Quadruple Bender/Bending setup??? B-Bender, G-Bender, E-bender/lever, etc.

[Screenery]

Newbie here. I just got into telecasters several months ago, but I now have two teles that I now think are keepers:
1) '52 Fender Reissue Tele, factory standard. No benders on it.
2) '80s Fender Japan solid Rosewood tele, with three pickups (the only pup I like is the bridge though...I should replace the others). One of the most beautiful teles I've seen, but not as beautiful in sound. Has a Glaser B-Bender.

I'd like to install quadruple or quintuple bender system on both or just one of them. What setup would you recommend for the E, A, G, B, and E strings? I was thinking the following for each:

For my '52 reissue tele that has nothing on it currently:
E: Hipshot "extender" toggle, for dropping to D
A: Hipshot toggle, for dropping to G
D: NOTHING
G: McVay or Glaser or Parsons/White Double String Bender (G & B strings)
B: McVay or Glaser or Parsons/White Double String Bender (G & B strings)
E: Hipshot Palm Lever, for raising the E

For my rosewood tele with the Glaser B-Bender on it:
E: Hipshot "extender" toggle, for dropping to D
A: Hipshot toggle, for dropping to G
D: NOTHING
G: Hipshot Palm Lever, for raising the G to A
B: Glaser B-Bender (already there)
E: Hipshot standard bender, for raising the E
(would adding a McVay, Glaser, or PW bender work for the G or E string here? I'd think that I'd need to uninstall the Glaser B-Bender in order to install any of those...)

What scares me about adding Hipshot stuff to the rosewood tele is that there are filled holes in places that appear to be where Hipshot toggles/levers were previously....and I don't know why the seller removed them...I'll ask them immediately after posting this.

Pictures of the rosewood tele are here, showing the Glaser bender:
http://www.carillonsmusic.com/images/IMG_4831.jpg
http://www.carillonsmusic.com/images/IMG_4833.jpg
http://www.carillonsmusic.com/images/IMG_4835.jpg
http://www.carillonsmusic.com/images/IMG_4837.jpg
http://www.carillonsmusic.com/images/IMG_4838.jpg
http://www.carillonsmusic.com/images/IMG_4841.jpg

[getbent]

I'll bet bender freak or jhayes will have a definitive answer... I kinda wonder if they didn't have a bigsby on before. I have a hipshot and I don't have any of those holes on my guitar.

That is a bunch of benders you are considering! I'd love to hear it when you do it! Have you considered playing pedal steel? the only guitar I've heard about with so many benders was maybe the contraption that Phil Baugh had with the cables. (I think benderfreak has one)

Make sure to let us know what you end up doing! Your rosewood tele looks cool!

[gumbo]

...and the one (72CustomRI) I'm building that has six levers, but that's another story...
...for another post, when it gets finished..

..from what I know about how I'm attaching a multi-lever Bigsby PP, I'd say there's a distinct chance that's what those holes are from...

...and my reason, GB, for not playing pedal steel..is the other five guys and 900 instruments already on the not-large-enough stage... plus I have this thing about standing up to play.. :-)

[J. Hayes]

I like what you're wanting to do with your guitar(s) and there are a lot of possibilities there. As far as the lowers, I personally prefer the Keith/Scruggs banjo type tuning pegs that extend to the rear of the guitar. They come in pairs and can be bought from the Stewart/McDonald catalog for around $78 for a pair plus shipping which aint' much.... The reason I like these is because they're easy to use during a tune and can be used just like a pedal.......Example: If you're in the key of A for instance doing a boogie or blues shuffle type riff on the low strings. When it's time to go to the IV chord (D) you can grab the tuner and lower it to the root of that chord and keep on groovin'. The flip levers are OK but not as smooth and you have to move your right hand to use them. The banjo tuners can be used very smooth.

As far as the high E. I had a bender at one point on that string but found I used it very little. I have a tuner on it now to lower it to D which I use a bunch. However, if you have a lever or some other pulling mechanism to raise it you can still add one of the banjo tuners to lower it also. I have one guitar which is equipped with six of the banjo type tuners, each one lowers a string a whole tone except for the 3rd string which is lowered a half tone to F# to be used in open D.

You might like to Google "Boomer Castleman" who invented the Bigsby Palm Pedal. Ol' Boom's got a setup on his Tele with six levers and he uses 'em all. He's got it down to a science with different fingers, knuckles, and whatever to activate one or several levers at a time.

