hi,

I have a new yamaha sa503tvl, with bigsby vibrato.

The problem is that guitar goes out of tune whether or not i use bigsby. Slight bending or a bit more agressive playing, and 3rd string goes half step higher, 5th lower etc...

Is there any way that this can be fixed?
Would locking tuners of some sort help?

I would throw bigsby away and put some fixed tailpiece, if there's no help with this, since it is imposible for me to tune the guitar every 5 mins on gigs...

Your strings are proberly getting stuck in the nut. Try some graphite or Bends nut sauce to help the string slide through when use the Bigsby.

You may want to tighten the screws on the tuner buttons too so that they hold in tune better.
Don't over tighten them though, or they'll be too stiff to move and you risk stripping the thread/breaking the screw

[Edited on 17/10/2007 by Telefreak]

hi, thanks for help, but it doesn't help...

I tightened tuners srews first when I noticed the problem..
Lubricating string and nut contact points, and also the bigsby roler didn't help too much..
MAybe the entire setup is bad, but it plays nicely and the action is excellent.

Any other ideas / experiences w bigsby?

I am aware that certain amount of de-tuning must occur when using vibrato, but it must hold tune when I'm not touching the bigsby neither bending heavily, which is not the case.

thanks

Are they the strings the guitar came with?
Most guitars leave the factory with the most rubbish 9 guage strings imaginable.
Could be the problem

alright bro im new here and im an aspiring guitar tech. ive had this problem on a epiphone wildkat, same problem too. i bought a graph tech lubricating nut thinking the strings were sticking, nope, i even had to file and adjust the nut being as it was a les paul one, mix up w/ gt i guess. i also spent 100 dollars on a bidge with graphite saddles. it didnt fit either. but i did notice after setting up guitar my self that the stock bridge would wiggle back and forth and would stick forward even with the weight of my hand just palm muting. so i recommend a bridge that has lockin allens set into it. i hope it helps or im not too late bigsbys are great if they stay in tune.