new bigsby book

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 28 Feb 2009 4:45 pm

That is one cool photo, and to finally know Bigsby's middle name is now accomplished after decades of wondering, and always forgetting to ask. Thank you, gentlemen!

Jussi Huhtakangas · Post by **Jussi Huhtakangas** » 5 Mar 2009 5:22 am

Did anyone pay attention to Ernie Ball's single neck 10 string in the book? Whoa, heel and toe pedals in two rows, I had no idea PA had built anything like that!!

I'd love to see the underside of that guitar!
I haven't read it thoroughly yet, but one thing needs a correction; the last guitar PA made was completed on Jan 26th-63, not Dec 6th-63 like it says in the book. You can't make it out from the serial # 12663 but the paperwork confirms the January date. Just a bit of trivia...

Ray Montee · Post by **Ray Montee** » 5 Mar 2009 9:24 am

My book just arrived on my doorstep and I found it to be a really fine publication. Much larger in size than I had anticipated, on nice quality dull-glossy stock with truly fabulous, clear photo's.

Great shots of Grady Martin and his double neck as well as my life long friend Keith Holter's beatuiful single neck standard guitar.

I'm sad my pristine Bigsby quad-8 with six pedals was omitted from the book......but they had another that was equally as beautiful. It would be wonderful to learn when it was manufactured.....mine being 4-15-56.

A GREAT BOOK for the serious BIGSBY 'lover'.

Andrew Brown · Post by **Andrew Brown** » 5 Mar 2009 8:29 pm

I've been hearing rumors of people "working on" a book about Bigsby guitars for at least 15 years, so I'm glad one finally saw the light of day. The cost ($50) might seem a little prohibitive in these depressed times, but you can get it for $31 plus postage at Amazon. Anyone remotely interested in Bigsby shouldn't hesitate to purchase this beauty.

One thing I was amazed to learn was that Bigsby made so many standard guitars. I'd never seen/known more than the few famous ones, but this book estimates 23!
Plus about 75 steels, and a few odd mandolins.

chas smith · Post by **chas smith** » 5 Mar 2009 8:57 pm

Mine showed up today and it's better than I remembered, from skimming it at the Guitar Geek Festival. I've also been reading the posts and so I looked through the rock star section, at the end. I can see why you might not want them in there, from purists point of view, but if you put a "positive spin" on it, it shows how far Bigsby's influence extends.

I think noticed a typo on pg 93, I'll bet almost anything that the guitar was Norm Hamlet's and the serial number on the T-8 is 21154, not 51.

Andrew Brown · Post by **Andrew Brown** » 5 Mar 2009 9:07 pm

I'm ashamed to have to admit that even though I contributed a few photos to the book, I completely forgot to send them this pic of Billy Jack Wills and his Western Swing Band. Forgive me, and consider this a Forum 'exclusive':

Detail of Vance Terry for you Vance fans:

Andrew Brown · Post by **Andrew Brown** » 5 Mar 2009 9:13 pm

chas smith wrote:Mine showed up today and it's better than I remembered, from skimming it at the Guitar Geek Festival. I've also been reading the posts and so I looked through the rock star section, at the end. I can see why you might not want them in there, from purists point of view, but if you put a "positive spin" on it, it shows how far Bigsby's influence extends.

It stands to reason that any book written about guitars these days is going to feature "rockstar" BS to a certain degree. Mercifully it's kept to an extreme minimum in this book, so I can hardly complain.

One small correction that needs to be made: the photo on the top of page 136 shows Bobby Black playing Pee Wee Whitewing's steel. The photo caption says it's Pee Wee, who is in the picture, but is instead playing the hollowbody guitar on the right.

