Talk Me Out of Buying a B-Bender

Yeah, but you also have to hollow your guitar out to install it and there's no going back. My suggestion was for someone that has never played a bender to dip their toe and see how they like it.

 

+1- This!
I bought one used and while it was a nice tele, it was a novelty guitar for me. I eventually traded it for a very nice LP.

 

Ahh, I gotcha. Sorry for the mis-understanding. Personally, when I got mine, I loved them right away since I was already a huge fan of Clarence White, Marty Stuart, & Jimmy Olander (the latter has a set of Glaser B/G benders on his guitar - Glaser (like the McVay benders) are strap-activated benders but the difference is that the levers to activate them are located at the neck plate. You pull down on the guitar to activate the B string but you push the guitar away from you to bend the G.

 

Ask yourself: how big a fan of B Bender playing are you? Are you the kind of person who has to have every obscure recording of Clarence White or Bob Warford using one? When you listen to these recordings, do you think "This is for me! I NEED a bender!" If so, go for it! Life is too short not to. If not, you probably would be better off to just work with what you have until you become more proficient.

 

Don't do it! I can't remember who it was, but I recently read about a big country picker who got a B-Bender Tele and he said when he saw himself playing it on TV he immediately stopped playing the guitar. He felt he just looked goofy and the audience didn't know what the heck he was doing.

 

My teacher just bought one but he has been playing since h.s. and is a fantastic guitar player. I wouldn't know what to do with one.