“A Down Tension Bar Providing VST | Variable String Tension”
Back in 2007 I invested in a Gibson ES-335 without a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece factory installed. The guitar was a good deal and at the time and I didn’t think I would really need or want a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece. Well, it turns out I did want a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece the more I played. I began speaking with guitar technicians and the suggestion of putting the Bigsby B3 on instead of the Bigsby B7, to prevent drilling extra holes in the body of the guitar, came up often. I installed a Bigsby B3 vibrato tailpiece. After I installed the Bigsby B3 vibrato tailpiece and began to playing the guitar, the strings would slip off the bridge because there wasn’t enough down tension between the bridge and the vibrato tailpiece. So, I began to think about how I could prevent the strings from slipping off the guitar bridge. I came up with a number of ideas to remedy the issue of strings slipping off the guitar bridge by making use of the existing studs mounted in the guitar. Settling on the design you see at this website, it ended up providing more than one benefit to installing the Towner USA down tension bar.
The Towner USA down tension bar mounts in place of of the stop tailpiece on existing studs.
The Towner USA down tension bar provides V.S.T. [Variable String Tension] controlling the break angle between the bridge and vibrato tailpiece with the adjustment of each stud to the desired height.
The Towner USA down tension bar alleviates the guitar owner from drilling holes in the body of the guitar, when installing a Bigsby B3, Bigsby B11, Bigsby B30 or Bigsby B60 vibrato tailpiece.
