Hello from New Member - And a few questions

Hey everyone. I've recently installed a Hipshot on my '76 tele and thought I would join in here to sponge up as much knowledge as I could.
I've spent enough time practicing faux steel licks without a bender to be passable at that, but using the HipShot b and g-palm seem to be awkward for me. Im mostly playing original stuff so its real easy for me to gravitate back to something that works without a bender. Any advice where to find practice licks or vids that are "essential" for b-benders?

Also, i've noticed that activating the bender by pulling the neck over seems to put the string tension a little out of tune (duh! Im pulling on the neck!). Is this my technique, or something I should consider typical and learn to compensate for, or do I need to tighten the neck screws, or ??

Thanks!
Taterboy

If you go to YouTube and search you will find some dedicated B Bender tutorials. Forrest Lee Jr. has a B-Bender tutorial DVD, and you must find Doug Seven at Sizzling Guitar Licks. He has a "B Bender Extreme DVD that is very good. I picked up licks from Vince Gill, Steve Wariner, Matt Rae, and some other people you will find here...see if you can find some clips you like on YouTube and see if that person has an instructional video.

..Also, i've noticed that activating the bender by pulling the neck over seems to put the string tension a little out of tune (duh! Im pulling on the neck!). Is this my technique, or something I should consider typical and learn to compensate for, or do I need to tighten the neck screws, or ??

With Hipshot, you need to move your hip in sync with the neck move to make it smooth. When you reach the stop, don't push any harder. If you push beyond the stop, you'll push the guitar out of tune. It's technique, not typical but easy to get over, once you practice with that in mind.

"you need to move your hip in sync with the neck"

Raybob, I don't find that to be the case at all. A simple push outward on the neck, engages the Hipshot lever. No moving of my hip is required at all. Perhaps you might wanna try some different positioning of the lever?

Thanks Gents
The advice to not try to keep pushing on the bender after it hits the stop kind of hit home for me....

A good idea is to tune the bender in a way it sounds good with another strings when bended - not with a tuner to tune B to go exactly C# "meterwise"

In practice this means tuning it a bit flat bended since other strings tend to get a bit flat when bender is engaged.

Hey everyone. I've recently installed a Hipshot on my '76 tele and thought I would join in here to sponge up as much knowledge as I could.
I've spent enough time practicing faux steel licks without a bender to be passable at that, but using the HipShot b and g-palm seem to be awkward for me. Im mostly playing original stuff so its real easy for me to gravitate back to something that works without a bender. Any advice where to find practice licks or vids that are "essential" for b-benders?

Also, i've noticed that activating the bender by pulling the neck over seems to put the string tension a little out of tune (duh! Im pulling on the neck!). Is this my technique, or something I should consider typical and learn to compensate for, or do I need to tighten the neck screws, or ??

Thanks!
Taterboy

If you have problems with the neck shifting in it's body pocket,try an old trick that found when disassembling my Danelectro in 1960.Danos laid a piece of metal window screen on the floor of the neck pocket.This will imbed in to both the neck and the pocket and really grips!

Window screen! Neat trick....

Window screen. I worked for Gibson back in the late 70s here in Nashville. In addition to the Les Paul, we also made Marauders and S1's which had bolt on necks. There was a lot of variance in the neck pockets so we put in window screen to keep the necks from moving around.

Any advice where to find practice licks or vids that are "essential" for b-benders?

FWIW there is no single answer to that question, as B-bender players do not all play the same style.

You do mention trying to cop steel licks but that doesn't necessarily mean that's your style (it's a normal first step when you don't know the resources).

Clarence White started the whole thing with the idea of being able to play behind-the-nut type bends up the neck, and although articles (and ads for the Parsons-White bender) mentioned "faux steel" neither he nor Bob Warford, the other real "original" guy (with the second bender and playing in the early 70's) ever really tried to imitate steel guitar very much.

Initially (in the '68 recordings) Clarence did a bit of "steel-ish" licks, but quickly discarded trying to (or wanting to) imitate pedal steel.

So there's a whole "school" of bender players that come from that "base" that play B-bender as another instrument entirely - not as a Tele with a bender tacked on (generally called "effects" players) and avoiding faux steel as much as possible.

Then there are the players (and it seems more Nashville-based, with a lot of Glaser players gravitating this direction) that primarily try to work faux-steel into their playing with single and double benders.

A third "group" would be the Will Ray type players who don't really fit either category - they're closer to the White/Warford "school" of independent style, but don't play like either of them (or other west coast influnced guys like Bernie Leadon, Al Perkins, Richard Bowden etc.).

So to find learning material first depends on pinning down a style - then finding the resources. I don't keep track of the steel-oriented players and teachers much, but the White/Warford type players (and tons of free lesson material) can be found on the Clarence White Forum.

BTW - you're local to me, so feel free to email me for more bender info, help, maybe some face-time.