Change of guitar.

[anniv 63]

The column gearstick lever from a 1954 Austin Cambridge might do the trick!!!
Plenty of downward waggle but a bit crunchy if pressed too hard.

Mike

[Billyboygretsch]

This seems to have wandered off the original question to how to fix a strat tremolo although very interesting

[JimN]

A Strat fitted with a Bigsby would probably be a foolproof option.........It would look really good as well.

Cliff Richard used to have one - a blonde pre-CBS fifties maple-neck hard-tail model, with a replacement scratchplate covering the bridge aperture, a Tune-O-Matic type bridge and the horseshoe-shape Bigsby converting it to a tremolo model.

This was in the days before the Vintage reissue ranges, so it probably made sense for someone to fit it.


[Edit: the word "Strat" was replaced by "tremolo" in the above]

[Stratpicker]

A Strat fitted with a Bigsby would probably be a foolproof option.........It would look really good as well.

Cliff Richard used to have one - a blonde pre-CBS fifties maple-neck hard-tail model, with a replacement scratchplate covering the bridge aperture, a Tune-O-Matic type bridge and the horseshoe-shape Bigsby converting it to a Strat model.

This was in the days before the Vintage reissue ranges, so it probably made sense for someone to fit it.

Love to see that! Anyone got a piccy?
Ian

[dave robinson]

This seems to have wandered off the original question to how to fix a strat tremolo although very interesting

I thought the original question was about why the change was made from Strat to Burns.
The answer was the tuning problems that Bruce was having, nothing to do with the trem system as Bruce didn't use it. There aren't too many facts, but a lot of myths.
HBM told me in 1973 that he was not in the least concerned when the Burns went missing and was glad to get back to the Strat. To re-inforce this I contacted the Shadows management when I discovered someone using Hank's greenburst Marvin in a club in Sunderland at that time, but they weren't bothered.

[humdrum]

This seems to have wandered off the original question to how to fix a strat tremolo although very interesting

Yes sorry about that but I had a vague feeling the swop in guitars was to do with tuning problems & assumed the problem was with Hanks guitar rather than Bruce's.

[BrianD]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that for many years we have become knowledgeable about how to set up guitars properly, who to go to if we want a professional job etc., etc.. Of course, in recent years all bands travel with experienced guitar technicians to set up their instruments for them. Back in the early sixties, when the tuning problems were the issue, I don't suspect the Shads, or any other band, for that matter, had guitar techs touring with them and probably hadn't developed the knowledge of how to resolve the problems themselves at that stage. Just my humble opinion.

[dave robinson]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that for many years we have become knowledgeable about how to set up guitars properly, who to go to if we want a professional job etc., etc.. Of course, in recent years all bands travel with experienced guitar technicians to set up their instruments for them. Back in the early sixties, when the tuning problems were the issue, I don't suspect the Shads, or any other band, for that matter, had guitar techs touring with them and probably hadn't developed the knowledge of how to resolve the problems themselves at that stage. Just my humble opinion.

That's it in a nutshell Brian.

[Didier]

Back in the early sixties, when the tuning problems were the issue, I don't suspect the Shads, or any other band, for that matter, had guitar techs touring with them and probably hadn't developed the knowledge of how to resolve the problems themselves at that stage. Just my humble opinion.

Of course, in the early sixties, no guitarist had a guitar tech to take care of their instrument !
Bruce who had well known problems for tuning his guitar ended paying John Rostill to tune it for him...

Didier

[humdrum]

A Strat fitted with a Bigsby would probably be a foolproof option.........It would look really good as well.

Cliff Richard used to have one - a blonde pre-CBS fifties maple-neck hard-tail model, with a replacement scratchplate covering the bridge aperture, a Tune-O-Matic type bridge and the horseshoe-shape Bigsby converting it to a Strat model.

This was in the days before the Vintage reissue ranges, so it probably made sense for someone to fit it.

Love to see that! Anyone got a piccy?
Ian

There are plenty of pics of Strats fitted with Bigsby on the net. Just google "Strat with Bigsby"