# Octaves, Zouks, Citterns, Tenors and Electrics > Four, Five and Eight-String Electrics >  1951 Bigsby 10-String Mandolin

## Larry S Sherman

The Fretboard Journal just posted info about a 10-String Bigsby mandolin "_made in 1951 for a radio DJ named Johnny Muessig._"

For auction here. I have NFI, and also don't have $20,000 for the opening bid.





Larry

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## jefflester

Was just going to post this. Imagine my surprise when I was reading the L.A. Times at lunch and came across a photo of a Bigsby emando, and a 10-string no less!

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## mandocrucian

ugly ugly ugly

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## stevedenver

au contraire mon capitan
what a piece of solid body hsitory

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## Charlieshafer

This is mandolin heaven. Don't care if you're an acoustic or electric player. From an historic standpoint, this is way rarer than an f-5 Loar. This is the official bomb.

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## davidb1

This mando was discussed in September 2013 when it first surfaced.
http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...igsby-Mandolin

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## mrmando

Well, there was just one bidder after all that excitement. The mandolin is listed as "sold" on Heritage's site, for a price of $25K, which includes the buyer's premium. But there's also a "Make offer to owner" button, which might indicate that there was a reserve price and that the mandolin is still up for grabs: http://entertainment.ha.com/c/item.z...02&lotNo=46124

By contrast, an original Bigsby guitar in the same auction is listed as selling for $266,500, again including the buyer's premium: http://entertainment.ha.com/c/item.z...61&lotNo=54305

The owner of the mandolin would have done a lot better consigning it to Gruhn, methinks.

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## Charlieshafer

Agreed. Let it mellow at a place like Gruhn's, and you get the guy who needs to mull over a purchase to bite eventually. That, and you get the guy who will go home, come up with a bunch of stuff to trade with Gruhn and get the purchase price down a little. Though, I do find it strange, from a collector's point of view, how you'll spend a quick 25k on any one of a number of reasonably available acoustic mandos by builders who are still building, yet pass on one where there are only five known, especially with the Bigsby name.

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David Lewis

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## Scott Tichenor

Played it recently, and yes, I took this picture. Bigsby was onto something with that pickup. This thing sounds great.

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David Lewis, 

David Rambo, 

doc holiday, 

F-2 Dave, 

George R. Lane, 

Larry S Sherman, 

mrmando, 

Rob Zamites, 

SincereCorgi, 

Ted Eschliman

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## mrmando

Sweet! Glad it's getting played.

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## Spruce

> Bigsby was onto something with that pickup.


Is _anyone_ making copies of Bigsby pups these days?
Maybe T. K. Smith?

If you could get your paws on some pickups, that thing would be pretty easy to replicate...

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## Mike Anderson

> Is _anyone_ making copies of Bigsby pups these days?
> Maybe T. K. Smith?
> 
> If you could get your paws on some pickups, that thing would be pretty easy to replicate...


Not maybe, absolutely: http://shop.tksmith.net/collections/...guitar-service

Hell, he could probably build you a replica from the ground up that was indistinguishable from the original if that's what you wanted.

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Spruce

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## Pete Martin

Todd Kleinsmith maybe?  He bought a lot of Bigsbys old stuff, mostly steel guitar oriented.  I thought he might be building some pickups.  Do you know him Spruce?  He lives in southern Oregon and comes to Weiser and Stevenson.  good straight steel player.

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Spruce

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## Mike Anderson

> Todd Kleinsmith maybe?  He bought a lot of Bigsbys old stuff, mostly steel guitar oriented.  I thought he might be building some pickups.  Do you know him Spruce?  He lives in southern Oregon and comes to Weiser and Stevenson.  good straight steel player.


Todd Clinesmith (pardon the spelling correction) would also be a good go-to guy, in fact I'm pretty sure he ended up with Bigsby's pup winder, the one seen in the Bigsby book, along with his jigs, dies, patterns etc.

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## David Lewis

what a gorgeous work of art. Sorry I can't add anything more: but it is gorgeous.

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## Jim Garber

So, is Todd Clinesmith and T.K. Smith the same person? The latter's site has some beautiful Bigsby style guitars.

