The Steel Guitar Forum

Douglas Schuch wrote: That does not mean this guitar has no value - the Bigsby name is much more famous than the artists who played Bigsby steels, and an early Bigsby certainly has value. But $60k? I'm guessing it does not get anywhere close to that.

Totally true and I do think $60k guitars are kind of obscene, but people would pay that for a mint 52 Telecaster without blinking, regardless of its historical value. And there's hundreds of them, and they were mass produced, vs this hand made unique instrument.

This beautiful Bigsby Double Eight string is also listed on Reverb for $60k. I ran right to my Bigsby book and it’s featured as it should be. It’s a beaut! I also went to Todd’s website just to see what a new one would cost. Todd made me a beautiful lefty 10 String similar to plank on the bottom of page 61 in the book. Anyway I’m lefty so I won’t be buying this legendary piece of steel guitar history.....well, that and the $60k.

Hard to tell which one he's playing here ...

https://www.jazz-on-film.com/spadecoole ... ml#archive

Andy Volk wrote:Hard to tell which one he's playing here ...

https://www.jazz-on-film.com/spadecoole ... ml#archive

Looks like a bakelite Rickenbacher to me. I think he idolized Sol and I definitely can hear the influence though Joaquin's approach is more staccato.

Andy, the guitar is on display at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, AZ.

This gave me goosebumps.



Back to Joaquino. In the "Take Me Back To Tulsa" clip, I first thought he was playing a Pearloid Dickerson or a National.

This interview with Kenneth Rainey provides great insight into the mind of a master:
https://kennethrainey.com/2016/08/earl-joaquin-murphey/

I have just now figured out the magic of the high B string on the bottom of his C6 tuning.

I sent that photo to the museum when they asked me a few months ago, but didn't know if they had the steel yet.
So nice of Deke to let them display the instrument.
I hope to get to Phoenix in the next couple of months to see the museum and the steel.

If anyone doesn't have the Bigsby book, it's pretty amazing, one of my favorite guitar books.

It's amazing that working on his own he was able to make as many instruments as he did. They are so beautiful. Speaking the obvious here.

I don't think the one for sale is JMs first...the head stock looks different. I think there was a second one made followed by the famous console. So I'd wonder how much playing the second one actually got before the console arrived.

Heck I'd love to own something that was played by one of my favorite players, but in the end it's just going to sound bad if I'm playing it.

Mark Roeder wrote:I don't think the one for sale is JMs first...the head stock looks different. I think there was a second one made followed by the famous console. So I'd wonder how much playing the second one actually got before the console arrived.

Fredrick I think is right.
I think the D-6 was first and later had two tuners added strangely looking at the top of the key head to make it a D-8
I do think the one for sale is the first one built as a D-8, but I'm no expert so may indeed be wrong. Thats what I got from the book.
Often well intentioned books and articles are wrong.