Topics about guitars played with a slide and/or string bender mechanism. The instruments, setup, mechanics, playing techniques, music featuring slide guitar and bender guitars, and other related discussions.
3Bender Musical Instruments will have instruments for you to try at the Fretboard Summit 2023 in Chicago at Old Town School of Music (where John Prine learned to play guitar) on Aug 24-26. Come by the booth and say Hello.
In addition to the Original 3Bender guitars on display, we will be introducing a new instrument called 3Bender Fission. (No atoms are harmed in this process). On the new 3Bender Fission:
- The B string bender is always On
- The G string bender can be turned On/Off with a switch.
- The A string bender is activated via foot pedal.
We had help, support and inspiration from fellow Steel Guitar Forum members Nick Fryer and Jules Belmont on this instrument. Much appreciation and our sincere thanks to them for encouragement and expert advice. I’ll post some demo videos soon.
On the new 3Bender Fission, the B and G string bending is actuated with a strap lever. (Parson/White style) The B string bender is always On. The G (half step bend to G#) can be switched On/Off. The A string is actuated via an expression pedal.
We worked with Nick Fryer to design a special pickup that allows us to amplify the A string separately so that it can be fed through a pitch changing guitar pedal….in this case, an EHX Pitchfork. The new pickup fits into a standard Tele bridge slot and it sounds great… like a slightly overwound 50s Tele pickup. We are working on a couple of different options.
In regard to pitch modulation, we also tried an Gamechanger Audio Bigsby pedal which sounds good also. Other pitch changing pedals we would like to try: Eventide H90, Digitech Whammy, HX Stomp, Fomo FX Virtual Jeff. I think there may be pitch changing options with some of the modelers like Kemper and Fractal. Logic Pro X also offers pitch changing.
Here are a few links to short video demonstrations. The last one is Jules Belmont trying out the first prototype of the 3Bender Fission. He has been touring with an original 3Bender for almost a year now….but this was his first encounter with the 3Bender Fission.
Inspired by the sounds made by pressing the A and B pedals on a pedal steel.
The favored CoBendEnt for 6 string 3Bender guitar is:
The B string bends a whole step.
The G string bends a half step.
The A string bends a whole step.
The basics: When you grab a Big E Chord at the first fret, it bends the E chord shape into an A chord inversion. In the video at the link below I demonstrate bending chords while using the Big E Chord shape by playing E, A, and B chords (with an E bass note.)
You can play the instrument as a standard B Bender. Or, you can add the half step G string with the B bender when you actuate the strap lever. (The A string whole step bend is actuated via a foot pedal.)
When the b and g are actuated, a small F chord shape at the first fret becomes a Bb. I Chord to the IV Chord…same as A and B pedals.
