Anyone who has used a guitar equipped with a Bigsby tremolo arm knows the frustration of changing strings using the pins native to the system. First, you must use strings with standard ball ends since the hole in the conventional end is what slides over the pin on the Bigsby. Some strings use different styles of ball end, notably Fender Bullets, named for the solid ball end that’s perfectly suited for Fender’s through-the-body stringing with ferrules.
Even with the proper ball end, changing strings is an exercise in frustration, since maintaining enough tension to keep the ball end on the pin makes the rest of your stringing manipulations difficult, such as cutting a string to length, threading the tuner and tightening the string.
Vibramate® String Spoiler™
Since this ingenious device from Vibramate does nothing to harm a set of guitar strings, I’ll presume it takes its name from its resemblance to a sports car spoiler. It’s a stainless steel add-on that’s completely reversible and requires no modification to your guitar or to the Bigsby trem itself.
The String Spoiler matches the curve of the Bigsby roller, around which strings are normally threaded. Two rectangular openings on the Spoiler allow the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th string pins to pass through, with pins 1 and 6 situated outside the Spoiler. You need to compress the trem arm to properly position or remove the Spoiler. It might take a moment to establish the orientation of the device. Check against the photos here and it will quickly make sense.
The Vibramate String Spoiler sits loose without strings but won’t fall out of position unless you depress the tremolo arm. Now you have slots through which the ball ends pass, and while you’ll still need to maintain tension on the string as you thread the tuners, it’s a much easier proposition than keeping the ball ends over the pins. The String Spoiler also accepts Fender Bullets and other non-standard ball ends.
Available in three finishes somewhere around the $50 price point, the String Spoiler pays for itself quickly if you put a price on the frustration you no longer have changing strings on a Bigsby trem. Hunt one down today. You won’t regret it.
However, day-to-day it’s going to be sitting still in the tableside rack. And it’s there that silly little things that I should have anticipated rise glowingly to make this an amazing upgrade to not only sound quality, but also workflow. When you work alone, you don’t realize the roadblocks that a stereo interface throws up, because you’re generally spitting out only mono and stereo performances at any given time.
Shadow Factory 