Tokai 3 String Bender

Hey folks,

Hope all is well! I came across this guitar in a local shop for £400 GBP...i've been after a b bender for a while so low and behold, i bought it right out.

Can someone give me a little info about the guitar? I.e. production totals, if they're quite rare? It had a black pickguard when i got it, but i swapped it out with a fender white one and i swapped out the crappy, sub standard, rusty 6 saddle tokai bridge with the good trusty 3 saddle 52 fender bridge i'm used to. With the old bridge, the whole saddle would move by 2mm or so when i engaged the bender, thereby messing with the intonation and tuning lol!! The old bridge also had three notches for the G B and E strings, but as i'm solely using it as a b bender, I only filed a notch for the B string in the new fender bridge. Maple neck, ash body, with almost exactly the same weight as on my 52 AV RI (i.e. light)...a lot of guitar for the money. Its a cable mechanism (working off the same strap button as a parsons bender), brass bender parts, and the good thing is its got minimal routing when compared to the parsons one.

The serial number stamped into the top of the neckplate places its date of birth sometime in 1985, with the usual dings and buckle rash expected. Be interesting to hear what you think...thanks folks! :smile:

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8602/dsc00281gg.jpg

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/3413/dsc00279w.jpg

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/1207/dsc00277pp.jpg

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/9830/dsc00278dq.jpg

This is a first for me.
Interesting guitar.

i thought after 25+ years of benders i had seen all styles and variants...WRONG..!!!! that is a very interesting set-up; of course i would have to rig it up for all three strings, LOL...

they don't call me a "freak" fer nothin'......

Looks like you found an interesting piece! Nice looking guitar! Exactly how do those benders work?

Wow very cool guitar! Congrats!

I saw a picture of Marty Stuart playing a pink paisley Tele with this bender.
It was a good while ago, maybe 20 years.
It may have been a Tokai.
Great design idea.

Maybe Keith Gatis knows something about this one. Check out his homemade black b-bender tele.

So is the bender activated using the button by the neck or at the butt? I just don't understand?!??

How the eff is that supposed to work for three strings simultaneously? Looks like the bender performs a rotary motion (pinball paddle springs to mind :-) which would mean the string next to the pivot point sees only a fraction of the displacement whereas the far string gets the full amount?

Hey folks,

Thanks for the responses! Yeah, its an interesting one this...it functions basically exactly like a parsons b bender (see photo of upper strap button below) and inside is a 3-4mm diameter cable that runs from the mechanism to upper strap button...pull down in the usual way, and engage!! Plays fantastically, a lovely smooth mechanism, and the Tokai pickups aren't bad either.

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/5023/dsc00282o.jpg

As for the 3 string mechanism, i'm completely unsure of you're supposed to have the strings through all three holes at once as yes, due to the pivot arm, each string would stretch by a different amount (with the high E string stretching the most), and who knows what sounds you would get or how you could even control them. Plus, you can't bend strings independently due to the design.

The only references I have ever found to this guitar is on Gene's own page http://stringbender.com/bender/history.php where he says:

"The first B-Bender guitars from a major manufacturer were from Tokai Gakki. Tokai made a couple hundred guitars incorporating B-Benders that Gene made in his shop. Later, under different management, Tokai tried marketing, without success, a device of their own design that bent three strings at once and was available in a paisley Tele-style.",

and in a Tokai forum http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=16079&sid=dc632b8b56f632f82f27845a2b7251da where the chap describes a similar guitar as "the rare 3 string bender".

So that's where I'm at...strange guitar all round, and I just wish I knew a little bit more about it. I figure from the responses I'm guessing it's pretty rare :shock:

from looking at that thing again, i am going to go WAY out on a limb here and say that this was designed for all "bends" to be done out of an F chord type position, which may be why there are not many examples of this design.

just guessing here......

i would still love to have that in my stable

great score/find...congrats...

Interesting about the F chord you hit on there...yeah, i can see where you're going with that! I probably should have filed the notches in the bridge for the other strings so i could at least try it, but i would never really have the intention to play it that way, hence why i only did the b string.

Yeah, so i was very happy the day that I found it...it was Jimmy Moon's shop here in Glasgow, Scotland that i got it from, and the funny thing is when i was buying it, i pointed out to Jimmy that "oh, it has holes for the other strings in the bender arm" (which corresponded to machine cut notches in the old tokai bridge) and he said he didn't even notice them until i pointed it out lol! I guess he just thought it was a variation on a tele, hence the somewhat low price.

I don't know whether some would think that I've 'ruined' the guitar by putting on the '52 bridge (i'm not a fan of modding personally), but i just had to...the 6 saddle bridge was just too 'ropey' and lacked the solidness of a 3 saddle bridge, almost to the point that I nearly decided to sell the guitar (only had it since November 2010) before i fitted the new one. The b string also sits on top of the brass barrel now (instead of in a groove) which I feel makes it 'sing' a bit better.

ya might try just using another extra bridgeplate and notching it out and "trying" the other strings. that way the priginal is intact........i wanna know if i'm correct, LOL....

very cool piece!
from the strap button picture, it looks like the throw is quite short...

lol...haha bender-freak, i'll probably end up doing that!! Be real interesting to find out though...the bender would give you a tone (or more) on the B and E strings, and i reckon a semi-tone on the G...bearing that in mind, i'm gonna trying hopping between an F and a barre at the third and see where its gets me, then try a few other concoctions up the neck...

