fender b-benders are hard 2 find

[dirtyolbanjoman]

ok, im in the market for a tele. i was sure i wanted a 52avri. i asked about it here and was ready to buy one. then while poking around on the fender website i looked at the b-bender tele and clicked the button to hear it. and i instantly fell in love with it.and one thing led to another on other sites and it turns out i was looking for country twang in the wrong places.
so i went about trying to find a new b-bender in black.
i looked in all the usual place and more on top of that.
no one has one. even the people on evilbay selling them dont have them in stock, i kept hearing they were discontinued so i called fender and was told they are not.
i was told by one place thay could order one but it would take 40 days or longer.
whats the deal with these guitars. such sweet tone and yet they are impossible to get a hold of.
does anyone know where i can find a new one or slightly used one?

[getbent]

I'd buy a tele that you like and then send it to Brian Friend and have him put a PW in it.

The PW's are really cool and while the PG's are great... I think if you want to go that route... you'll be happier with either Brian's, Bill Bores or going the Joe Glaser route...

the PG's come up on ebay, and here in the classifieds periodically and they are really good guitars... just a thought.

[bender-freak]

i have a P/G bender-tele that i bought way back (96?) when they were first released and love it, have since added a G and A string bender to it...have quite a few other teles/LP's with Hipshot B/G benders on them that i actually prefer over the internal benders for several reasons, not the least of which is a fourth or less of the cost of an internal bender and they can be put on other teles in just a few minutes with no mods or butchery to your 'baby"...been using them for years....anyway, if you are just looking to get into "bending" a Hipshot might be a consideration; less than $150 new, self install in minutes, no waiting, weeks, months or longer for one of the internal installs to be done and paying for the install and shipping/insurance both ways...and waiting and waiting and waiting..good luck on your choice and welcome to bender country...check out Will Ray of the Hellecasters for some hellacious bending technique.....that's a Hipshot he uses and Hipshot is his weapon of choice...

[dirtyolbanjoman]

i looked at the hipshot hellebender. i just wasnt sure if it functioned as well as the internal one.
i did a search and it looks like most of you guys really like them.
i guess i could just get a blonde baja and put a hipshot on it.
has anyone had success with having one on a baja or a 52avri

[getbent]

oh yeah. Bender Freak knows his stuff. I use a hipshot on my main tele and it works like a champ.

[bender-freak]

Originally Posted by getbent

oh yeah. Bender Freak knows his stuff. I use a hipshot on my main tele and it works like a champ.

comin' from you, that's a glowing endorsement....i know nothing that wasn't shown to me by someone else sometime else....always glad to pass it on, that's what we do....to the original poster, try the Hipshot, should work just fine on ANY three saddle bridge set-up...only thing that may be needed is a notch for the B string to be filed in the back of the saddle..myself, i use a dual load bridge and just run the string thru the other top-loader hole...this is assuming your guitar is a string thru as all mine are...good luck and we'll help here any way we can...good luck...

[Tele The Truth]

The hipshot is a capable bender for sure. That being said.....the nashville b-benders are really a tremendous value when you consider what you are getting. I'd do a hipshot for now and keep waiting on the fender.

[BrianF]

keeping in mind that the motion or action required to activate a Hipshot bender is nothing even close to the natural action of a strap-actuated B Bender...

[dirtyolbanjoman]

i think i may have found a new 07 b-bender tele in sunburst. i will have to see if i can get the price down though. they are asking about 150 more than the usual price.

[jazzbender]

Originally Posted by BrianF

keeping in mind that the motion or action required to activate a Hipshot bender is nothing even close to the natural action of a strap-actuated B Bender...

Exception made for hula dancers?

[BrianF]

Originally Posted by jazzbender

Exception made for hula dancers?

You got me there! the HulaSHot

[bendecaster]

Hipshots and P/W's or P/G's are different, but it's all what your used to. I prefer the strap button/strap acuated (P/W) style, but they all do the same thing. Check a few out, and see. You may like the Hipshot. It definately is less expensive, and a snap to install compared to a P/W. Hope you find one that does it for you!

[J. Hayes]

that said, I also am a pedal steeler and enjoy playing slide guitar with some pedal moves. I find it next to impossible to play slide and use a bender with a P/W or P/G which I have both. It's very simple to do it with a HipShot or Bigsby Palm Pedal and if you play slide it'll increase your slide vocabulary a bunch! The fact of having to push down on the neck of the guitar takes away the use of the slide as I like to have my thumb resting on the back of the neck when I do it and a HipShot is no problem to activate it. I've used HipShots since they first came out and over the years have developed a habit of using my hip and moving the neck forward at the same time so you can't hardly notice the movement.........All that said, I have a gig tonight and I'm taking my P/W Tele and my P/G Tele (tuned down a step) as my main guitar(s).....But in case I want to do some slide, I'm taking an Epiphone Les Paul with a Bigsby Palm Pedal along............JH in Va.

[bendecaster]

JH, Ever so true about the slide playing, as I've attempted it with my P/W's & Glaser, and I hear you loud and clear! I have a Hipshot sitting on my guitar parts shelf, and now I've got to get another Tele to put it into to try that. I'm sure it works, listen to our own "helleman" on his recorded stuff! Dude, you just kicked my Tele-GAS back into gear! And I was doing so well there for a couple of months!

[Flat357]

Do you guys actually use the bender much ?

I can imagine at first it would be like having a new toy , but at the same time , I guess it could be easy to over use it .

Never used one , and can't say i've ever noticed one in a shop either .

I presume there are different types too .

[bender-freak]

Originally Posted by Flat357

Do you guys actually use the bender much ?

I can imagine at first it would be like having a new toy , but at the same time , I guess it could be easy to over use it .

