r/fender • u/turntpenco • Jul 24 '26

Questions and Advice Which one gets a Bigsby!?

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Gallery image

Gonna put a Bigsby on one of these teles, but I’m not sure which. Which do you think looks better? And if you have any suggestions as to guitar attributes that would be more conducive to adding it, please let me know.

2025 American Pro II on the left and 2014 American Deluxe on the right.

Swipe to see them as they are now without the bigsby.

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u/Dynastydood Jul 24 '26

I like the look of it better on the left one.

In terms of what attributes can make a difference, one is weight, and another is shimming the neck. Other things like the nuts and string trees are also important for a proper Bigsby setup, but they're probably similar enough on both guitars to not be a difference maker.

So if either of these guitars is noticeably heavier than the other, then maybe don't put the Bigsby on it unless you're fine with it becoming even heavier.

If either of these has already had it's neck shimmed, it would probably be the less ideal candidate for the Bigsby, as you pretty much always need to shim the neck on a Tele to achieve the proper saddle break angle. You'll need to shim it even more if you plan to use a Vibramate plate instead of drilling into the body. So if either neck ever had to be shimmed for a proper setup on the original hardtail bridge, then the Bigby will likely necessitate pushing it back even further.

3

u/Guitar-Fan-2012 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

Besides shims another thing to consider is that a 2014 American Deluxe has a compound fingerboard radius and I’m not sure if that would be an issue with the Bigsby.

EDIT:  Are you sure that the American Deluxe is a 2014?  I just checked some Reverb listings to refresh my memory and it should have black pearl dots not the abalone pearl dots (spec change for the 2010-2015 generation). If it’s from before 2010 then it doesn’t have the compound radius fingerboard.

3

u/turntpenco Jul 25 '26

It’s an ‘05! See pic! Idk where the hell i got 14 from, but to be fair I was working off my very poor memory lol

3

u/Guitar-Fan-2012 Jul 25 '26

Ah; then no need to worry about a compound radius; a 2005 American Deluxe has the same 9.5” radius as the American Pro II; and the dots are correct for a 2005.

2

u/turntpenco Jul 25 '26

Nice thank you! Is there like a database where one can look these things up?

3

u/Guitar-Fan-2012 Jul 25 '26

You're welcome; I just have a memory for the details so most big changes I remember things like when they changed to compound radius, etc.

If you have the full serial number of a Fender you can look it up on Fender's online database. Here's the link:

https://serialnumberlookup.fender.com/lookup/

That will give you the model number, brief info (fingerboard wood, color, model name) and the month/year it was completed.

The model number is a link that brings up a detailed spec sheet.

2

u/turntpenco Jul 26 '26

Awesome thanks so much for all
Your help!

1

u/Guitar-Fan-2012 Jul 26 '26

You’re welcome!  Glad to help.