can it be played seated?

[eddiewagner]

hi guys, today in the evening someone may come by and buy a dobro. so i would have some money to get a real b-bender telecaster. one of my main concerns: can it be played sitting on a barstool? i do that all the time, and it is a bit a drag with the hipshot. what are your experiences? thanks and wish me luck for the resonator-transaction tonight please, eddie

[BrianF]

Yes, definitely. I play mine seated most of the time. I hook my strap, 1 hole shorter when sitting down, than when I'm standing up. That's all there is to it.

[bender-freak]

what he said....all of my benders (P/G, Shelton, Hipshots) equipped guitars i have used for years sitting on a barstool with no problems at all....when i was actively playing it was a must that i sat down as both feet were working bass synth pedals and drum machine function pedals..woulda been impossible standing up....mainly used a hipshot equipped guitar, tho, and never encountered any difficulties with it.....good luck

[eddiewagner]

thanks for the advice. the dobro-deal did not happen. that can be a good thing, because that is a pretty sweet guitar. so i have to wait a little longer......

[ironweed]

Strap-activated bender on a barstool --> shorten the strap and proceed

Hipshot bender on a barstool--> re-adjust the lever so that it touches your ribs instead of your hip, and proceed

I've done both, and also without the guitar

[eddiewagner]

Originally Posted by ironweed

Hipshot bender on a barstool--> re-adjust the lever so that it touches your ribs instead of your hip, and proceed

thanks!!!! that is interesting. have to try it immediately. sometimes i am so blind!

[Tim Bowen]

I never gig seated, but when I practice at home with a P/G bender while seated, I spread the legs a bit and position the tele like I would with an acoustic banjo, which facilitates the bends. I made a shortened strap specifically for the bender, but I've misplaced it.

[ironweed]

Tim, that's why I've gone away from a nicer custom leather strap to an adjustable one on my bender -- so I can compensate for sitting, standing, jacket on or off, etc. to get the best "feel" on the guitar.

[J. Hayes]

used sitting down, I think it's probably the best one for using like that. Especially since you don't have to use a strap unless you want to.

I got my first HipShot in the early eighties when I was doing a gig in Long Beach, Ca. which required me to play both lead guitar & pedal steel. I'd been using a Gibson with a Bigsby Palm Pedal before that and I wanted to play steel and guitar and just leave the guitar strapped on and ready to play and go back and forth between the two.

I added the HipShot to my Tele and then I could just push the neck forward if I needed a bend and it worked out great. I've tried my P/W bender doing the same thing and it's just not as good for it as the neck needs to be pushed down toward the neck of the steel.

Terry Kristofferson who played for Buck Owens many years does the same thing with a guitar and steel but he uses a Steinberger "headless" guitar which takes up less room.......JH in Va.

[J Tweed]

Check this out, might be a solution for B Bender while sitting down. I am looking at page 117 of Vintage Guitar Mag Aug 08 issue. www.tremorbender.com hooks it up kind of like a tremolo on your bridge without drilling and cutting up your baby. I haven't tried it, but looks like an easy solution .

[Silverface]

"The World's Finest String Bender System"

Oh, boy. Aren't they all?

It took me 3 seconds to grasp the concept - use your pinky to pull the lever and raise the string.

So here's another one - sticking you in ONE picking position with a frozen right hand - forget hybrid picking, forget an tonal nuances while using it - it'd be just a little tough to pick near the fretboard AND keep your pinky on the lever

And with all the past discussions regarding tone and bridgeplates, here comes a huge bridgeplate made of *aluminum*! Anyone ever played a Tele with an aluminum bridgeplate? Here's a few points:

Your shielding is toast. Aluminum is a terrible shield.

Your grounding is toast. Have you EVER tried to ground an aluminum plate?

And the ever-popular Aluminum Tele bridgeplate - Hmm, how many do you see on the market? Uhhh...how about NONE? That's because they transfer a pure, clean, icepick-in-the-ears sound to the amp (at least in my experience) - they've come and gone so fast over the years I can't even recall who made them.

Now, I'll be fair and say I've never played one - but literally everything about it except the quality of the workmanship screams "bad tone and unplayable design" to me. This is another one of those things that I would not personally want to even get a review unit for...I would not want to waste my time.

[Dogbear]

Oh, boy. Aren't they all?

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