# Octaves, Zouks, Citterns, Tenors and Electrics > Four, Five and Eight-String Electrics >  Bigsby/ Jay Roberts: How many made, any out there?

## Charlieshafer

OK, so I'm looking at a picture of Tiny Moore's Bigsby mandolin while listening to his CD with Jethro Burns, and of course need to have one, bad. The obvious problem is that there were what, 4-5 made? They're also probably as desirable as the Bigsby guitars, which are long snapped up and gone, as well as being completely unaffordable. So, next step is to lust after one of the Jay Roberts reproductions. How many of those were made, and do they ever show up?

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## mrmando

I don't know how many Roberts mandolins were made, maybe 100-200. I see 1 or 2 of them a year. Actually, I can see one every day if I want to... 

Bigsby made at least 4 electric mandolins. The original owners were Paul Buskirk, Tiny Moore, Eschol Cosby, and Al Giddings. Cosby passed away recently, and I know his Bigsby electric tenor passed through the capable hands of George Gruhn; it's likely that the mandolin did as well. Tiny's mandolin is at Skip's Music in Sacramento. I have no idea about the other two.

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## Charlieshafer

Interesting on the Roberts. I had seen the picture you'd posted of yours, and of course was jealous, envious, petty, the works. If they come up once or twice a year, that's a wait I can handle. Do you like the way yours plays, or am I attaching too much significance to the look? Heck, even if it's not perfect, it still looks too cool for the room. 

I do need to find a retro-player, though. A group-mate has just gotten a great old pedal steel, complete with old amp, so I'll need to compete with that volume and style-wise. I hate to think what we'll end up playing; probably take old Bob Wills stuff and give it a Horseflies-type treatment. We'll need to tweak it somehow; I don't want anyone to realize that we're not all that good...

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## mrmando

Keep an eye on Gruhn/Elderly/eBay; a Roberts will pop up sooner or later. Mine is a little cantankerous because of its age (I may need to have the volume pot looked at again), and the wide fretboard takes a little getting used to. But it looks and sounds cool, and has that great vintage vibe.

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## Charlieshafer

VERY helpful , thanks for all the info.

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## mrmando

I heard from Eschol Cosby's son today, and his family still has his Bigsby mandolin. It was an 8-stringer, as opposed to Tiny's (5) or Paul Buskirk's (10). IIRC Buskirk sold his Bigsby somewhere along the way; it sure would be fun to track it down.

P.S. There's a Roberts in the classifieds right now ... all the way from Israel!

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## delsbrother

Re-reading Deke Dickerson's VG article, he mentions the Roberts being UNlike the Bigsbys in just about every feature other than looks. Martin, have you ever seen an original Bigsby to compare? I'm guessing (from the article's implications) that the Roberts is a solidbody while the Bigsby was a neck-thru hollowbody?

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## Spruce

> Re-reading Deke Dickerson's VG article, he mentions the Roberts being UNlike the Bigsbys in just about every feature other than looks.


Sure seems like a good little niche market for a mando maker looking for something to do, no?
It's an easy build, too...

Here's a repro Bigsby steel I saw recently, for instance:





And some _real_ string packages from the man himself...

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## delsbrother

Hey, were you at the SD steel guitar show? If you were, we were in the same room together without knowing it.

According to Deke, all the Bigsbys were hollowbodies, with neck-thru construction (like a Mann?) so it's supposedly very light. The neck of Tiny's is part of the sides; there's no joint there.

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## Jim Garber

I have a black Roberts one I bought from Tiny in the 1980s. He was Ashokan Swing Week and was playing his Roberts and he sure sounded pretty good on it. Prob much better if he had the Bigsby with him but he did sell me on it. They are nice for 5 strings and have that sound.

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## mrmando

I've never been in the same room with a real Bigsby mandolin, but at least now we know where a couple of them are.

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## Spruce

> Hey, were you at the SD steel guitar show? If you were, we were in the same room together without knowing it.