At one point about 30 years ago or so, I installed a Bigsby Palm Pedal with raise levers on the first four strings for Nokie Edwards of the Ventures which worked very well. The last time I saw him on a TV appearance he was using a guitar with only levers on the B and G. I guess he didn't find much use for the high E raise either. Remember anything you could play with the high E string raise can be gotten 5 frets up on the B string with a little different fingering.

Good luck with whatever you do with your guitars and keep us posted, with pictures if you can...........JH in Va.

[jmiles]

I use a Hipshot with G and B benders, toggles that lower the Es to Ds, and another toggle that lowers the A string to G. Works extremely well. I can use the toggle levers as "pedals" also with no restrictions as to where my left hand is on the fretboard. I have a Higgin's Peg Bender for the first string, but haven't installed it yet.

[J. Hayes]

A Higgins Peg Bender for the 1st string? I'll have to give that some thought, I might have to try that out myself sometime in the future.......JH in Va.

[Screenery]

Originally Posted by jmiles

I use a Hipshot with G and B benders, toggles that lower the Es to Ds, and another toggle that lowers the A string to G. Works extremely well. I can use the toggle levers as "pedals" also with no restrictions as to where my left hand is on the fretboard. I have a Higgin's Peg Bender for the first string, but haven't installed it yet.

jmiles, that sounds really interesting. Do you have a picture you could share with us?

Maybe I am confused, but if I'm reading your description right, you have:
E: toggle drop to D
A: toggle drop to G
D: NOTHING
G: Hipshot
B: (P/W or P/G? Or can you have two Hipshot benders functioning separately on one guitar? You said "Hipshot with G and B benders".)
E: Higgin's Peg Bender (eventually)

Thanks everyone for the responses and welcomes.

[jmiles]

The B bender is the Hipshot "hip lever." The G bender is the Hipshot "palm pedal." It's all mounted on a Dano Guitarlin. A silver-fleck Longhorn model with 31 frets. I posted a pic of it a couple of weeks ago, and the pic only lasted a couple of hours. So,,,, I guess I'm not doin' it right.
/Users/johnbill/Desktop/IM000897.JPG
IM000897.jpg

Maybe someone can inform this computer illiterate how it's done on this forum??? I have no trouble loading pics on the Steel Guitar Forum!

[bender-freak]

Originally Posted by getbent

I'll bet bender freak or jhayes will have a definitive answer... I kinda wonder if they didn't have a bigsby on before. I have a hipshot and I don't have any of those holes on my guitar.

That is a bunch of benders you are considering! I'd love to hear it when you do it! Have you considered playing pedal steel? the only guitar I've heard about with so many benders was maybe the contraption that Phil Baugh had with the cables. (I think benderfreak has one)

Make sure to let us know what you end up doing! Your rosewood tele looks cool!

most of you know i've been sorta trying to re-invent the wheel for quite some time trying to come up with 6 benders on one of my teles.....i've pretty much put the idea in the crapper, tho....making the unit itself is easy...making it to where it is not gonna make the guitar butt-heavy is another story....getbent, i've only got part of the set-up like Phil Baugh had; i never could find a machinist around here that was a player and i gave up trying to explain to them what i wanted the end result to be....ever try explainin' multi-benders to a non-player..???

i have a MacKenzie (sp??) pedal system with a half step drop on the small E and full step raise on B and G strings...got it from a fellow TDPRI member from Scotland...works great, but since i did a one-man band type thing when i was still able to gig and used both my feet to play my bass/drum/rhythym machine, a pedal/cable/floor mount system just didn't work for me....

really, my most useable multi-bender rig is a Parson Greene equipped Nashville style amer. stnd. Tele i got when they first hit the market (in 1997????) that i added a Hipshot to approx. 10 years ago and ended up with a D-tuner, an A string bender, G string bender, and B string bender, plus it is Synth ready....it did take some getting used to at first, but now after 10 years i use it all pretty much on auto-pilot.....

for a guitar mounted system, for MY applications, B,G, and A benders are really all i need....

i don't do much of anything with any of it any more; arthritis has really kicked my hands and wrists out of the game....i still enjoy playing for myself at home and the infrequent jam session, and trying different "mods" with benders....but it would take a miracle for me to get the dexterity back needed to play out again....

to the O.P.....have fun with it all.....cheers...P.S....i agree with getbent; i think your rosewood tele had a Bigsby on it from the look of the filled holes....nice lookin' tele...

[eddiewagner]

this is all too much for this boy here in germany. i have enough of a challenge going on to fake some steelguitarish stuff with a hipshot in open e tuning. now i heaar that guys are doing six string benders. verrückte welt!