Replacing Bigsby on Starfire III

Nuuska

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Hello

Slight veer . . .

Is (Leo) Fender to blame? After all these years folks say tremolo, when they mean vibrato. I have dim memory of ancient Fender ads where they talk about tremolo arms.
Fender also had amps with built-in tremolo - and they in turn were Vibro-Champ. Vibroverb etc - nice amps btw - I have a silverface Vibro-Champ.

Tremolo by definition changes volume.
Vibrato by definition changes pitch.

Another Fender screw-up was in Fender-Rhodes pianos - next to output jack is text "INPUT"
 

johnreardon

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I raised a question to Guild, through one of their UK dealers and this is their response:

Thanks for choosing Guild Guitars!

Unfortunately none of our Harp Tailpieces are drop in fits for our Tremolo tailpieces or vice versa. Per our Products team, switching these out would require modifying the guitar.

However, if you're still looking for a harp tailpiece with possible different dimensions/sizes you may want to check Allparts.com and Stewmac.com as they may have alternative options. We unfortunately wouldn't be able to say whether these would be a fit on the Starfire III.


As I don't want to drill more holes, I'll live with the Bigsby and hopefully never break a string at a gig
 

Nuuska

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If the harp-tailpiece holes are not located right - why not make new holes on tailpiece ? That would leave guitar intact. It is human made - can not be that hard.
 

johnreardon

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Hello

If the harp-tailpiece holes are not located right - why not make new holes on tailpiece ? That would leave guitar intact. It is human made - can not be that hard.
My new holes would probably shatter the tailpiece. Seriously I'll live with the Bigsby.
 

johnreardon

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Aleph

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I bought one of the Newark St Starfire IIIs last year. Great guitar, however, I would like to change the Bigsby to either a harp tailpiece or any other tailpiece.
Any recommendations as to where I could get a stoptail or harp tailpiece to replace the Bigsby?

I live in the UK

I have the same issue with the Newark St Starfire III. Did not buy one (yet) just because of that bigsby.

I was under the impression that a guild harp tailpiece would be a direct replacement. I remember seeing a someone on youtube doing exactly that...

found it! https://youtu.be/lCM97lH4f44
 

johnreardon

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I have the same issue with the Newark St Starfire III. Did not buy one (yet) just because of that bigsby.

I was under the impression that a guild harp tailpiece would be a direct replacement. I remember seeing a someone on youtube doing exactly that...

found it! https://youtu.be/lCM97lH4f44

Guild says no. As I posted earlier, I asked them and this was their reply:

Thanks for choosing Guild Guitars!

Unfortunately none of our Harp Tailpieces are drop in fits for our Tremolo tailpieces or vice versa. Per our Products team, switching these out would require modifying the guitar.

However, if you're still looking for a harp tailpiece with possible different dimensions/sizes you may want to check Allparts.com and Stewmac.com as they may have alternative options. We unfortunately wouldn't be able to say whether these would be a fit on the Starfire III.


Just received a Vibramate so will try fitting it in a few days
 
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