B-Bender problem resolved.

I have used hipshot tuners on a number of products and really like them, but I had never seen any of their original products. The "original" original was designed to replicate bending the B string, and was activated by bumping a lever with your hip, hence the name "Hipshot." I'll put a vid at the bottom about these.

Hipshot still sells benders. You can also get a variety that are palm-activated instead of hip-activated. The one that I think of as most popular is the "Green/Parsons" string bender that is activated by pulling down on the neck, and is activated by a lever attached to the guitar strap. Hipshot sells a version of that B-bender as well:

Attachment 46062

I had heard about these, but never seen one IRL. But I was talking about the Tele I am building with a friend who is a Tele afficionado, who showed me one of his. Unfortunately, when the bender was installed is was not quite properly aligned. It was installed on a Tele with compensated barrel saddle, and using the bender made the string move "to the north" on the saddle, until it got to the height adjustment grub screw.

The fix turned out to be a few swipes with a nut file to put a small groove for the string in the saddle. I did not cut the groove very deep, and so far it seems to work well. It doesn't jump out of the groove when bending, or bind or buzz. So far so good, anyway ;-)

Attachment 46063

It's subtle, but you can see in the pic how the bender is just slightly too far north of where the string should go on the saddle in the pic.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs_USFXHBDk&t=1s