Never used one , and can't say i've ever noticed one in a shop either .

I presume there are different types too .

depends on the type of gig i did...if there was a steel player in the band then no, i didn't use a bender a lot ....same with MIDI; if there was keyboard, fiddle, sax, etc in the band MIDI guitar wasn't needed...when i went two-piece some years back then benders and MIDI became used a lot in my gigs..sitting at the table just noodling around with one of my bender rigs, yep, gets used a bunch...same at jams...no steel, my bender goes with me...as far as types of benders...P/G, P/W, Glaser, Shelton, Bigsby palm pedals, Dusenberg, Hutto, Hipshot, Tremo-bender...am sure there are others, but these are the ones i have used and still have except for P/W, Glaser, Dusenberg....Hipshot is hands down my favorite...never found it needed to dance around and perform gymnastics to use one...like J.H. said, just a small movement of the hip and a slight push out on the neck....at the end of the day, it just depends on what you get used to using...i can't really say one is better than the other...but preference is a different thing....good luck to the O.P.

[dirtyolbanjoman]

i still havent found a b-bender tele yet. but im a little concerned about the bodies of these guitars being poplar.
in my experience i have learned poplar is a lower quality wood.
are my concerns valid? im guessing fender is using poplar to cut down on the weight and cost but does it hurt the tone?
thanks for all the help you guys have given me so far.

[Flat357]

Most of your tone comes from your amp , effects , pickups , strings , hardware , routing and pot settings . Also pick or fingers v attack etc .
Only a little of it comes from the wood on a solid body guitar .

Build a solid mahogany guitar with total tele parts and it will sound Tele like .
Build the same guitar with total Gibson parts and it will sound Gibson like .
Someone will quote scale length , but again , it's not a major factor .

Most of the tone from the wood is lost / interfered with by the time it comes out of the amp . Even fretboards .

Accoustically , it may have more of a bearing .

That's my opinion , and others may vary .

[Erikr]

Originally Posted by dirtyolbanjoman

i still havent found a b-bender tele yet. but im a little concerned about the bodies of these guitars being poplar.
in my experience i have learned poplar is a lower quality wood.
are my concerns valid? im guessing fender is using poplar to cut down on the weight and cost but does it hurt the tone?
thanks for all the help you guys have given me so far.

i have a tele with this bender system and with a poplar body. it's one of the best telecasters i have ever tried. will never sell it! think i have tried about 30 or 40 different tele's. even old one's.. this plays very well..all though i've tried 7 or 8 other nashville tele's that don't sound the same. i dont know why. all i know is this one is one of the first ever made of that series. the bender system is modified and much better than it was when it came from the factory/dealer..

i wouldn't worry about the wood. it's your fingers,pedals,amps,strings etc that make the sound....

[mysteryrain]

Check This on evilbay
http://cgi.ebay.it/Fender-American-S...QQcmdZViewItem

[mysteryrain]

by the way, I just got a callaham bridge and a pair of criogenic Fralins and my B-Bender Nashville is waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy much better!!! and I was quite happy with the original set up... I've been playing for hours today.. :-)

[dirtyolbanjoman]

Originally Posted by mysteryrain

Check This on evilbay
http://cgi.ebay.it/Fender-American-S...QQcmdZViewItem

i contacted this person last week and he said the guitar is not instock right now. i love it when people sell things they dont have
thanks for the help just the same though.

[Tele The Truth]

Originally Posted by dirtyolbanjoman

i contacted this person last week and he said the guitar is not instock right now. i love it when people sell things they dont have
thanks for the help just the same though.

I tried to find one a few weeks ago and went through the same song and dance. I eventually stumbled across another tele that I wanted and bought it and abandoned the search for a sunburst b bender.

[toadman]

hey Dirtyolbanjoman~ i just pm'd you

[dirtyolbanjoman]

ok, i found a b-bender today at samash.com they had 1 instock and it was sunburst. and it was 20 bucks cheaper than anywhere else. so hopefully by friday i will bending. i cant believe i forgot to check there.
i will post a picture when it arrives.
thanks for all the help everyone

[hotraman]

I've yet to see a hipshot B bender anywhere here in Portland, Or.
Even at the local GC, where there are tons of Fenders.
Maybe they have become "special order only"

[Don Miller]

One of the amusing little things about stringbenders is how few folks know about 'em...

For a while I attended a jam which included alot of the pro-semi pro-experienced non-pros in town...some actively giging, some "retired"....and when I hit that first Asus2-3 bender move the first time....most of em went "huh"?...once we did a version of "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother"....which had alot of stringbender all over it....one guy stood in front of me...watching...afterwards he came up to me and very quietly said "I think I get it now..."

When you got one let 'em figure it out too.

[helle_man]

I actually have a black Hipshot on a guitar somewhere. I'm pretty sure they still can make them in black. Personally, I think the chrome ones look better on most guitars. Also, the black ones have problems with the black paint flaking off.

I believe you're driving yourself crazy about what woods to have on a guitar body. It doesn't matter much to me. It's how the whole guitar sounds. Some of my favorite sounding guitars are old Danelectros with Masonite tops and backs.

[dirtyolbanjoman]

you know helle man i think your right. i had a silver spray painted squire strat in the early nineties i loved and it was poplar.

[dirtyolbanjoman]

man this new b-bender is sweet.... i have no complaints whatsoever .

[jazzbender]

Congratulations- looks just like the one I bought last September. You are gonna love playing that thing!

[Dogbear]

As of three days ago, Sam Ash in Sarasota, Florida had a new sunburst Nashville Bender on the wall. Don't know if they will ship. (941-351-7793)
I don't think that there are many of these left.

[BrianF]

Check out these aftermarket modded Fender B Benders...nice pix!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=160206951138