B-Benders - Missing History of the Evans Pullstring - ASK ZAC 15

Well hey guys and welcome to another Ask
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Zac today we are going to go on a
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bender well sorry for the bad pun but
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yes we're gonna talk about b benders
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today I love b benders first time I saw
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a b bender or learned about a b bender
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was watching an Albert Lee Star Lux
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video and he had a fill kabuki telly
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with a Dave Evans pull string on it and
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I was hooked and from there I bought
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Ricky Skaggs live from London album and
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on the cover he had this incredible
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looking purple you know Telecaster with
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binding on it and with full incredibly
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flamed maple neck and it was actually a
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Glaser made tell him with a Glaser b
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bender and of course there was b bender
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work all over that album and I went you
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know
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bender crazy and just had to have one
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and finally I saved up my money and I
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had purchased a James Burton Telecaster
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the one that was the black and gold
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Paisley with the three license or
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pickups and I sent it to Joe Glaser and
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had a bender put on it and that was kind
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of the beginning I was when the sickness
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really took hold let's do a little bit
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of history though where the b bender
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kind of comes from I think there's kind
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of a couple of you know kind of gaps in
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the in most people's history of be
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vendors first off it doesn't start with
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Clarence and gene you know with the
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Parsons white you know b bender there
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were earlier benders they might not have
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been as
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investigated but probably the crudest
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would have been Carl Perkins on his
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Epiphone switch master type guitar he
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had a lever on the headstock and he was
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able to pull up the B string hole step
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but of course you were limited by having
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to be you know your hand had to be near
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the headstock to utilize it probably the
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very ingenious mechanism that a lot of
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people aren't aware of and yet were used
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by a couple of major players in
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Nashville and that's a bender mechanism
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made by Dean Porter so Dean was a
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Nashville guy and he was a tinkerer and
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he convinced two of the top eighteen
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session guys in Nashville to let him
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modified their 335 type guitars
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so both the guitars had Bigsby's on them
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and one was owned by Jerry Kennedy and
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the other one was owned by Grady Martin
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I mean those were like you know besides
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Hank Garland I mean those were two of
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the biggest guys in Nashville at that
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point and so Jerry Kinney had a 61 335
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and and Grady had a red 355 and Dean
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installed a vendor that mounted on the
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two pneumatic bridge and had a little
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lever and and so that's how you could
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operate the b bender and then it also
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had a mechanism that came around and you
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would push down on your arm on it and
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that dropped the high E string down a
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whole step so and that was in the early
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60s so this is again pre Clarence and
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gene if you want to learn more about the
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the Jerry Kennedy guitar you can watch
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my true tone lounge interview with his
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son Gordon Kennedy and course Gordon
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kiddin is a huge guitar player and
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songwriter and great guy and he kind of
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goes in depth and actually has the
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guitar in the video and plays it you can
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see the the different mechanisms so of
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course next you get to Clarence white
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and you get the whole story about him
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you know wanting to do some kind of harm
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on
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chime lick and wishing he had a third
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hand and gene takes some stupid car
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parts and some parts from a hardware
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store and and makes us bender well the
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original Clarence White bender and what
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becomes known later as the Parsons White
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vendor they're very different in
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construction first off the original
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Clarence White guitar has an actual
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steel guitar finger you know so the
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string kind of comes across it like this
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and if this is the top of the guitar it
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kind of moves like this and that's how
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it bends the string so now the the the
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later
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Parsons White this is the top of the
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guitar it's a hub like this and it turns
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like this okay so that's because the you
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know the original b bender was a steel
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guitar finger and just like you know
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what you'd see on a pedal steel guitar
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also you had the mechanism was a lot of
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it was outside of the guitar which
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necessitated a shell that was you know
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on the back of the guitar which made the
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Telecaster look a lot thicker it looked
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almost like the thickness of an acoustic
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guitar so of course he had the first one
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is Clarence's then another great player
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and friend of Clarence White's Bob
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Warford he wanted to have a bender and
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so Clarence let him borrow the guitar
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and he and his father got the parts and
