Is there such thing as a B-Bender Les Paul?

[Phoenician]

@Shooby

I can’t shake my interest in putting a b-bender into a Les Paul. It seems most installers are reluctant. In talkimg with one last week, they pointed out that the position of the three-way pickup pickup selector needs to be accounted for relative to the routing of the body to handle the bender mechanism. I’d never thought of that issue. I suspect that requires a solution for a different kind of switch.

Do you run into this issue? If so, how did it get addressed?

 

[S. Cane]

I've never really understood the reason of existence of B bender guitars. At all. Never would buy one either. But no, I don't think there's been a factory made b bendin' Lester.

 

[Phoenician]

I've never really understood the reason of existence of B bender guitars. At all. Never would buy one either. But no, I don't think there's been a factory made b bendin' Lester.

Benders can be awesome and offer an interesting twist when playing.

This is a Les Paul of sorts…

Gibson.Com: Music City Jr. with B-Bender

The Music City Jr. with B-Bender brings a new look, voice, and feel to the world of faux pedal-steel bending, in a guitar fully equipped to pull off these impressive tricks, while loaded for fat, driving Gibson P-90 tone—along with coil-tap switching to access brighter single-coil tones.

legacy.gibson.com

 

[Phoenician]

That was 14 years ago??!! Here it is today and my other Les Paul B-Bender.

Alright, I’m signed up for a StringBender installation into an old Les Paul.

 

[Phoenician]

Any sound clips? Every once in a while, I think of putting a Seymour Duncan Little '59 in my B-Bender equipped Nashville Tele, or buying a new (used) B-Bender equipped Nashville Tele and installing them in the bridge and neck, LP-style.

I‘ve been fussing over something similar as I play Les Pauls first and foremost for “my” sound but I also like Telecasters with single coils. The Custombuckers in my Les Pauls are my benchmark PAF and I prefer them to the BurstBuckers and T-tops I own. The challenge I’m taking on is to bend the pickups of some of my Teles a bit towards a Les Paul without losing the character of the guitar and the expressiveness of a single coil. Plus I want to limit the gyrations involved with switching between LPs and Tele on the same amp in a live situation. I have a GE-7 EQ pedal and I picked up a Radial Elevator but I want to limit those adjustments as much as possible and rely on parity from the Telecaster as much as possible.

My first stop in this journey was to upgrade a Telecaster HS (with single volume and tone) with a set of Fralins with a Pure PAF in the neck and a Blues Special single coil in the bridge. The results are good so far and I’m further interested in trying this set on a HS Tele with four knobs. I have some HH Telecaster Deluxes with four knobs but not a HS Telecaster Custom with the four knobs. I very much like working the guitar with four knobs rather that two as is typical on a Tele. Finding the right Telecaster Custom for me is a challenge for me as the vast majority of HS Teles are vintage spec models with three-bolt necks and I refuse to buy those as I want the ability of moving my better necks around to the better bodies. Plus I don’t care for older ashtray bridges on Teles which is a topic onto itself from many Tele players that feel that those older style bridges with three barrel saddles is essential to a Tele.

 

[Flogger]

Ideally, I would keep an eye out for a Bigsby Palm Pedal, it does bothG and B strings and is a lot less invasive.

 

[Doc Sausage]

 

[Phoenician]

@Shooby

I joined the club so to speak…

 

[Dmcguitar]

Any noticable difference in tone / resonance on the guitar (especially acoustically)?

 

[Phoenician]

Any noticable difference in tone / resonance on the guitar (especially acoustically)?

Yes, some. However, the guitar has a bit of fret buzz and it really needs a professional setup which it will get with the other work it’s going to get. I don’t want to draw any hard and fast conclusions. That said, you can hear a little of that “Strat-y” boxy sound acoustically. Although I didn’t notice it yesterday when I gave it a sound check with a crunchy amp. I mostly noticed the action on the StringBender itself was smooth.

 

[Shooby]

Looks good. Who did you get to do that?

 

[Phoenician]

Looks good. Who did you get to do that?

I sent it to Gene Parsons for a Parsons/White StringBender. The guitar still needs some other work including a new bridge, re-fret from fretless wonders to medium jumbo and a good professional setup. I wanted to install the bender first just in case something bad happened with the body during the installation. The weight increased by 11 ounces but it’s still under 10 lbs.

I suspect your two Les Paul benders provided some of my inspiration.

 

[Shooby]

that's where I sent a tele in 1983 for my first one.