Here is a very unusual guitar – a Replica Bigsby 49 Standard, reproducing one of the very few, very first, very influential solidbody electric guitars. Paul Arthur Bigsby was a machinist with a strong interest in motorcycles and, as it turned out, guitars. He built a number of pedal steel guitars, perhaps 50 Spanish style guitars, and designed a now widely used hand vibrato tailpiece for Merle Travis. As well, he replaced the neck on Merle’s Martin, with a much slimmer neck sporting the distinctive Bigsby headstock. This neck aided the Travis style, which involves wrapping the left thumb over the low strings for bass notes.