Bernie Leadon's bender.....

[Rick Towne]

Looking at that old video of "Peaceful Easy..." and knowing how much info there is about the key early bender guitars (Clarence White's and Bob Warford's) I'm wondering that information there is available about this one. Has anyone seen/played it or know where it is? Is it a P/W or some variation? Standard Tele body size? Rout configuarion; any overlap in the rout from the neck humbucker mounting hardware depth? The pull appears very easy from the video. Anyone have/know where to find pictures?

 

[Zac]

Its an Evans pull string. They are easy to identify because of their rectangular hub behind the bridge. The Evans was the first to be entirely inside the guitar, unlike the original on Clarence's guitar, and the copy made by Bob Warford. Most Evans benders came pre-installed in a butcher block body. Leadon's is one of the few early ones thats in a normal tele body. Leadon now plays an ESP parts guitar with a parsons unit. Its black with binding. Zac

 

[Rick Towne]

Followup re Al Perkins...

Thanks Zac...I recall seeing Al Perkins playing a butcher block bender with Souther Hillman Furay and maybe with Stills and Manassas before that. I presume that was an Evans as well?

 

[BrianF]

Bernie Leadon talks about his Evans Bender...

Rick...go back to THE source for all-things-bender

we discussed this on the Clarence White forum a while back, and there's some corresondence from Bernie, that 'tonecaster' was nice enough to cross post over there...

http://www.clarencewhiteforum.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=6&t=000278

 

[Zac]

Al Perkins did used to play a Butcher Block Evans. The bodies are slightly smaller than a tele and they came without a neck. Every example I have seen has a different neck. Al had a strat neck, Albert Lee had a 70's tele neck, and the dirt band had a strings and things neck. Zac

 

[Rick Towne]

Brian, thanks for the link.....

I followed it back to Bill Bores' site for the Evans picture. Bill's doing a second P/W for me in my other ASAT Classic.
He also did a replacement of the original Glaser-installed Gotoh bridge with a proper ashtray bridge. I don't know of anyone else who does such all around creative bender work
at such reasonable prices....including one-off machining and
everything lefty.

 

[John Beland]

DAVE EVANS BENDER

I had a Dave Evans bbender installed when I first joined Swampwater (Linda Ronstadt's first band). I had heard that he was making them for players around the LA area. It was pretty cool (single body too) and I had it installed on a 67 Tele I had bought the year prior from Wallich's Music City in Hollywood.
Funny thing is..this guitar was eventually stolen but re-surfaced in Texas in 1994 when a promo guy for MCA bought it! He tried to sell it back to me for some ridiculas expensive price even though it had a new neck. I told him "enjoy it, hoss..."
But the Evans bender was there..with my name inscribed on it.
Evans made some good benders and did fine work back then. Always wondered what ever happened to him
JB
www.johnbeland.com

 

[Silverface]

We've tried to track Evans down with the group on the Clarence White Forum to no avail. That's who Clarence sent me to for a bender in '72, but I (stupidly) decided not to spend the money at the time. As I recall the Evans had a pretty long pull.

 

[Rick Towne]

Regrets, I've had a few, but then again.....

I'm also searching through Bernie Leadon.com. That video of "Peaceful" was just the right amount of subtle bender playing.....

By the way, now that I think about it, why are there apparently more prominent Glaser style players now (Olander, Mason, Paisley, et al) than Parsons? Not counting the CWF group of course......

 

[Don Miller]

That's an interesting question, Rick...

and as you have guitars with both kinds of bender, I hope Im not out of line prattleing about style, etc, but it seems the Glaser players you mentioned are all from the school of hot country guitar.......At the risk of making a sweeping generalization, its seems that PW players tend to have a more"lyrical" or "melodical"style..."Tulsa County" and "Peaceful Easy Feeling" (altho it was played on an Evans) come to mind as examples of what I mean...its not the "lightening bends in the middle of a banjo roll" stuff the Nashville guys like to do...but it is the "Nashville" style that is used in the tunes that get the airplay these days...

 

[steve hinson]

All the Glaser players named live in Nashville...where their benders were made...availability.

 

[Silverface]

I was going to make exactly the same comment as Steve - Glaser is a Nashville thing. The L.A. crowd that hung around Clarence, Warford, Ronstadt, Emmylou - the country-rock pioneers - all seem to be of the PW persuasion or close, while the "commercial country" Nashville guys are Glaser players.

Most of the Clarence/Warford fans stick with the PW/PG's with a few Glaser exceptions with Higgins making some significant new inroads.

Palm pedal players seem a bit more eclectic. Hipshot players are either guys who swear by the things or people using them as "training wheels" before they go for a PW pr Glaser. That's the crowd I think Higgins has a great chance of taking away, since it's much closer to the PW in motion and less expensive than even the Hipshot.

 

[Zac]

I think its also a generational thing. When I was learning to play guitar in the 80's, I saw Ricky Skaggs and Steve Wariner on Hee Haw and Austin City Limits. They were both playing Glaser made instruments with his benders. I got a bender because of them. The only time I saw a non-Glaser in that decade was Albert Lee's instructional video where he is using an Evans PullString. It wasn't until I started digging deaper that I found out about Clarence, Warford, and Leadon. Zac

 

[Rick Towne]

Great comments....

Thanks for this history. Growing up in Florida, I saw primarily Les Pauls, i.e. Allman guitars, along with whoever was touring. I did see the CW Bryds at Pirate's World (Palm Beach) but the stage was too far away, and the sound too muddied to see/appreciate the bender. The first one I saw and understood was Al Perkins with Manassas in 9172, then Bob Warford with Linda Ronstadt at Cal State Fullerton in 1974m after I moved to California, then Leadon with Eagles and Perkins with Souther, Hillman, etc later that year. I got my first Glaser in 1992 after hearing Jimmy Olander and because, even with such sources as Rick Turner and Fred Walecki, I couldn't find anyone anywhere to do a lefty Parsons. A Glaser was also 1/2 the price of a Parsons. After 13 years, I find I like the Glaser action/location much better, but use it much more in the Leadon style than either the 'quicker' [faster bends] Nashville or 'busier' [more bends] Clarence White styles. I may have a lefty Zion Tele w/ Parsons for sale soon.