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Converting a Gibson Tennessean to a Country Gentleman questions..


olsm75

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Seems like a fairly simple procedure, pull the stop tailpiece and fixed bridge, plug the holes and add a bigsby and floating bridge and your done. I've always felt an archtop guitar sounded better with a floating bridge but does it really make a difference or would it be better to keep the fixed bridge? Now I'm have second thoughts on the entire project. What do you folks think?

 

This is the guitar as it exists now.

 

tennessean.jpg

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Leave it as is. If you have a fixed bridge, there is probably a sustain block in there. That top isn't gonna do a lot for you with a floating bridge. It's designed the way it's designed for a reason. Enjoy the kick ass guitar you have. If you want to add a trem, find one that fits on the current bridge posts with no mods.

 

 

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Leave it as is. If you have a fixed bridge, there is probably a sustain block in there. That top isn't gonna do a lot for you with a floating bridge. It's designed the way it's designed for a reason. Enjoy the kick ass guitar you have. If you want to add a trem, find one that fits on the current bridge posts with no mods.



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This is one option I've considered, no alteration needed.

 

Gold.ProII.jpg

 

And this is what the Gibson Country Gentleman looks like. It's identical to the Tennessean only it come stock with a bigsby and a floating bridge so it should work fine on the Tennessean as well. (But I'm leaning on just leaving the guitar stock, and probably will.)

 

Gibsoncountrygentlemen.jpg

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Leave it as is. If you have a fixed bridge, there is probably a sustain block in there. That top isn't gonna do a lot for you with a floating bridge. It's designed the way it's designed for a reason. Enjoy the kick ass guitar you have. If you want to add a trem, find one that fits on the current bridge posts with no mods.



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B

 

That's a very good point. Floating bridge isn't going to do much for you.

 

Another option if you want a Bigsby - You could go the route I did with my 335 - Put on a Bigsby and buy one of these (http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Gibson-1960-1964-ES-345-355-Custom-Made-Plaque-/180620138132?pt=Guitar&hash=item2a0dcc9694#ht_500wt_1121) to cover the tailpiece holes. Mind you I found a guy on Ebay who sells copies of that plaque for $15 (he pops up every now and again and if you're interested, I'll look in my bid history and see if I can find his name for you - PM me if you want it). I may be wrong and they may have a way to do it now (though I doubt it) but in order to put a Bigsby B7 on there (which I think looks far better than the B5 on a guitar like that) you can't use the Vibramate (the way of attaching a Bigsby without drilling holes). Then again, if you're considering doing major work on the guitar, you may not mind drilling the 2 holes in the top for the traditional install.

 

Here's how it looks:

335withbigsby.jpg

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Sell it and buy the one you want. You could add the vibramate/bigsby combo and even add the floating bridge (it will cover the bridge studs anyway) just for the look but the full hollow sound is the trademark of the Country Gentleman.

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