Simon Crum....
 and Merrill Moore.

Before working in music he was the foreman of Crocker Motorcycles
Crocker Motorcycles

The Crocker Motorcycle Company was an United Statesn manufacturer of single-cylinder Motorcycle speedway racing motorcycles from 1932, powerful V-twin road motorcycles from 1936, and the "Scootabout," one of the first modern styled motor scooters, in the late 1930s....
, and designed many components. For example, the overhead-valve cylinder head for their first V-twin motorcycle. The tremolo arm, however, was what made Bigsby's reputation, as it was used by Gibson
Gibson Guitar Corporation

The Gibson Guitar Corporation, of Nashville, Tennessee, USA, is a manufacturer of Steel-string guitar and electric guitars. Gibson also owns and makes guitars under such brands as Epiphone, Kramer Guitars, Valley Arts Guitar, Tobias , Steinberger, and Gibson Kalamazoo Electric Guitar....
, Gretsch
Gretsch

Gretsch is a United States musical instrument manufacturer currently being distributed by guitar company Fender Musical Instruments Corporation and drum craft company Kaman Music....
 and other guitar companies. In 1966, Bigsby sold the company to former Gibson guitar executive Ted McCarty. Recently the proud Bigsby name has been mentioned by the Fred Gretsch company.