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Paul Adelburt Bigsby (1899–1968) [1] [2] was an American inventor, designer, and pioneer of the solid body electric guitar. Bigsby is best known for designing the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece (also mislabeled as a tremolo arm ) and proprietor of Bigsby Electric Guitars .
Merle Robert Travis (November 29, 1917 – October 20, 1983) was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born in Rosewood, Kentucky, [1] his songs' lyrics were often about the lives and the economic exploitation of American coal miners.
Bigsby double-neck guitar (1956) The company was founded as "Bigsby Electric Guitar Company" [citation needed] by Paul Bigsby, a motorcycle repairman. Bigsby was friends with several musicians, including Merle Travis and Spade Cooley. He started repairing guitars on the side, and gained a reputation for his innovative modifications.
Bigsby was inspired to create a new vibrato system after being tasked by Merle Travis to repair the Kauffman Vibrola on his Gibson L-10. [2] The Bigsby system would debut in 1951, [2] with the first example going to Travis. [3] By the mid-1950s, Bigsby had ceased production of his own guitars and began only producing a range of vibrato ...
During the same time, Moseley apprenticed with Paul Bigsby in Downey, California, the man who made the first modern solid-body guitar for Merle Travis in 1948, and who invented the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece, which is still used today.
In 1946, Merle Travis commissioned steel guitar builder Paul Bigsby to build him a solid-body Spanish-style electric. [22] Bigsby delivered the guitar in 1948. The first mass-produced solid-body guitar was Fender Esquire and Fender Broadcaster (later to become the Fender Telecaster), first made in 1950, five years after Les Paul made his prototype.
In the late 1940s, solid-body electric guitars began to rise in popularity, yet they were still considered novelty items, with the Rickenbacker Spanish Electro guitar being the most commercially available solid-body, and Les Paul's one-off home-made "Log" and the Bigsby Travis guitar made by Paul Bigsby for Merle Travis being the most visible ...
Originally built by the Gibson Guitar Corporation, it was retrofitted in early 1951 with a custom neck and pickguard by guitar maker and innovator Paul Bigsby. In a 2003 interview Merle Haggard recalled, "When I was a teenager, Lefty got me onstage [at the Rainbow Garden in Bakersfield, California] and handed me that guitar. That is the first ...