Bummer!!
Would have loved to have met you finally...
Oh well....

More pics of the show here...

Are you going to this next weekend by chance?

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## delsbrother

Are the Roberts emandos solidbodies? How is the neck attached to the body?

Bruce, you must've gotten there pretty early, as those tables look almost empty compared to when I finally showed up. I was hoping to see a few more acoustic steels there, as well as hear either hardcore Hawaiian or Western Swing playing. Unfortunately I think I may have missed that part.

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## Charlieshafer

P.S. There's a Roberts in the classifieds right now ... all the way from Israel![/QUOTE]

Saw the one in Israel. Price doesn't bother me, but the queasiness of dealing with a foreign seller does.

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## Charlieshafer

> I have a black Roberts one I bought from Tiny in the 1980s. He was Ashokan Swing Week and was playing his Roberts and he sure sounded pretty good on it. Prob much better if he had the Bigsby with him but he did sell me on it. They are nice for 5 strings and have that sound.


Sell it quick! I know for a fact that the recent severe weather in New England is a direct result of the gravitational pull from your collection. Best to spread it out...

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## mrmando

> Price doesn't bother me, but the queasiness of dealing with a foreign seller does.


Well, I've sold instruments to people in JapanKoreaAustraliaIsraelFranceGermanyUnitedKingdo  mBelgiumCanada ... I wonder if any of them have qualms about buying from a Yank?

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## mrmando

I took my Roberts down to Portland, where I was going to sit in on mandocello with Brian Oberlin's Oregon Mandolin Orchestra. Brian plugged the Roberts in to his Polytone Megabrute and took it to town ... I dunno, we may have to let the Roberts have a change of address. 

Odd thing ... two weeks ago, I sat in on a coffeehouse gig in Astoria with Paul Lestock and played his personal Jazzbo 5-string. Then I come down to Brian's place in Portland, and what did Brian bring home from Weiser? The same Jazzbo 5-string I played in Astoria! I did not expect to see it again so soon.

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## Ben Milne

> . I wonder if any of them have qualms about buying from a Yank?


 :Grin: Of course we do Martin But where the hell else are we going to find these things? :Laughing:

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## Charlieshafer

> Well, I've sold instruments to people in JapanKoreaAustraliaIsraelFranceGermanyUnitedKingdo  mBelgiumCanada ... I wonder if any of them have qualms about buying from a Yank?


Hey Martin,

What's your preferred method of dealing with folks overseas which would protect both buyer and seller? 

Thanks,
Charlie
Fire In The Kitchen Concerts

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## mrmando

My preferred method is PayPal; I've had several successful transactions that way. I have done a couple of international wire transfers (both times the money came my direction), but there is less protection that way. (If you're nervous, you can set up a new bank account just for the wire transfer, so any other money you might have in other accounts wouldn't be exposed.) If you have concerns about a transaction, try establishing phone or Skype contact with the person beforehand. I've made a sale or two to Israel; no hitches except that Israeli customs takes a long time. You can always ask if a seller has any friends coming to the States in the near future who wouldn't mind carrying the mandolin.

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## Charlieshafer

> My preferred method is PayPal; I've had several successful transactions that way. I have done a couple of international wire transfers (both times the money came my direction), but there is less protection that way. (If you're nervous, you can set up a new bank account just for the wire transfer, so any other money you might have in other accounts wouldn't be exposed.) If you have concerns about a transaction, try establishing phone or Skype contact with the person beforehand. I've made a sale or two to Israel; no hitches except that Israeli customs takes a long time. You can always ask if a seller has any friends coming to the States in the near future who wouldn't mind carrying the mandolin.


Grazie

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## Jim Garber

> I have a black Roberts one I bought from Tiny in the 1980s. He was Ashokan Swing Week and was playing his Roberts and he sure sounded pretty good on it. Prob much better if he had the Bigsby with him but he did sell me on it. They are nice for 5 strings and have that sound.


