HipShot b-Bender rant

Marital aids?

Okay, so soon after I heard this record there I was posting off the first of a few checks to HipShot Products, because I knew that once I had my hands on one of those suckers that I would sound much more like Will Ray.

The b-Bender is a beautifully engineered design, and the finish and materials and craftsmanship are all top-quality. As advertised, it installs in minutes, and fits perfectly on a wide range of Telecaster-shaped bodies. They don't actually say that last part, but since I'm often stupider than most people I tried mounting one on a Strat. The results of that experiment are discussed later. Anyway, I want to say this up front, although I have never learned to use it properly, that shouldn't stop you from trying.

I should also tell you that my "Telecaster" is a Japanese copy. I'll even go so far as to say that it's a cheap copy, but for my level of playing it's a reasonable instrument, and to me it sounds bitchen. Plus it was a gift given me by my wife, on the occassion of the birth of our first son, so needless to say I have a strong sentimental attachment to it. I've been playing it for 22 years, now. I think the b-Bender cost more than the original price of the guitar.

The original bridge was quite different from the classic Telecaster bridge. After installing the b-Bender I ran the b-string over the saddle and back edge of the bridge, which it touched and rubbed against, then into the b-Bender. At the point where the string touched the back of the bridge, the string angle bent by a few degrees. This was not ideal, but the edge was smoothly finished and never caused the string to break. I started to fool around with the b-Bender, trying to learn how play "Lonesome Fugitive" from the instructional cassette. Right away I saw that this was going to be a pretty steep learning curve for me. What came out of my guitar sounded nothing like Will Ray, and quite a bit like a three-way of cats going at it in the alley. Plus, as a bedroom picker, I usually play sitting on the edge of my bed, or on the sofa in front of the telly. To use the HipShot you really need to be standing. I'm too lazy for that.

The real problem with the device for me, was that on certain licks, usually when plucking the string, I would inadvertently pull the b-string off of its saddle. This bridge had roller-style saddles and when the b-string snapped back it would never land back in its groove on the roller.

I posted a letter to Will (this was a few years before email and the web became widely used) and received a wonderful hand-written reply. His analysis was that there was not enough downward pull on the b-string. The HipShot provides a wire bale for this purpose, made of spring steel. I could tell that it was already doing its job, but I knew the problem was with my typically half-assed setup. Will proposed that the solution might be to drill a small hole in the back "wall" of the bridge and pass the b-string through that. This would ensure that there was enough downward pull to keep the string from popping out of the saddle. This idea made perfect sense, but I didn't have a drill press or a suitable drill bit. So I took the bridge off and placed it in the box HipShot shipped in, with the idea of taking it to a machine shop to have the hole drilled. Shortly afterward this box, presumed to be empty, was chucked into the trash by someone who shall remain unmentioned by name, on a tidying up mission. When I discovered this, several expletives were used, and domestic bliss was temporarily disruppted.

I sent for a replacement bridge. It was even worse. I tried a few different bridges from Stew-Mac and Warmoth, and none were ideal. At this point I was ready to pack in the b-Bender, and just wanted a playable guitar. I never found an original replacement, and am now on the third replacement bridge which is still unsatisfactory. Although this bridge is adjustable in three dimensions, the string spacing at the holes in the tail of the bridge don't match the neck width. This means that the saddles, particularly on the high and low e-strings, must be adjusted to their most extreme positions to allow a reasonable string spacing. We don't have a real luthier in my small town, or nearby, so I just soldier on with what I've got, and my fan doesn't seem to notice any difference.

The wrong bridge for this neck

After the first foray into b-Benderdom, I bought another one, slightly fancier, with another lever that dropped the low e-string down to D. This was very fun and useful, and I wound up using this feature more than the bending of the b-string. The problem was that I didn't have another Telecaster-type guitar, so I put this on a Stratocaster, which due the the smooth edges on the Offset Contour body the HipShot doesn't quite seat itself as rigidly as on the Telecaster. And I had to crank down the Synchronized Tremolo to use the HipShot, which wasn't really designed for the Stratocaster. I wound up taking it off. One day I may give the HipShot another go...