Washburn forrest lee acoustic b bender

i got mine

does anyone have anything that shows how to adjust it? the guitar came with nothing other than a allen wrench

 

that and a pamphlet that explains how a truss rod works. nothing re adjusting the bender from half to whole step or otherwise

 

There's 2 hex screws. One to adjust the pull to a whole step. The other to adjust the spring tension. If you adjust the tension screw I recommend that you shine a flash light in on the threads that you are turning. You will see that there is not many threads to loosen it and if it comes apart its a major headache.

 

Thanks guys. I am going to garage and check to see if there is a dvd in the box i missed. im still confused as to how one knows which is the step screw and which is the spring tension screw (absent just starting to turn screws and seeing what happens).
I must say in 2015 it blows my mind when companies like Washburn don't have this info on their site. Youtube support videos or the like should exist for this product. It's marketing/support 101 in 2015. The Washburn site has jacksh*t for info. http://www.washburn.com/products/acoustics/WDFLB26SCE.html

 

and considering how novel the bender concept is for 99.99% of players, detailing the exact operation and maintenance of the bender system for the customer online should have been a no-brainer.

 

Tom thank you so much for this simple info. You just saved me significant anxiety.

 

grumble grumble ok ao the dvd WAS in the box in the garage and i just missed it b4.

I still don't understand why Washburn does'nt have this video on their site.

:neutral:

SOOOOO..... I recoded the DVD and upped it to youtube for everyone. I keep expecting someone to bring Forrest a PuPu platter and a Mai Tai with that grass skirt background. FWIW if anyone at Washburn or if Forrest takes issue with my posting it just message me I'll take it down.



Muddshark

 

I emailed Forrest,he called me within minutes and I sent mine to him and now it plays like a dream! Well worth it ! It sounds great and plays great!!!

 

wish i had seen this earlier would love to have gotten one of these at that price.

 

Just a heads up: MF seems to have a couple of post holiday Returns (one of them probably the one I ordered and returned)... Not quite at the pre Christmas price. Only kept it for less than a day. I found the neck profile too slim for me, but the width was okay. The action on the bender was a little stiff, but would have worked well with some adjustments. It was a great deal, but just not right for me. May consider getting a Parsons White installed in my Larrivee Bakersfiield (great guitar with a big, thick neck),
Bend on,

 

Good tip I was thinking of doing the same myself.

 

Good idea. I was thinking of doing this myself.

 

Hey guys,
Many of these lately are not the spring, but the 10-32 tension screw is the wrong one. It's supposed to be a 2" long screw, but they used the 1" (the same length as the tuner screw).

It's not the end of the world if the screw pops off. The unit can be removed. It's difficult but I designed it to be serviceable. Replace the tension screw with a 2" long screw and it fixes part of the issue. The other part is it was powder coated. Unfortunately they powder coated inside the bell crank. And it can gum up of not lubrucated.
When I fix the issues I completely remove and sand all points, and grease the entire system with white grease. And I install the correct length screw.

Due to the process time, parts and difficulty, I charge $300 to service it. Still well below what it's worth. And considering MF and GC are dumping them because they are discontinued, cost is a $200 or more less than the store cost originally. Sonically speaking, this is all I'm using for acoustic recording. They record beautifully. Yes it's made in China, but I don't care as long as they play and sound great.
One last thing, let the video stay... they should have it online anyway.
They are discontinued. And though I've tried to get them to do another run. It's not happening any time soon. So if you have a 28 or a 26, there are only 150 of each ever made. So it's a collectable now. Get em while you can. And I will fix it if you want for $300 plus any shipping.

Remember, the tension screw is supposed to be 2" long. If it's not, you have to replace it for the correct easy tension. Once fixed, they work perfectly.
Sorry for the long reply, but lately I've been asked quite a bit. And hopefully this will answer the questions so I'm not saying it over and over on the phone.
Peace my bending brothers!

 

Do you think Washburn would consider returning the rights to you for re-marketing to another company? (I know the lawyers will laugh). But it is such a solid design it deserves to live on.

 

I happened to be browsing Reverb last week and ran across one of these acoustic benders. I had been intrigued when I first read about them a few years ago, but didn't follow up. Anyway, the guy selling this one happened to be within 50 miles of me so I arranged a meeting to check out the guitar. After 5 minutes, I bought it (thanks to my wife who gave me her bank card for the cash)!

I'm really impressed! First off, the guitar is really nice! Beautiful materials and workmanship, especially for a Chinese guitar. I cleaned it up (it wasn't bad) and put a set of D'addario .010" - .047" on it (I'm a wimp). I've never owned an acoustic with a cedar top, which definitely has a distinct, rather mellow sound, but I like it. This one plays very nicely! I like everything about it, including the frets which are smallish, as I'm not crazy about jumbo frets.

As far as the bender goes, I put a strap on it and played for a half hour or so. Definitely feels a bit different than my two G&L Asats with Evans Pull Strings, but, I was pleased that it pulled the B string "in tune", without any adjustment, and had a very firm tension, which is how I set my Pull Strings. The bender unit seems very well designed and quite stout. Had I purchased the guitar brand new, I might have been concerned about what all that bender pressure would do the top of guitar, but since it's several years old, it seems to be just fine.

I have not plugged it in to see how it sounds with the Fishman electronics and I haven't had a chance to play it too much but plan to use it at my next "acoustic" gig.

This is one heck of a guitar for the money! I think Forest did a real good job on the design and I look forward to many hours of fun acoustic bending!

 

I have one of these and while the bender can be useful and the guitar looks nice it really is a junky guitar compared to s good acoustic (Martin or similar). Sounds horrible unplugged but plugged in sounds pretty good. The bender mechanism is also way too tight. It uses a single Strat tremolo bar spring for tension.

 

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