FWIW I posted pics here: http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...emandos/page64

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## Philippe Bony

> Well, I've sold instruments to people in JapanKoreaAustraliaIsraelFranceGermanyUnitedKingdo  mBelgiumCanada ... I wonder if any of them have qualms about buying from a Yank?


You bet? :Smile:

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## Eddy Mando

How many colors did Roberts Mandolins come in? and 
were there any 8 stringers?
Eddy

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## Jim Garber

> How many colors did Roberts Mandolins come in? and 
> were there any 8 stringers?
> Eddy


When I ordered mine from Tiny, he said the std finish was the orangey/red sunburst. I think he said I could probably order whatever color I wanted and originally asked about an aqua. Tiny didn't like that and he like the black idea much better. So do  I.

I have no idea what other colors were made by Roberts. All the others I have seen besides mine have been the sunburst.

Fender AFAIK used to use the standard Dupont colors (same as that used for cars) on their guitars. As far as the Roberts mandolins, I would think that most were custom ordered anyway. I doubt there was any kind of large factory production.

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## mrmando

Bruce Lang in North Carolina has another black one.

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## Charlieshafer

Oh man, now I need another thing.

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## mrmando

Try and content yourself with the Maverick I just sold ya, at least for a few weeks...

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## Charlieshafer

Oh, all right... Actually, I'm loving the Maverick, and can't see why they discontinued them. Just by using the tone knob and a tube amp I can get that crunchy Hot Club of Cowtown-style crispiness or dial it back and do the ethereal Bill Frisell thing. How did I ever live without 5 strings? I great pick; thanks Martin!

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## Jerry Turberville

Don't ya just hate thiniking about all the fine instruments you traded, or sold!  I bought a Roberts 5 string from Tiny about 1984.  I loved the tone I could get with it on my Fender Twin.  I'd love to find another one at a decent price.  The lowest price I've seen lately is $1850.00, and then I think was about the $350.00 I paid for mine........oh that hurts.

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## Jim Garber

I paid double that -- $700 -- for my two pickup in fall of 1985 which I also bought directly from Tiny. Of course everything has gone up since then. 

I will be saying goodbye to her now as I have sold her to a good home. So it goes.

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## Jerry Turberville

Do you have a picture of it you could post?  Mine was the orange sunburst, which I was never super fond of when I had it.  I think a black one would be very nice looking.  
I'm probably wrong on the price, but I know it wasn't $700.00  I bought quite a few instruments from Tiny including a fiddle Merle gave him.  The story was he sat on it, and just gave it to Tiny.  It was repaired, and I played it on several gigs, but prefereedc my black Barcus Berry.  I eventually sold it too.   Another tale from my mispent youth!!LOL!!

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## Jim Garber

Here's mine... on its way to the left coast: crying:

I sent to off with the original sales receipt from Tiny but I am 100% sure that was the price in 1984-5.

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## Jerry Turberville

Very nice looking instrument.  I always thought it would look nice in black.  
It would be nice if we could hold on to all of our instuments, but it never seems to work out that way.
Thanks for sharing the photo
Jerry

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## rico mando

What is the scale length of these jay roberts tiny moore emandos ?

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## mrmando

Just gotta throw these photos up here, because after all this is a Roberts too, and these funky sparkly 8-strings haven't been properly documented. 

There was one other like this in the Classifieds a couple of years ago; it sold fast. That one might have been purple IIRC. 

I don't know if this is from before or after Roberts' association with Tiny.

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## Verne Andru

> 


Wow! Is that ever a mish-mash. Looks like a Fender jazzmaster body shape with a Mosrite German carve and zero fret topped with a Harmony Batwing headstock!

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## mrmando

Yes, Verne, I think you nailed it!

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## Jim Garber

Wow, Martin. Never saw one of those. So, what ever happened to Jay Roberts?

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## Jmart505

Anybody happen to know what the switch on the upper bout of the Roberts/Bigsby mandolin does? Switch on the lower bout is likely standard pickup switching, but that upper bout one? Parallel/series? Muting? 🤷🏽

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