Oh, and smithcollector, thanks for the comment! :-) Yeah the throw looks small but i'm getting a tone and a bit at the 5th fret when bent of that helps any...

I just can't imagine that one could get precise bends (relative to one another) out of all three strings, using a pivot that way! Maybe it was designed so that the player could decide which string to bend....the E, B, or G. Maybe it wasn't designed to bend all three at once??? Is there a pitch adjustment on it?

Still though, very cool guitar!!

I just can't imagine that one could get precise bends (relative to one another) out of all three strings, using a pivot that way! Maybe it was designed so that the player could decide which string to bend....the E, B, or G. Maybe it wasn't designed to bend all three at once??? Is there a pitch adjustment on it?

Still though, very cool guitar!!

the reason i'm saying it's possible it's designed to work from an "F" position is a friend of mine here in Springfield came up with a home-made rig somewhat similar to this only with a MUCH different "pivot" system that he rigged up on one of his teles. it worked....sorta....but ONLY out of an "F/E" type chord position. this was quite a few years ago and he quickly ditched the unit cause not everything can be done from that chord position...

I think it's an "either/or" thing with which you'd decide which "one" string you wanted to bend. If it was a string bender for three strings you'd have to have individual adjustments for tuning the pull on each string. There's no way you'd be able to get around that.....JMHO......JH in Va.

I guessed it would have been Jimmy Moon's shop wherein you found that. Damn - wish I'd seen it! Haven't been in there for a while. I'd have definitely bought that.

What band(s) do you play with? I'd like to see/hear that guitar. For reference, I've attached a pic of my bender Tele.

Cheers - and well done on spotting that guitar!

That is one tricked out Tele, Iain! Is that a leather cover on the body? Tell us about it, please!

Actually, it's a hand-engraved metal front, a la the Zemaitis guitars of the '70s etc.

Done a few years back by this chap: http://www.coopercustoms.co.uk/index%202.htm Spotted one of his guitars in a Sheffield guitar shop's window, when I was touring, and got his number (he didn't have a website, then).

Adds a bit of weight to the guitar - such that I had to adjust the bender's spring - but worth it, I feel, for the looks!

Cheers.

This thread is the coolest bunch of new information in a long time... both of those guitars are really really cool and interesting... what a cool looking bender!

Really! That is cool, Iain! Love that big old humbucker....bet you can get a world of sounds out of that guitar!

Resurrecting an old thread

What would really be interesting is seeing a closeup picture ofwhatnis under that metal plate on h back. The mention of the thick "cable" (which sounds more like a solid rod) and brass parts seem very similar to one I bought in he 70's, although mine had. Different hub and strap lever.

FWIW even in an F chord position bending 3 strings at once to fixed pitches would be almost impossible. String gage, action, neck relief and even temperature/humidity would affect the accuracy, and you could really only get one set precisely. It looks more like it was set up for a *choice* of bends - and the shorter pull of the G actually makes sense given the larger tring diameter.

If Ross picks up on this thread and could post picks of what's "under the "bonnet" :lol: that'd be great.

Also - The Tokai "T" type guitar was called the "Breezysound" (their LP was the "Love Rock") and both were/are considered every bit as good as the US models they copied. They're not so much "rare" as "hard to find" as they've become collector's items as well as desire "player" instruments. They're also not cheap, although prices are down now due to the economy - I hope Ross kept the old bridge and pickguard, as it (with that bender) would become quite valuable in original condition (and the bridge problem simply sounds like a missing or weak spring and could be easily fixed. I doubt it was poor quality...just poorly maintained.

But it's one of those "don't replace anything or drill any holes" type of instruments. Oddly most of the long. Time bender player/collectors missed the thread (like me!) - there would have been a lot more info requested and hopefully posted!

It's a great guitar and sounds like you got it for a way under the market price...

In 1980s I was a director of a Music Shop which stocked Tokai Guitars.
At that time they were imported by Blue Suede Music which was run by a colourful character called Eric (Dixon?). He came into the shop one day with 3 Tokai Teles (Breezysounds) a single bender, a double bender and a triple bender. I bought the single bender on a white guitar with white binding for myself, and my brother-in-law eventually bought the double bender which was sunburst. The benders were made and fitted in the UK and were called "Barnes Benders" (after the inventor of this cable system) but because of the lack of demand not a lot were produced. The only other one I ever saw was a single bender on a rosewood body guitar. I have used my Tokai for years and the only thing that breaks on them is the cable. This not too much of a problem because they are quite easy to make from a bike brake cable. Hope this helps.