PART 1
Blair Powell of Pittsburgh rockabilly band HIGHWAY 13 recently brought this 1995 WASHBURN J-6S Wes Montgomery model archtop in for a mild restoration. While Blair is the upright bass player for the band, he received this guitar on a trade and wanted to put a nice player's instrument together. The previous owner did some mild customization to the guitar - the gold hardware was removed, pickups were replaced with P-94s, a Bigsby was installed, and the knobs were replaced with "8 ball" automotive valve stem covers. The guitar hasn't been strung or played in almost 10 years and was pretty beat to shit. 

The Bigsby was misaligned and the device itself was problematic (more on this later). This is what caused stress cracks on the archtop when downward pressure was applied to the tremelo arm. The bridge is completely missing.

The input jack was smashed in and caused considerable damage to the wood. I'm guessing a straight plug cable and a few beers are to blame.

At some point stock tuners were replaced and there were a few mounting issues.

The nut is broken at the high E. Again the issues with the tuners are visible here. But you just gotta love that headstock inlay!

Believe me I "get" why this was a cool idea for knobs at one time, but frankly they are just too big, cumbersome, and are no longer doing this guitar any favors. It appears one actually interfered with the Bigsby action because of the size and the way they were installed. (More on this and other practical cosmetics later).

PART 2
I started tearing the guitar down to inspect all electronics and give the whole thing a preliminary cleaning. Above, you can see the results of when the stock tailpiece was removed and they mounted the Bigsby.

During the preliminary cleaning I found a lot of dirt and debris (and corn chips?!?) inside the hollowbody, in addition to a pick and the plastic number "2" and letter "P" which I believe was a small child's attempt at communicating he wanted "to play" this fine instrument.

After some minor wiring repairs to the toggle and pots I reinstalled the pickups and started to place, fit to scale, and shape the rosewood base & roller bridge replacement. 

So up next was the Bigsby...it polished up nice and I addressed the mounting and performance issues. The more I eyeballed it something seemed bent or "off" with the actual device, not just the mount. I consulted with a mechanic buddy of mine for a second opinion to confirm I wasn't crazy, and without knowing a thing about guitars (but a lot about precision) he agreed it was imperfect. BUT they are made of aluminum, so you can't just put it in a vise and beat it til it's straight! Older USA made Bigsbys like this one were factory cast and actually finished by hand, resulting in some imperfections. A common one was the holes for the hinge pin were drilled off-center (case in point). 

The device does have some "slop" and play to it which compensates during the mounting process; I just needed to spend some time mocking it up in several positions to nail down what would work best for performance AND aesthetically for this particular (the Bigsby B7) model and guitar.

I determined a better position to mount the Bigsby where the angles of the string to bridge to device are proper, and where the device itself absorbs the pressure of the armature in use rather than the wood/body of the guitar. A nylon washer shim corrected most of the alignment issues. I incorporated the strap button into the mounting hardware to bring it more towards center (I felt it was too far "forward" to the edge for comfort). I reconnected the ground wire and filled the holes mentioned earlier.

I'm no luthier by any means, so I repaired the input jack damage the best I could with some light routing, wired up a new jack, and mounted it securely with a plate.

PART 3 
Time to get this guitar buttoned up. After some more cleaning and a coat of "COBRA Venom" guitar polish, I installed these classy knobs. They are blackened brass with mother of pearl tops. I feel they really compliment the headstock inlay and keep true to the "black and blonde" vibe this guitar wants to put out.

Blair decided he didn't want a pickguard after all. I conditioned the fretboard, strung it up, gave it a full set-up. Note the strings now align with the pickup pole pieces.

Yep, everything works now.

Yep, everything is starting to polish up nicely.

As for the crooked machine head mounts, I first aligned them all as parallel as I could, but found the tops of the tuner knobs to be too close to the headstock for comfort and ease of tuning. So I went back and decided to slightly angle each side with the flow of the curved headstock, so each end of an individual knob is equidistant from the headstock at all times during rotation. It looks best and works best, end of story!