Half-trem on my 12-string?

[SignoftheDragon]

After a thread post by member In-Sound about a 12-string trem idea, my brain has been squishing around this concept ever since-

I am thinking about installing a Bigsby trem on one of my Surfcaster 12s, but only having it active on the octaved course. The design of the 12-string bridge on these has the main six strings anchored through the body, but the doubled six anchored on the back of the bridge. I'd use those holes to guide the strings back under the rollbar and attach them on the trem.

I've seen a few surfcasters with a re-cut nut so they could be strung Ric-style, which would essentially enable the main six to be active on the trem instead, but I'm thinking to start with the standard setup.

The bottom strap button on the Surfcasters is about an inch off-center, so I don't think the trapeze-mount Bigsby will work. I prefer the look of the trapeze-mount ones, but it'll probably end up with the top-mount.



Plus side: could be very cool to mess with the resonant warble caused by detuned strings vs. in-tune strings, especially with some measure of control. It also looks sort of awesome in the mock-up. The tuning stability on these Surfys is rock-solid, so I'm hoping the stock tuners will still do the job.

Minus side: 4 holes drilled into one of my precious guitars! Also, the tuning could go horribly wrong- and re-tuning a 12-string onstage is NOT something I want to be forced into.

Just four holes... I'm thinking it'll go on the black one, although it looks very cool on the red.

Thoughts?

[charvel750]

Absolutely not. If the idea of a vibrato on a 12 string like that was so cool, it would have been done 100 times over by now. There's a reason they make 'em non tremmed. Plus, why hack up a guitar for something that won't work right in the first place?

[MetalHeadMat]

Why don't you try it on a super cheap 12 string first?

[salmonella]

Interesting idea - but how often will you use it from a sound perspective - Maybe it would be worth trying to recreate the sound on a computer using different tunings (one with trem) to see if you like it before making a mess of those nice guitars.

[vondran]

I agree with MetalHeadMat on trying first of a cheap guitar. It would be a shame if you hacked up one of those Surfcasters just to find out the idea wasn't that great.

[Alvin_Wilson]

Do it! It's only four fucking holes, man!

[SignoftheDragon]

Four small holes is hardly 'hacking up' a guitar- I figured if the experiment failed, I'd only have to remove the trem and patch the holes.