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## mrmando

The question, I guess, would be whether you can get 5-pole pickups (rather than 6).

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## Jacob

"So, is Todd Clinesmith and T.K. Smith the same person?"

Todd Clinesmith Instruments is in Glide, OR.

TK Smith® Custom Guitars, Pickups, Pickguards, Necks and Guitar Accessories is in the Mojave Desert near Joshua Tree, CA.

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## danb

I can confirm that is quite a cool instrument. The "plugged in" sound is really something else

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## kmmando

any videos or soundclips of it in action, Dan?

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## djweiss

No, Todd Cline smith and T.K. Smith are not the same person...

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## Pete Martin

> Todd Clinesmith (pardon the spelling correction) would also be a good go-to guy, in fact I'm pretty sure he ended up with Bigsby's pup winder, the one seen in the Bigsby book, along with his jigs, dies, patterns etc.


Sorry 'bout that (said Maxwell Smart).

I think you're correct Mike, Todd told me he had that stuff.  He might only be doing stuff for steel players, but it wouldn't hurt to ask about a mando pickup.

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## Jim Garber

> "So, is Todd Clinesmith and T.K. Smith the same person?"
> 
> Todd Clinesmith Instruments is in Glide, OR.
> 
> TK Smith® Custom Guitars, Pickups, Pickguards, Necks and Guitar Accessories is in the Mojave Desert near Joshua Tree, CA.





> No, Todd Cline smith and T.K. Smith are not the same person...


I didn't think so but among the misspellings etc. -- some confusion, esp on my part. At one point I had some email conversations about my Roberts Tiny Moore mandolin and Todd was very gracious to refer me to a friend of his who did purchase it from me.

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## Mike Anderson

I think you guys will love this thread at tdpri:

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home...oubleneck.html

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Verne Andru

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## Charlieshafer

> I think you guys will love this thread at tdpri:
> 
> http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home...oubleneck.html



Way cool, thanks Mike!

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## mrmando

Well, if you think that's cool, check this out: 
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/msg/4784473825.html

Not the same one discussed in the TDPRI thread (that one had only 2 pickups on the guitar side). Evidently this Fred Stuart personage is one potential source of 5-pole Bigsby pickups.

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## Mike Anderson

> Well, if you think that's cool, check this out: 
> http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/msg/4784473825.html
> 
> Not the same one discussed in the TDPRI thread (that one had only 2 pickups on the guitar side). Evidently this Fred Stuart personage is one potential source of 5-pole Bigsby pickups.


 :Disbelief:  :Disbelief:  :Disbelief:  :Disbelief:  :Disbelief: 

Faaaan-tastic!  :Cool:

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## Spruce

> Well, if you think that's cool, check this out: 
> http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/msg/4784473825.html
> 
> Not the same one discussed in the TDPRI thread (that one had only 2 pickups on the guitar side). Evidently this Fred Stuart personage is one potential source of 5-pole Bigsby pickups.


Wow...
What was that, like 10-12K out the door originally??

Gotta be a market for good Tiny copies...
...and relatively easy to make.

I think those Fred Stuart pups are pushing 350-400 bucks or so, no?

...and didn't someone buy the Bigsby name??

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## mrmando

What about a joint venture, Bruce? If I bought you a dozen of those pickups...

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## mrmando

I had Joel Eckhaus' "Bigsboyd" prototype for a few months; the previous owner had put some Seymour Duncans on it. (Forget what the originals were, but they weren't Bigsby-types.)

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## Spruce

> What about a joint venture, Bruce? If I bought you a dozen of those pickups...


I'm not the woodworking guy for that project, Martin...
(That build would be a _snap_ for a CNC'd up shop, and I'm not...)

But I'd sure get involved with making them look old...   :Wink: 
The antiqueing on those would be a blast...
And one could also offer to put the owner's name on the pickguard instead of Tiny's--just like PB did...

Would be nice to get _detailed_ drawings of that instrument, and I'm pretty sure that is doable...

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## mrmando

Well, Larry Wexer still has that '53 5-string, methinks.

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## delsbrother

> I'm not the woodworking guy for that project, Martin...
> (That build would be a _snap_ for a CNC'd up shop, and I'm not...)


But neither was Bigsby! :0

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