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figured it out and copied it so then you
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have two players see then you have
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Clarence and Bob Warford and bob Warford
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played with Everly Brothers and he
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played with Linda Ronstadt the song will
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in a heart like a wheel that's probably
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the greatest example and easiest to find
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example of Bob words bender worked he
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was usually he usually used a fairly
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over driven sound and he would hit
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harmonics and and then use the bender on
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and as a great player and he had his own
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thing I mean he kind of played in the
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Clarence mode but you always knew is Bob
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for great player you need to check him
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out okay so this is where so you have
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the the Dean Porter you know be bender
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thing on the 335 type guitars it's kind
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of like a missing thing from the
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equation another missing thing from the
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equation and this is even bigger deal is
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Dave Evans so Dave Evans saw the demand
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for B benders because Clarence White and
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Bob Warford were playing in bands and
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people wanted him and so he developed
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bender with Gene Parsons permission he
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developed a bender that was inside the
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body and so this is where you start
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getting where that big kind of l-shaped
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route on the back of the guitar with the
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big plate and you get the hub you know
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that instead of doing doing like this on
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top of the guitar you get were doing
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like this on top of the guitar and the
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hub on the on the Dave Evans was was
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rectangular and it said pull string on
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it and his bender was adjustable for
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fourth row so you could have it as short
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medium or long throw depending on where
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you moved the adjustments I know this
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because I had one at one point I had a
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vintage one and of course you could also
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adjust the tension how hard you had to
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push down on it and that was a big deal
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so all of a sudden the guitar didn't
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have to have this extra shell on it and
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it was all in the guitar so who were
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some famous guys that used Evans benders
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well the most famous would be Bernie
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Leadon you know playing you know with
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the Eagles peaceful easy feeling you
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know all those Eagles tracks with B
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bender was a Evans pull string that he
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had put in one of his Telecasters now
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what Evans tended to do was not put them
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in your Telecaster but he would actually
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sell bodies that already had the bender
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in it and then you would put your own
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pickup and neck on it in hardware so I
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mean literally it was and they were
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butcher block so they're very
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identifiable so this is what you see
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Albert Lee using in the
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the 70s he's you see him with this
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butcher block body and it's in the video
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for sweet little Lisa where he's
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actually in the studio with Dave Edmunds
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and Huey Lewis and and that's what it is
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it's a Dave Evans butcher block body
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with an Evans pull string on it also al
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Perkins used one a lot and if you want
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to see that in action you can look at my
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true tone lounge interview without
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Perkins where he pulls that original
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guitar out and plays it
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let's see Skunk Baxter had one number of
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cats had these butcher block pull
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strings and I had one for a while and I
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enjoyed it but I didn't like the butcher
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block body it was kind of heavy and it
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was kind of bright and so I ended up
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giving it to a friend and then that
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friend actually loaned it to Dave Evans
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so that Dave Evans could start making
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benders again a number of years ago and
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so Dave Evans had lost all of his
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blueprints and everything so he used
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this guitar that I had found and he he
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was able to reverse-engineer and make
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benders again for a while so that's the
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story on that
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so then after Evans of course then you
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get Jean Parsons actually making benders
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and his mechanism was similar to the
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Evans which of course he had every right
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to because he was giving Evans
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permission to do benders in the first
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place then kind of the next kind of leap
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forward is Joe Glaser
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so while Joe Glaser was living out in
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California and playing pedal steel
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guitar in bands he kind of got under the
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spell of be benders and he liked
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Clarence White and Bob Warford is
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playing and so he hadn't seen their
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guitars he just heard them but he knew
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from playing pedal steel that they had
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some kind of mechanism so he designed
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his own mechanism that had nothing to do
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with the the Parsons wide or the Evans
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pull string and it this is what I'm
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using today this is a little steel
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guitar finger and by doing this you know
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there's no
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there's no big plate on the back you
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know the routing underneath here is
