This sort of stand-up business ethic followed Paul Bigsby throughout his entire career. Not long after, Gretsch requested a similar deal – ultimately Bigsby did end up making the deal but would not agree to it unless Ted McCarty agreed. This exclusive deal was, in part, struck because McCarty offered an improvement on the original design that allowed the arm to be pushed out of the way when not in use.ġ948 T-8 Three Neck Lap Steel Guitar. Ted McCarty, the wily head honcho at Gibson, had worked out an exclusive deal to use the vibrato system as an option on Gibson guitars. Sometime in the mid-50s, Bigsby decided to focus all of his attention on his new vibrato system. Bigsby offered a B-16 model for his friend Leo Fender’s new design, the Telecaster, even though he was allegedly upset about Leo Fender’s use of his headstock design – a design that would ultimately become iconic of the brand. The molds and parts were all built by Bigsby in his garage out of aluminum. The Bigsby vibrato that we all know and love today made its first appearance in 1951 and went to, of course, Merle Travis. Most of Bigsby’s guitars were originally built with a standard fiddle style tailpiece. Bigsby also made guitars for country greats like Hank “Sugarfoot” Garland, Billy Byrd, and Grady Martin. He used to label his templates with the name of who they were made for – one of his templates reads “Les Paul”, leading many to believe he made a guitar for him as well. That guitar was a neck-thru design and also featured a string-thru design at the bridge.ġ952 Bigsby Grady Martin Double Neck Guitar. This guitar featured a headstock similar to what we might find on a Gibson.
Prior to this, Bigsby created an octagon shaped guitar with an aluminum plate on top. The Travis guitar became a key piece of music history. The letter implies that Leo Fender copied Paul Bigsby’s design, as it states, “ is playing the granddaddy of our Spanish guitar, built by Paul Bigsby- the one Leo copied.” The book The Story of Paul Bigsby: Father of the Modern Electric Solidbody Guitar, references a letter written in 1950 by Don Randall who was in charge of Fender’s distribution at the time. The single cutaway shape was later coopted by the Gibson Les Paul model. At the same time, the headstock was also altered into the shape we see today. That was altered a few years after it was originally built. The guitar did not originally feature a cutaway. The Merle Travis Guitar was solid curly maple and did feature some weight relief. Image: Nigel Osbourne / RedfernsSo how did this remarkable instrument come about? Well, the story goes, Merle Travis met Paul Bigsby at a local motorcycle racetrack and asked him to make a solidbody guitar that would have the same sustain that a lap steel would have.Īt the time, electric guitars were still just electrified acoustics.