Joaquin Murphey Single-8 reverse Bigsby

Landon Jarrel · From: Space

Hi everybody,

After looking at the photo of Joaquin Murphey playing a single neck pedal Bigsby with the Western Caravan in the early 50s, I found all the info I could on the guitar. It appears that it was a single-neck eight string with four pedals but with the headstock reversed.

Apparently Paul Bigsby built it as a one-off for Joaquin to try, but Joaquin did not like it and returned it to Bigsby after one gig...

What are the whereabouts of this guitar? An older post said that it still exists.

I am intrigued by this guitar due to the peculiar headstock design and the fact that Joaquin said he didn't like it... why didn't he?

Thanks!

Chance Wilson · From: California, USA

It was made into a standard S8 for another player.

Michael Johnstone · From: Sylmar,Ca. USA

Murph told me he only played it on one gig for one night in Pismo Beach,CA. He said besides the pedals,it had a locking tuning change mechanism operated with a hand lever. He flipped it once and it broke a string. He thought the mechanism was poorly engineered, returned it to Paul Bigsby and never saw the guitar again. The one picture that exists of him playing it was taken that night by Bobby Black's father. I got the snapshot from Bobby and used it in the artwork for the CD I recorded on Joaquin entitled "Murph" in the late 90s. That photo has popped up here and there on the internet and in at least one book since then (The Paul Bigsby book).

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