The Bigsby B5 Vibrato appears on many BBE-era ASAT (Special) and ASAT Deluxe guitars. Most often, these guitars will be Semi-Hollow too. Only a single guitar in my possession has this unique, retro looking vibrato, namely the ASAT Semi-Hollow w/Bigsby from 1998. When factory mounted, as seen here but also in particular on the ASAT Deluxe model, a recess is carved out to ensure proper string angles of the Tune-o-matic bridge. However, more contemporary G&L guitars have their B5 flush mount with the top. The post-2018 G&L Custom Shop has also produced a couple of “odd” examples where a B5 Vibrato is combined with a Gotoh Telecaster bridge for Bigsby with 2 ‘In -Tune’ compensated brass saddles where the center of the back lip is lowered for the strings to pass through, Known examples are S/N CS1809002 from 2018 and CS201011 from 2020. The B5 vibrato is subtle; do not expect any dive bombing. Due to its travel, it is very vintage sounding and there is nothing like it.

In January 2019, ownership of Bigsby moved from Fred Gretsch Enterprises to Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC).