What's Inside Merle Travis' Bigsby Solidbody Guitar?

[rjb]

Here's a "just wondering" question:

How do you think this guitar was wired?


I see three knobs and a 3-position switch, all for one bridge position blade pickup.
Any wisdom or conjecture appreciated.

[Earl Norton]

I can do conjecture!!! I would guess the three way switch would offer the choice of a couple of tone caps much like a gretch and the two extra knobs provided tone controls for each cap???

[Mark Hammer]

The middle position brings in the piezo bridge pickup and the rear postion is for MIDI out. One pot is volume, a second is tone, and the third is a re-assignable MIDI parameter control. That Merle was a stickler for tech.

[rjb]

The middle position brings in the piezo bridge pickup and the rear postion is for MIDI out....

Hey, I found a photo!



Don't see a MIDI out, but I'm still not sure what's going on.
Merle apparently didn't like it much; switched to the iconic Super 400 pretty quick.
Oh well, whatever.

[Jazz P Bass]

On the notations.
I can see 'rythm' & 'tone'.
Cannot read the top one.

[rjb]

I can see 'rythm' & 'tone'.
Cannot read the top one.

Here's what it says here The Bigsby Files

Within just a couple of months, Travis had the guitar altered to include a cutaway, a different headstock shape, an additional knob, and a selector switch. The guitar only had one pickup, so the three knobs and selector switch were designed to go between volume levels for lead and rhythm, or as it was noted on the interior of the guitar, "RYTHM" and "TAKE-OFF" (Paul Bigsby's spelling).

So the one you can't read is "Take-Off"!
It looks to me like the wiper of the "rythm" pot is grounded. Maybe it was a variable load on the pickup (rather than a voltage divider)?
Quite the historical curiosity.

[Mark Hammer]

This is truly fascinating info...really. The carved inside of the guitar is a thing of beauty. Inspiring. I've got a couple of hunks of nice mahogany calling my name.