B-Blender on my road worn telecaster

[Yellow Telecaster]

i just got a b-blender , the stock bigsby front roller and brass saddle sounded amazing with the b blender, but there was too much friction on the b string and it would snap after a day or two of practice with it.

I didn't want to use the plastic replacement roller that comes with the b blender since it changed the nice tone of my guitar way too much. The b blender functioned great with the delrin / plastic roller but my guitar sounded like it was cheaper.


So I ordered a callaham roller since it's stronger than a stock bigsby roller. The stock bigsby roller was getting all scratched up from the b string moving with the bender.

and then I changed the first bridge saddle to a graphtech tusq saddle.

Now it sounds great and the b bender functions very well. The tusq saddle seems to have no friction. I just played it this morning at church service and I had a lot of fun with the guitar. So fun to play.

 

[brookdalebill]

Howdy and welcome!
I’ve been curious about the B-Blender for awhile, for my Gretsch Chet.
Guess I’ll place the order!

 

[FrankJames]

Welcome to TDPRI !!

 

[Yellow Telecaster]

Howdy and welcome!
I’ve been curious about the B-Blender for awhile, for my Gretsch Chet.
Guess I’ll place the order!

Nice! Yeah that is probably the ideal situation for a b-blender, a guitar where you can skip the bigsby front roller. I will probably build a telecaster with a roller bridge and bigsby B16 to skip the front roller on the next guitar. Even just a normal bigsby stays in better tune without a front roller. I had a b5 minus the roller on my rickenbacker 620 and it never went out of tune no matter how much I used the vibrato.

 

[unixfish]

Interesting solution.

Welcome!

 

[tfarny]

Wow I have never seen any kind of bender in combo with a Bigsby - they both work independently and everything comes back to pitch? Cool!

 

[Yellow Telecaster]

Wow I have never seen any kind of bender in combo with a Bigsby - they both work independently and everything comes back to pitch? Cool!

yeah! I stumbled upon the website a couple months ago and just got one a few weeks ago. Ive been trying out different combinations of things to get the tone to its best while the b blender is working well. Set up the way b blender tells you too it will function flawlessly.

https://b-blender.com

Ive been tweaking the parts with upgraded Callaham aftermarket Bigsby parts. It works well and sounds nice right now the way its set up in those photos. Im keeping an eye to see if the b blender is 100% compatible with the Callaham main string shaft upgrade (where the strings are threaded thru the Bigsby shaft). The b blender worked great with the stock Bigsby string shaft, but the stock Bigsby string shaft with the pins that hold strings is a pain during re stringing. I'm hoping nothing comes loose on me, so far so good!

I might raise up the Bigsby with a metal plate to lesson some downward pressure between the saddles and roller but it works well enough right now. People came up to me after the church surface and said my guitar sounded better than normal. I was able to use pedal steel sounds on one of the songs today, the bender worked out well . non musicians liked the sound and I don't think they knew why I sounded different today.

id recommend the b blender highly!

If you're a tone snob like me you might need some tweaks, or a guitar that doesn't need a front roller on the Bigsby avoids tweaks you might want to do for optimal guitar tone. a roller bridge on a tele with a Bigsby b16 would be the easiest way to just jump in and not tweak anything im pretty sure. I use a Bigsby on my Rickenbacker 620 with the strings going above the front roller, so I might put the b blender on there, have 5 strings go above the roller but have the b string run under the plastic roller that b blender sends. Im pretty sure this set up will work well.

 

[Stringbanger]

Welcome to the fold!

SB

 

[robt57]

Hmm... interesting.

The only thing I have seen for a bigsby is, well this: This one is loose someplace in my shop...

Palm Pedal I think these are called....

 

[SparkleFart]

I put one on my American Special and also my MIM Thinline. They're pretty fun.

Here's a (fairly) recent thread http://www.tdpri.com/threads/b-blender-success.753238/#post-7775719

And welcome!

 

[Strat Jacket]

Interesting...and welcome to the club!