bigsby b bender?

i dont know anything about b benders so forgive me if this is a dumb question but can you put a b bender on a tele with a bigsby??

yep, but it is tricky and rather costly...you would have to buy the Bigsby Palm Pedal levers along with the Bigsby trem tailpiece, if they (palm pedal levers) are still available without buying the complete palm pedal unit; remove the pins in the "string" bar on the Bigsby, slide it out from the Bigsby mount, drill and tap the palm lever, put a set screw to hold it onto the string bar, slide it all back together, replace the little string pins, and you're all set...

as i said, you have to have the Bigsby trem and the Bigsby Palm Pedals both, so you're talking a pretty good chunk of money (app. $300-350 or more), plus, if you don't have the stuff to "drill and tap" the Palm Lever, there is the expense of getting someone to do that for you....i did it one time, but never again...

there are easier ways to get a B bend and tremolo going on than using a Bigsby...just my opinion....good luck...

let me clarify/change my above response...when i said drill and tap the palm lever, i meant to drill and tap holes in the string bar on both sides of the palm lever and put set screws in the holes, leaving them protruding up slightly to keep the palm lever from drifting around from side to side....if the palm lever was mounted solidly to the bar it would just become another "handle" for the Bigsby.....it was late, and i'm old

if you add the levers onto an existing Bigsby frame it's not in the right place. Bigsby Palm Pedals don't work well on Teles because the bending levers are just too long. Dan Balde was making a unit with levers which bent out of the way but a friend of mine had one of those and it was too flimsy and kept having to be re-tightened. A BPP would have to be moved as far back on the guitar as possible, maybe even hanging over the end a bit, and then the levers shortened somewhat to work well. Even then you'd probably loose the ability to mute strings with the heel of your hand at the bridge. Back in the seventies I installed a Bigsby Palm Pedal on a Telecaster for Nokie Edwards of the Ventures. On the B and G levers I had to shorten them and then stagger the heights so he could slip a bit of his hand under the B lever to activate the G lever. It worked OK but there's really not enough body behind the bridge of a Tele or Strat for it to work properly. I'd just take the Bigsby off and install a HipShot, P/W, or P/G and get another guitar to make the bender out of..........JH in Va.

if you add the levers onto an existing Bigsby frame it's not in the right place. Bigsby Palm Pedals don't work well on Teles because the bending levers are just too long. Dan Balde was making a unit with levers which bent out of the way but a friend of mine had one of those and it was too flimsy and kept having to be re-tightened. A BPP would have to be moved as far back on the guitar as possible, maybe even hanging over the end a bit, and then the levers shortened somewhat to work well. Even then you'd probably loose the ability to mute strings with the heel of your hand at the bridge. Back in the seventies I installed a Bigsby Palm Pedal on a Telecaster for Nokie Edwards of the Ventures. On the B and G levers I had to shorten them and then stagger the heights so he could slip a bit of his hand under the B lever to activate the G lever. It worked OK but there's really not enough body behind the bridge of a Tele or Strat for it to work properly. I'd just take the Bigsby off and install a HipShot, P/W, or P/G and get another guitar to make the bender out of..........JH in Va.

as J. said, it can be done, and i've done it, but it really is not the way to go...time consuming, expensive, somewhat clumsy...and i agree 100% on cutting the pedals shorter for a tele install....i have done this on 335 style and LP guitars and the length of the levers is not an issue for those guitars...if you want to go the bender/tremolo route, a tele is not the most do-it-yourself friendly guitar to do it on....just my opinion from my experience in the past...good luck

I tried the BPP, and found it to be a pita. I much prefer the Hipshot. I swivel the lever up at about a 45 degree angle, up under my wrist, and I play it with my wrist. It's not over the bridge at all, so I can still palm-block with no problem.

I tried the BPP, and found it to be a pita. I much prefer the Hipshot. I swivel the lever up at about a 45 degree angle, up under my wrist, and I play it with my wrist. It's not over the bridge at all, so I can still palm-block with no problem.

the Hipshot B bender is designed for the "lever" to hang down toward the back of the guitar, and is activated by just a very slight "push out" on the neck with the lever hitting solidly against your hip...from what you are describing it sounds like the lever is sticking up over the top of the guitar...???....not at all being sarcastic, but i have never seen one used in this manner....

some first-time Hipshot users complain they feel they have to "dance the hoola" to use the bender and drop it in favor of the more expensive internal benders, but it is not necessary at all to "dance to bend" with a Hipshot...

my apologies if i misunderstood what you are describing.....

No, I should have explained it better! I was comparing the BPP to the somewhat similar action of the Hipshot G-bender. I was referring more to this:
"Dan Balde was making a unit with levers which bent out of the way"
which is what the Hipshot G-bender does. The BPP just got in the way too much! I guess I just thought everyone would understand, seeing as the Hipshot B-bender isn't remotely like a BPP.

Just a thought here. Although I don't have a tele with a Bigsby, I do have two Gretsches with them. In each there is ample room to install a parsons white bender, thus removing the b or g string from the Bigsby tail/roller apparatus and redirecting it to the b-bender should work perfectly. Of course you would lose all tremelo action on this string, but it might work well. This wouldn't work with a hipshot, which is what I use on one of my tele's for b-bending.

Cheers, I hope I have been helpful.

I don't like the G bender having to be moved out of the way so I cut mine off where it didn't protrude over the bridge and rounded off the ends. I then tightened the screw so it wouldn't move and just leave it straight out at all times. It doesn't get in the way for regular playing and any time I need it I don't have to move it into place, it's already there.......JH in Va.

I angle the G-bender lever up at about 45 degrees along the face of the guitar. I play it with my right wrist/forearm. It's completely out of the way for things like palm-blocking, as, at that angle, it's behind the bridge. I haven't had to move it outa the way in 25 years. But, at least you can, if you wanna!

The pic was here for about an hour. Where did it go?

I'm starting to get the jones for a bender of some kind and thinking about the Hipshot.
Some photos (or videos) would be great.
The Hipshot web site doesn't have very much info at all, and Flash player has to be loaded in order to see their graphics/video.
When I get home tonight I'll check out YouTube.

Years ago one of my guitar students showed up with his dad's early-60's Gretsch 6120 that had an odd-looking bracket attached to the Bigsby, with a string mount for the B-string that raised the string's pitch when the others were lowered with the handle. I asked what it was for, and he said that there used to be a pedal-activated rod that attached to the bracket, but his dad had misplaced it. A prototype Bigsby? A homemade setup? I don't know, but I've never seen another one!