Jussi Huhtakangas · Post by **Jussi Huhtakangas** » 7 Mar 2009 2:12 am

Andrew, the guy that my Bigsby was originally built for, Eddie Gabbard, played around with guys who were with Billy Jack Wills. I think he might have even applied for the job that Vance got. Tommy Varner was Eddie's mentor pretty much and Eddie played with Kenny Lowery before Billy's band was put together. I have some b/w snapshots of those guys that Eddie took in the late40's/early 50's. Tommy and Eddie played early Fenders at the time.

Drew Howard · Post by **Drew Howard** » 7 Mar 2009 6:04 am

I acquired the book thru Amazon as well. $31.00 is a steal considering the content and beautiful photos.
Thanks to everyone here for clarifying some of the info and for sharing photos.

I'd like to buy a clear plastic sleeve to protect the book. Any ideas?

thanks,
Drew

Michael Maddex · Post by **Michael Maddex** » 7 Mar 2009 8:35 am

Drew Howard wrote:I'd like to buy a clear plastic sleeve to protect the book. Any ideas?

Local library, some college bookstores, ebay, etc. or:

http://www.wikihow.com/Cover-a-Paperbac ... astic-Film

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Durable-P ... Book-Cover

HTH.

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 8 Mar 2009 5:20 pm

I love this......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIkmYTjodMU

Mitch Drumm · Post by **Mitch Drumm** » 8 Mar 2009 5:56 pm

Howard:

I assume you have seen this one too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=189sVSGV ... annel_page

It would appear from the clip you linked that Lou Costello was the original owner, since W. C. Fields died before Bigsby went into guitar production.

You learn something every day.

Andrew Brown · Post by **Andrew Brown** » 8 Mar 2009 6:01 pm

HowardR wrote:I love this......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIkmYTjodMU

What the ---? There's a Bigsby double-neck sitting in these guy's basement, and they don't even know what it is?

Andrew Brown · Post by **Andrew Brown** » 8 Mar 2009 6:42 pm

The Bigsby book was featured on NPR today.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =101583548

Chris Scruggs · Post by **Chris Scruggs** » 8 Mar 2009 10:47 pm

The books great! I just bought mine from Bobbe Seymour the other day.

Perhaps I'm just going crazy, but there didn't seem to be a picture or deserving mention of Bud Isaacs, the father of modern steel guitar playing, or his guitar which changed the sound of Country music.

I realize they couldn't include everybody, but I think Bud Isaacs and his steel are arguably the most important guitarist and guitar in the Bigsby story!

Thoughts?
Chris

Mark Durante · Post by **Mark Durante** » 9 Mar 2009 3:11 am

These videos are a joke people, funny stuff, I like the part where the guy says be careful and you hear a big clunk, as if he just bashed it

Jussi Huhtakangas · Post by **Jussi Huhtakangas** » 9 Mar 2009 10:12 am

Yeah, but what the h....???? I've never seen or heard of this particular guitar before!!!

Deke Dickerson · Post by **Deke Dickerson** » 10 Mar 2009 1:49 am

Hi there gang, I don't get on the list much, but since the Bigsby book just came out I figured I should pipe in to answer any questions you may have. I did a lot of work for the book, I didn't write any of the text, but I did a lot of research, photography, etc. and a lot of the vintage photos and memorabilia came from my collection.

First of all--the biggest and most glaring omission in the book is the Bud Isaacs steel. Absolutely. Let me apologize for this first of all, but I'll try to explain a little bit of how that transpired.

There was an editorial decision made early on --not by me, but by the people putting it out--that the steels would not be the main focus of the book, that it would be about Paul Bigsby the man and the highly influential spanish guitars that he made. The steels were going to be an afterthought, but a "stink" was made by myself and a few other guys on the Bigsby project, and so more steels were in the book than they had PLANNED on having. I'll say that first as an excuse.

But what happened specifically with the Bud Isaacs thing is that there was some talk of getting Bud's steel photographed for the book, and that never happened, unbeknownst to me. If I had known they weren't going to get it photographed, I would have made sure that my RCA EP cover of Bud Isaacs got in the book. This was one of these unfortunate mixups, and I'm ashamed to say that Bud Isaacs and his Bigsby got the short shrift in the book. He's mentioned, but there is no photo.

