I never hear any mention of 'em here. Anyone here play 'em?
I never hear any mention of 'em here. Anyone here play 'em?
i do. have one that i use sparingly on a tele. hipshot.not bad.
I want to desperately, but don't have the extra cash right now. I fell in love with the sound, mostly due to clarence white.
i dont understand the logic of a b bender. it only bends the b string? what use is that? i really want to understand this...
Gives you the action of a pedal steel guitar. Bends your 5 up to a six while chording.
Cool for other multi-bend effects.
Page used it for the guitar leads on "All of your love" extensively on ITTOD
If you want a great example of the some really out-there, non-traditional stuff a B-bender will do, check out Zoiks!, the opening track on Greg Koch's CD "The Grip". The main theme of the song uses the bender, but it doesn't appear in the clip, although he is using it to warp the "shred" part of the solo at the very end.
http://www.favorednations.com/audio/gregkoch_zoiks.mp3
He also uses it for some very Page-y "In Through the Out Door" kinda stuff elsewhere on the album. Anyone who plays a Tele or a Strat should own "The Grip".
Warning: I had trouble playing the above clip directly, so try "right click/save target as".
Last edited by Rich Stevens; 10-06-2004 at 10:13 AM.
so is the b bender like a reverse d tuna? does it move the tuning up and leave it there or is it something used like a tremelo? as in up and down pitch changing
It doesn't leave it there, it's more like a pitch changer. Probably the best known example of b-bending is Jimmy Page on "All of My Love." This is not the BEST example by any stretch of the imagination, but if you have that tune you can hear it all over the place if you know what you are listening for. The first solo in "Green Grass and High Tides" has some nice b-bendage too, IIRC.
A B-bender has some sort of mechincal linkage (often connected to the strap) that raises the pitch when you push down on the guitar. It allows you to play pedal-steel type licks on a guitar.The first such devices was developed by Gene Parson and Clarence White of the Byrds, hence it's name the Parsons/White String Bender. Some guitar manufacturers install licensed Parsons/White units, but there are other similar devices on the market as well.
lol guys im still TOTALLY confused. oh well ill go to a nice little music store and have someone explain it to me while demonstating
I guess they are kind of hard to explain. Once you play one though, you'll get the jist.
The string bender is set with a stop to raise the pitch (usually 1 whole step) So, yeah, it's like a d-tuner, but up.
It's on the b string because the b string is where the 5 note of an E shaped Barre chord. That way when you pull it up one step you get a 6 note for your chord giving a real country twang. That 6 is the relative minor so you're getting all kinds of minor scale help along the way.
Yeah..Ive played one for a few years...while you can emulate pedal steel licks on them...the intro to "Someday Soon" comes to mind... its more than that...its really another style of playing...
Aside from Clarence and the Byrds, "Peaceful Easy Feeling" by the Eagles has alot of bender on it...its probabally the most common example..."Take it Easy" has some too...the break on Linda Ronstadts "Willin'" is also a bender by Bob Warford...
My favorite is the "Easy Rider CD by the Byrds...the break for "Deportee" is a glossary of benderisms...arrpegios, harmonic bends, unison bends, melody played using the bender, etc....
Listen to Keith Urban or Brad Paisley.
I had a bender for awhile, but it made a Tele as heavy as a Les Paul.
It was the Nashville Hot Rodded American Series in 2000. I ended up selling the body and bender.
You can adjust the travel of the bender from a half step to a step and a half, so there are a lot of posibilities. I had mine set for a whole step.
If you leave the house, you're just asking for it.
So what's the deal on a G-Bender? :)Originally Posted by Wilko
G Bender must be for them that likes the ( chord tunings for steel.
Many steel guitars have two necks so they can use two tunings for different sounds. The classic "honky tonk" sound is from 6 chords, the sad whiney country stuff comes with the 9 or 11 and other tunings that are popular with steel players (I only dabble, don't know a whole lot)
The SG's from Gibson in the 70's had aa available Bigsby made with palm benders that you could fit where you wanted, "G" and "B" were sorta expected placements
Thanks for the detailed answers Wilko. Looking forward to hearing that lap steel on another track in the Jam Zone soon! :)
It's on the b string because the b string is where the 5 note of an E shaped Barre chord. That way when you pull it up one step you get a 6 note for your chord giving a real country twang. That 6 is the relative minor so you're getting all kinds of minor scale help" along the way."
Clarence White and Gene Parsons played around with which string or strings to pull...if you look at the original guitar...now owned by Marty Stuart, it's got the linkage to bend any of the top four strings...they settled on pulling the B string up one step...Marty put a separate E string bender on the guitar after he got it.....
Actually the more common changes for a B bender are the 7th to major on a D7 shape and the sus2-3rd on an A or A7 shape chord...I dont use the 5th to 6th change much at alll...
I dont know much about G benders..I assume they do a full step bend...but a 1/2 step would be useful as well...
Dual neck pedal steel guitars usually have a neck tuned to E9...the most common for country....and C6...which gives a much jazzier/swing/hawaiian sound...each with 10 strings....altho there are more tunings and copendants....ie. which pedal or knee lever moves what string in which direction...than you can shake a stick at...there is absolutely no standardization...
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