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about the size of my pinky and then you
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have another route take this off too
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that's going from this end of the guitar
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to the other end and you have a little
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bit of routing underneath the neck plate
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so this is the adjustment for tuning
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right here it's a little black knob
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thing and it's that way when you pull it
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it you know has the stop is in the right
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place so that when you bend when you
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push down it's in tune and then on this
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end there's a adjustment for the tension
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about how hard you have to push down so
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to me as much as I respect and I've
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owned Parsons White and Evans pull
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strings and all those all those guys and
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I respect them and love them but I like
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this design because it it just it
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preserves the integrity of the
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instrument there's just something lost
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when you remove you know you know
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fifteen percent or more twenty percent
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of the wood out of the body of the
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guitar so there's just something that's
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lost so I like this bender and I've had
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this one since the mid 90s and Joe has a
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new mechanism that's I'm hoping to check
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out at one point I might have put on one
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of my other Tellys but yeah so that's
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kind of the history and the of course
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the Glaser mechanism is what you see
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Ricky Skaggs using and Steve Warner you
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know in the 80s Reggie Young had a
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double bender on his 69 tele custom but
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didn't really use the benders very much
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let's see who else Jeff King had had one
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of the first single G benders diamond
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Rios Jimmy Olander had of course a
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double Glaser bender Brad Paisley of
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course has used a bunch of the Glaser G
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benders and also of course used McVeigh
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that are kind of similar to the Glaser
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mechanism and
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yeah Brent Mason as a Glaser be bender
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so yeah so that's uh that's kind of the
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deal with that and and they're fun and
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yeah so then here's a couple you know
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kind of basic you know kind of bender
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licks and things you can do
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yeah of course you had this you know
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kind of the most common you know bender
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move is this you know kind of a you know
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a adenine or I guess would be an a add
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to where you're just where you you let
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the B vendor pull up the B string a
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whole step to make a regular a chord
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like this
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take it up
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[Music]
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and
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we have like the quasi Ralph Moony kind
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of thing where are you bending up either
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to the sixth or the seventh or you have
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open string licks you have the kind of
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Albert Lee Ricky Skaggs type licks like
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you have the so heard a lot of that you
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know like sweet little Lisa are on our
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Skaggs on live from London also taking
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like a 9th chord like a d9
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that's kind of a nice move and then this
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other thing where you it's also kind of
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my point
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it's gonna plane that so that's my first
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finger is covering an a on the D string
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and covering it that D on the g string
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and then you've got my third finger
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playing a playing a G on the B string
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and then a C on the high E string and
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you get this this kind of thing and if
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you go in between that 9th and this
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other shape you that's a nice move
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you need contrary been a contrary motion
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bends where you can start with the B
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bender activated and then you can lower
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it well you raise the g string and you
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can get this kind of thing that's fun
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I'm gonna take deep deep shaped chord
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[Music]
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that's nice taking this is related you
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know C shaped you can
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if you hammer on your pinky under this F
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note on the D string you can kind of
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give you can kind of go in between a C
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and an F you know an F add to or adenine
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whatever that sounds real nice you
17:19
paddle ultra motive
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so those are some kind of basic bender
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licks to kind of get you started and
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yeah it's just fun to mess around with
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one and figure out ways to to use it you
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just kind of have to think flat on the
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on the B string and make sure that the
17:49
note that it's going to bend up to is
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something that sounds good so you know
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let's say you just took like an a chord
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like this and you've been it up well
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you're gonna get a you know you're gonna
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get this flat note in here which is you
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know a flat 5
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[Music]
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you might not want to do that unless
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you're wanting to create tension so so
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there are some you know there's some
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history kind of some some missing
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chapters in the B bender story
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specifically with Dean Porter and us and
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especially with Dave Evans and the
18:35
pull-string
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and a few licks hope you've enjoyed it
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thank you for watching another ask Zach
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and I'll see you next time bye bye