Marvin palm rest - onto a Marquee.

[dusty fretz]

Hi Bill,
As you say, the internet is a wonderful place, although the glimpses it offers of these 'mystery' Marvin prototypes are as frustratingly vague as they are intriguing and useful. That said, they do show how naff the guitars looked without the upper horn section of the scratchplate - very odd why Baldwin chose to omit such an easily installed item! I see the same line-up of seemingly unfinished instruments is employed for equally pretend performances of Jigsaw and In The Mood. Judging from Mr. Welch's playing style in the clips, maybe the hand-rest could be called 'Anti-Bruce Bars'! Who knows, maybe this component was indeed added for his benefit, rather than to suit a certain Mr. Marvin - I never actually pressed Jim on this point.

While on the subject of BW, his Marvin that you pictured in a previous posting on this thread was very much a prototype in quite a few ways, including the ridged bridge saddles, the extended black surround for the Rezo-Tube plate, the position of the two-bar rest (that description sounds quite musical, doesn't it) and the strap button sited on top of the upper horn. Presumably Bruce was happy with his early example the way it was and simply didn't bother with any subsequent developments or refinements.

[Bill Bowley]

Paul,

Did you also note that those BALDWIN Marvins ( both Bruce and Hank's) had four 'knobs' and no 'toggle' selector switch? I assume the fourth knob was a rotary selector similar to the early Bison etc.

Regards

[dusty fretz]

I did indeed notice the extra knob on both, Bill, and I know this difference has been mentioned before. Answers have yet to emerge as to what or why etc., but obviously Baldwin were still fiddling!

[David Martin]

My understanding about this contentiously named device, is that it was not fitted on the early prototype Marvins, which, every now and then, would develop a curious tuning problem going sharp without warning, then returning to pitch. After exhaustive testing, it was discovered that Hank's shirt cuff button was getting trapped in the trem plate and fitting the guard stopped it...

[dusty fretz]

I haven't heard that reason mentioned before, David, but Hank certainly did suffer mysterious intermittent tuning troubles during the Marvin's development. The cause was eventually traced to a button of his jacket becoming caught in the workings of the Rezo-Tube vibrato unit via the backplate, which originally employed a single large string access slot. Changing the latter to six separate holes remedied the problem.

[JimN]

My understanding about this contentiously named device, is that it was not fitted on the early prototype Marvins, which, every now and then, would develop a curious tuning problem going sharp without warning, then returning to pitch. After exhaustive testing, it was discovered that Hank's shirt cuff button was getting trapped in the trem plate and fitting the guard stopped it...

Not quite, David...

That problem is reported to have arisen because the rear trem access plate was originally cut with a single rectangular hole - a slot - for re-stringing and a jacket button could slip through the aperture and foul the mechanism by getting jammed between the plate and the bottom egde of one of more of the rez-o-tunes. A re-design more along the design of the Stratocaster back-plate solved that problem.

That bit's in Paul's book, isn't it?

JN

[noelford]

Why doesn't someone just ask Barry Gibson?!

[JimN]

Why doesn't someone just ask Barry Gibson?!

Ask him what?

[noelford]

Well, about what you've all been debating regarding the 'palmrest'. I would have thought he's the one person who could give the definitive answer as to it's originally intended function!

[Bill Bowley]

Noel,

When you say Barry Gibson, I agree that he could give 'an' answer, however Paul Day spent a lot of time 'grilling' Jim Burns back when Jim's memory would have been 'more recent' during the many months research for 'The Burns Book',I myself am happy to accept Paul Day as 'a' subject matter expert. A review of the drawings supplied for 'Registered Design No.917832, 'Rezo-Tube' Bridge/Vibrato Tailpiece Unit, doesn't show or mention the 'palmrest' by the way.......