Accidental bends

[Jersey Jack]

I've had a Nashville Telecaster B-Bender for about a year now, and I've been making some good progress. But I've never really played it much while standing up; usually I practice while sitting on a chair. Now, however, I have an opportunity to play some electric in my band, so I strapped on the tele and started to strut my stuff....

But then came trouble: When I play standing up, the weight of the guitar (about 10 lbs) makes it very easy to lower the next inadvertanty, causing bends when no bends are intended. Actually, it sounds less like a bend than a significant tuning problem. But it's bad, bad, bad.

I suppose I'll just have to get used to always thinking about the neck position, but for now I find it very distracting. The control on the back of the guitar seems to extend the bend, but not to make it tighter. Is there any adjustment that can be made to make it harder to pull the neck down? I don't mind putting a little more effort into the bends if it means that I'll be better able to keep these accidental bends from happening.

Any other ideas about what to do? Does anyone have experience dealing with this problem?

[Billy B.]

I am not sure , As I have a P/W type ...but....I believe You can change/modify the spring? I have a very tight spring but it still took some getting used to .Paging Doctors Brian,Forrest and Dogbear! They will be here soon.

[maxout]

you can modify the spring but thats alot of work. i just put a zip tie on the spring to make it shorter and a little harder to pull down. stays intune standing up a lot better

[asatfan]

I had the same problem with my old Glaser, as I tend to pull down on the neck while I play anyway. Fortunately, now I have Evans Benders and they're adjustable from feather light tension to heavy duty, and everything in between. I keep mine tight, and I only "bend" when I want to. Maxout's idea seems like a good solution. As Billy B. said, you can always clip a few turns on the spring, or get a heavier spring. You'll love it once you get it under control!

[J. Hayes]

I just got a couple of smaller springs and clipped 'em right on the the mainspring and it's OK now. On the P/G bender like on your guitar you'd have to pull the whole unit out of it to work on the spring. Most hardware stores carry a bunch of springs in different sizes if you want to replace it with a heavier size.........JH in Va.

[Jersey Jack]

Thanks to all. I should say that I am supremely unhandy when it comes to working on guitars, so I'd have to bring it to a tech, I suppose. Is the kind of operation described by J. Hayes something any guitar tech could do?

[BrianF]

It's not that difficult to remove the PG bender. Just a bunch of small pickguard screws to remove around the perimeter of the plate and the whole unit drops out of the back. Once it's out you can access the spring for replacement or shortening etc