Hipshot question?

Has anyone here installed a hipshot b-bender on a tele with a top loading bridge (fender squire). Any problems? I am looking to put together an inexpensive bender guitar and was wondering how this would work. Thanks!!

Should be no problem at all. If you don't have the little teflon tube, you can get it at a bike shop. It's the same as the liner for a bike's brake cable. You may have to slightly enlarge that string hole, but no big deal. Personally, I prefer a top-loader, as the string tension and the break angle are more the same on all the strings.

I found the Hipshot installation easier on a Top Loader Tele.

Thanks for the replys. That really helped me out. This site is soo cool.

So the hipshot will work on any bridge? 3 saddle? 6 saddle? top-loader? String throo?

Would it work with a 6 saddle?

yes. you may want to 'notch' the back of the bridge (or drill a hole) but I think just about any bridge would work. I use a wilkinson on mine it has string through and top loader holes so it is easy... but you could make a notch in 5 minutes with a good file or dremel.

kp8, some people (including me) think the simple ashtray 3-saddle bridge with notched saddles works best for the Hipshot bender.

For this opinion and some more posts about Hipshots and other benders, looky here:
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/b-bender-forum/107266-hipshot-string-pull.html

Greetings -
Luther

kp8, your good to go with a 6 saddle. I've done it with good results.

i want a hipshot so bad it hurts. ;) ... saving my pennies. Good to know i am okay with pretty much any bridge.

i want a hipshot so bad it hurts. ;)

just wait til you slip and land on the bar....

ha... (ouch)

so here is a question: Can you just buy the basic B-bendah and then add the other crapola you want later (Drop-D, G-palm)... or do you gotta get the whole shabang all at once? I see some dudes selling the bender only on fleabay.


Additionally: who sell the standard 3-saddle bridge that is both toploader and string through? Seems like the hippo works okay just with the 3-saddle and the toploada holes.... I guess Wilkinson and WarMouth sells them, but is there a fenner one? I don't have a drill press.

bwang~

yes. you can buy a basic b and add later. I LOVE the wilkinson one. they are terrific. 35.00!

to see if the cross rod is supported. Some of the older benders weren't. I had one of the first ones out and later added a G palm lever only to find out that when I'd use the B bender, the G string would go flat.

The reason was that the cross rod they were attached to would flex. What I wound up doing was making a block which I wedged under the cross rod which prevented it from moving.

Later on I bought another HipShot with a B and G bender and I noticed that they'd started adding a screw which went in from the backside of the bender plate right into the rod which prevented the flexing. A great idea which works very well. So just make sure you've stabilized the rod before adding a G bender if it's not already done..........JH in Va.

Yes, you can buy the most basic model, and add other parts later. No problemo.

most of the Wilkinson bridges i see on Evil-Bay are quite reasonable; have seen them as cheap as 9.99 plus shipping, and that includes their version of compensated saddles...the ones i have snagged have all been top loader and string thru both...

and J. Hayes is right about making sure the bar is stabilized....if all is installed properly the Hipshot is a great unit....

Also, you don't always need to notch out the back of the bridge; it depends on the neck angle as well. I've found on some guitars that a simple shim will kick things up high enough to pass over the back of the bridge without any notch.

Also, you don't always need to notch out the back of the bridge; it depends on the neck angle as well. I've found on some guitars that a simple shim will kick things up high enough to pass over the back of the bridge without any notch.

That's good to know... since i am pretty much set on trying a Hipshot. I do have a Wilkinson bridge on the way in anticipation of the Hippo hi-jinx.

Thanks to everyone on this thread, and the other one for filling me in on the wild and wacky world o' string bending.

-kp---

oh man... then you are gonna want a cool old vibrolux... and a huge collection of warford and white records!

oh man... then you are gonna want a cool old vibrolux... and a huge collection of warford and white records!

yeah i am really excited. I scored a used wilkinson, i have some steel saddles with the groove in them (a la '69 thinline) which should be perfect for the bendah ... and now a hipshot on the way.

Now, i gotta start searching for some bender licks...

oh yeah~

I was in the process of installing the Hipshot on every Tele I have. The model I was buying was the B and G with D-drop. At one point I sort of stopped because I was experiencing this sort of pitch drop that our friend J.Hayes mentions ( G drops when you trigger B, and vice versa )and was questioning the move. . Though you can hide it as you play, it sometimes shows. ( I was even wondering if Will Ray uses the B bender only model for that reason. )
I do have a Fender with a Parson-Green and I installed a basic Hipshot on the G, so I'm not in a hurry. But as time passed I found the Hipshot easier to trigger than the PG and therefore more pleasant to play. The Nashville Tele with PG is also heavier.
I was about to shim the neck to settle the problem, as some people suggest, but was afraid to change the sustain of my guitars.
So I'm thankful to Mr. Hayes for his suggestion. I didn't try it yet, but it really makes sense. I had a bit of a feeling about that but couldn't believe the rod could move or bend. So I didn't make any attempt to support it mostly because I believed what I had read about that with shimming and adding tension. But this seems to me a more logical cause for the problem, specially if Hipshot started to put a supporting screw...
The funny thing is that I bought my benders last year, mostly from Hipshot and there doesn't seem to be any stabilizing screws on the rods.
I'm anxious to try that for sure. It would be really fantastic, considering how easy it is to install.