Surface Mount Vibrato Bridges/Tailpieces?

[Kacey Y]

I've had project guitar gathering dust in pieces for years. It's a cheap no name 25.5" scale bolt neck slab body LP with a hardtail strat bridge. I was thinking of converting it to an LP shape tele, as that required very little modding other than screwing things in, but I already have 2 hardtail guitars and don't need a third. After listening to a bunch of The Cramps, surf rock, and psychobilly again lately, I was like aha...put a wiggle stick on it! I'm not paying for a real bigsby and a special fancy pants bridge to work with it, so what are my cheap surface mount vibrato/trem/whammy/wiggle stick options? I know GFS does the Extrem in a few styles and a tele style bridge plate with a TOM that goes with it. Any other decent options? Being janky is not a deterrent, probably a bonus as long as it doesn't make the guitar unplayable. I need a new surface mount bridge either way, so that feels like the crucial element. I feel like I could probably slap a Gretsch style roller bridge on there in a pinch maybe?

Ideas, thoughts, suggestions, heckles, gifs of raccoons being mischievous?

[Blackened Soul]

Yes, there is ways
What you need is a tele bigsby conversion bridge
https://www.google.com/search?client=sa ... 1029&dpr=2

https://www.google.com/search?q=tele+bi ... s-wiz-serp


They come in normal sized


or short strat [modern mount] sized


you can find these made by: goldo, Mastery, Van Dyke-Harms, Schroeder, Bridgeworks, Callaham Vintage Guitars, etc plus there is random cheap stuff if you look around.. or you could make you own out of a cheap tele style bridge with a Dremel..
Or out could go with the 2 "official variants.. though cost and modding might nosy work well on a lp..

stock fender style with tele bigsby conversion plate and jaguar bridge


and the bigsby B17

[Blackened Soul]

The one issue though if you use a large vintage style cupped tele bridge is a humbucker rout is wider so if you want “perfect” it won’t work.. here is my telebird I made a few months ago and I had what I had from another project…. I like the jank though..

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IMG_0403-compressed.jpeg (99.77 KiB) Viewed 3076 times

[Kacey Y]

I definitely embrace the jank, rather than run from it, so I don't mind if there's gaps with a tele plate. I may even do a filtertron style pickup and just use a hardtail strat style bridge, so there's options there, thanks for the heads up.

I feel like I might be able to budget version the "bigsby conversion" bridge with a rat tail file too, if I'm feeling spicy

I'm leaning towards the GFS solution, simply because it's the cheapest, but I'm not starting on it asap, so I'll give it a think and keep searching for weird stuff too

[Kacey Y]

Trying to find a bridge for this that doesn't cost hundreds of dollars is activating the deeply obsessive parts of my brain. I've found some very cheap low tech options, replacements for vintage Teisco style notched bent metal bridges, grestch style "rocker bar" bridges that are just grooved chrome round stock on an archtop base, etc. I saw this one image of the ubiquitous locking roller bridge that everyone sells online, with a Teisco style top mount base plate and it turns out it's the only such picture in existence and not an item for sale anywhere, but I tracked down the ebay seller from the watermark on the image and sent them a message asking if they had a line on one or something similar

[dubkitty]

that's an impressive level of maniacal dedication. you're my kind of people.

i've had good luck searching eBay for "Tremolo" and "Vibrato" in Musical Instruments->Guitar (whatever they call it)->Parts. "vibrato" gives you fewer Strat trems. i've found ideas on there ranging from cheap (the reissue Kay/Teisco tremolo on the Kondor) to too expensive (i got my Stetsbar for the Jetstar--hey, that rhymes!--for $225, but they usually go for more like $350 used).

[Kacey Y]

that's an impressive level of maniacal dedication. you're my kind of people.

i've had good luck searching eBay for "Tremolo" and "Vibrato" in Musical Instruments->Guitar (whatever they call it)->Parts. "vibrato" gives you fewer Strat trems. i've found ideas on there ranging from cheap (the reissue Kay/Teisco tremolo on the Kondor) to too expensive (i got my Stetsbar for the Jetstar--hey, that rhymes!--for $225, but they usually go for more like $350 used).

Thanks for affirming my concerning level of deep focus, I try to only apply it to constructive things like baking and DIY projects. I've been maximizing my Google-Fu skills with all the various terms and found a few random items that didn't turn up at first. There's a shop in California that sells surface mount TOM base plates, but of course they're on extended leave and not selling anything currently. Right now I'm leaning towards a Teisco style replacement vibrato tailpiece and a simple TOM style roller bridge or maybe an adjustable Mustang style one, just screwed into the body, maybe with some washers or shims under it to dial in the height. I've looked into unbranded Bigsby style tailpieces, it's really difficult to find any opinions online that aren't just "save up and buy the real thing, you won't be disappointed!'. Well I'm a cheap lil bog witch and I'm find kludging things together, as this will be a wiggle stick guitar dedicated to playing halfassed Cramps style riffs with too much slapback and reverb to hear any pings or rattles

After looking up as many pics as I could find of Poison Ivy's Bill Lawrence guitar, I determined it had a kinda standard 60's Teisco style Mustang ripoff bridge with grooved nylon saddles, that screwed in rather than sat in thimbles, and a no name Bigsby floating tailpiece that the body was routed out for, to get a usable break angle. It at least gave me some ideas of what I could do DIY, even if I'm not trying to copy that. I also have been looking up at a lot of 60's import guitar budget "restorations" on youtube and making note of what options people are using, instead of digging up period correct original parts for a fortune. I'm trying not to spend too much money at the moment, but after I sell my SG I've had listed for a bit, I'll definitely set aside some money to work on this. I might pick up a part here or there in the meantime, I don't want to spend too much time planning instead of doing. I'd rather have a guitar that can make some wiggly sounds and try to make it work better, than not have one while I think of how to do it perfectly