Also, it's inexcusable that Tiny Moore is represented by one postage-stamp sized album cover photo from the 1970's. At the time, I didn't know where Tiny's mandolin was. I have since learned where it is, if I had known that I would have driven there and photographed it myself!

These mistakes notwithstanding, I think the book is pretty phenomenal, and the amount of information that was able to be combined together between myself and the guys referred to as the "Bigsby Brain trust"--which included Jussi and Mike Black, even though they're not listed as such in the book--was incredible.

On another note, I was personally responsible for making sure that the Chief Mack Thomas "monster steel" got photographed, I was on tour out in the boonies and got up early in the morning to drive out in the countryside and take photos of it. So I was working to get steels represented in the book....don't lynch me....

Thanks again to Dale Granstrom for his great memory....if you're reading this, howdy Dale!

Thanks to Michael Lee Allen for digging up that Huntington Park Daily Signal newspaper article from 1955....I made a special trip to Fresno just to get a good copy of that article to use in the book....thanks again, Michael!

If you have any other questions, or if you even just want to bitch at somebody involved in the book, I'll try to get back on the forum here in the next few days....

Deke

Dan Tyack · Post by **Dan Tyack** » 10 Mar 2009 12:14 pm

I've got to get this book.

About the 'rock guy' who wrote it, his name is Andy Babiuk, he's a hell of an instrument historian and a great guy. He wrote the definitive book on 'Beatles Gear' that came out a few years back. I've got an autographed copy of that one (Andy used to work at the music store in Rochester, NY, just down the street from Chuck Campbells house).

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 10 Mar 2009 1:23 pm

HOORAY! That was my local newspaper and delivering it helped me get a huge record collection, concert tics, color TV/stereo, water bed, and style out my pad as the best kids room I ever saw, all before turning 16, and that was just the legal stuff... Also learned about Jimi's death on the front page while folding them for delivery just before I gave it up. I had THE best paper route in all SE LA. Thanx for the memories, Deke!

BTW, thanx for the 'stink' as well, we need more like you!

Casey Lowmiller · Post by **Casey Lowmiller** » 10 Mar 2009 5:22 pm

I've got my copy ordered...I can't wait for it to arrive.

With every post I read about it, I get more and more antsy!!!

These instruments are super-stunning looking!!!

Casey

Casey Lowmiller · Post by **Casey Lowmiller** » 10 Mar 2009 5:24 pm

Since a few Bigsby's were omitted from the book, we ought to have a seperate post that features 2 or 3 photos of each known Bigsby steel.

That would be an awesome thread...talk about causing some people to drool all over themselves. I would need a towel & a bib!!!

Casey

chas smith · Post by **chas smith** » 10 Mar 2009 8:01 pm

talk about causing some people to drool all over themselves.

I do that normally, although I'm trying to cut down on it...

Casey Lowmiller · Post by **Casey Lowmiller** » 10 Mar 2009 8:15 pm

Good one Chas!!!

I do that sometimes too...although Bigsbys make it happen more frequently.

Casey

Deke Dickerson · Post by **Deke Dickerson** » 10 Mar 2009 10:49 pm

hey Ron--

That's a great story about the Daily Signal. Do you have any idea where somebody might have an original copy of that 1955 newspaper? MLA only had a xerox copy and that's what we used in the book. The newspaper went out of business a long time ago, right?

Seeing that newspaper article was a revelation. it's about as close to a real interview with P.A. that you can get. Plus he reveals that he was a steel guitarist himself and that he built the first Bigsby for his own use. Many revelations from that story.

Deke

The Steel Guitar Forum

new bigsby book

Thanx Bobby and Jussi!

My book just arrived........................

re: Bigsby book

Let's hear it for the Daily Signal!

Huntington Park Daily Signal