Clarence White's B Bender

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B string bender guitar songs

The StringBender
Clarence White and Gene Parsons

During 1967, while they were both members of Nashville West, White and Parsons invented a device that enabled Clarence to simulate the sound of a pedal steel guitar on his 1954 Fender Telecaster. The need for such a device was driven by White's desire to bend his guitar's B-string up a full tone, while keeping his left hand on the strings and fretboard. In order to achieve this feat, White felt that he needed a third hand. The guitarist turned to his friend Parsons, who was an amateur machinist, and asked him to design and build an apparatus to pull or drop the B-string.

The device, which was known as the Parsons/White StringBender (also known as the B-Bender), was a spring-lever mechanism built into the inside of White's guitar, which linked to the guitar's strap button and the B-string. When it was activated, by pulling down on the guitar neck, it pulled on the B-string and caused the guitar to simulate the "crying" sound of a pedal steel. White would go on to use the device extensively as a member of the Byrds and, as a result, the distinctive sound of the StringBender would become a defining characteristic of that band's music during White's tenure with the group

Love the Byrds "You ain't going nowhere" version of Dylan's song

First show w/ Clarence White after Gram Parsons left the Byrds, intro by Hugh Hefner...a couple of classic 1967 Dylan tunes ("wheel" co-written by RIck Danko)

from Sweetheart of the Rodeo album

session musician Lloyd Green on pedal steel guitar



Byrds Clarence White's guitar - lots of history in the video



b-bender-guitar-songs article

One man's build

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Marty playing Clarence White's telecaster b bender

HummingByrd



Check out those suits.

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Roger McGuinn from Byrds and Marty Stuart with Clarence White's (Byrds) guitar.

You Ain't Goin' Nowhere

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How Clarence White's B-Bending Telecaster Bridged Country and Rock

The legendary Byrds guitarist and bandmate Gene Parsons opened up a new world of guitar playing with their invention.

By Mike Duffy and Jeff Owens

Even before Clarence White joined the Byrds in the late 1960s, he was already a revered guitarist.

As a teenager, he was a flatpicking bluegrass pioneer as a member of the Country Boys—later known as the Kentucky Colonels—with his brothers, Eric and Roland. Their 1964 album, Appalachain Swing!, is still revered to this day.

But when he switched to the electric guitar, White’s legend only grew, as his mastery of the groundbreaking StringBender invention attached to his legendary 1954 two-tone Sunburst Telecaster opened a unique style of playing adopted by several of country and rock’s heaviest hitters.

Famously, White was the first to employ this contraption. As the story goes, White was looking for a way to play steel-pedal licks on his Tele while playing in a band called Nashville West in 1967. To achieve this, White would bend the note behind the nut, but that proved to be unnecessarily challenging.

White’s bandmate and collaborator, multi-instrumentalist Gene Parsons, also had experience working on guitars and banjos, and together, they devised what would come to be known as the Parsons/White Pull-String (which was eventually renamed the StringBender and later the B-Bender).

Parsons’ thought was to use the shoulder strap to bend the note by utilizing spring-loaded levers inside the guitar’s body, which connects the bridge to the strap button on the upper bout.

The strap button itself was attached to a lever that moves up and down about an inch. When you wear the guitar over your shoulder and push down on the neck, the pressure pulls the strap button upward, activating the lever system and raising the pitch of the B string by a whole tone (up to a C#).

Now came the hard part: bringing the StringBender to life. White didn’t want to route out his Tele, so Parsons actually mounted it on the back of the guitar. A wooden rim mirroring the shape of a Telecaster was added to the back, as well, and it was all covered by a piece of Masonite, effectively doubling the size thickness of the guitar.

With that game-changing alteration made, those steel-like bends were more easily achieved, opening a bridge between country and rock. White's talents with the new contraption are all over the Byrds' "You Ain't Going Nowhere", "Buckaroo" and "Lover of the Bayou," in addition to his work on the Everly Brothers' "I'm on My Way Home Again", Joe Cocker's "Dear Landlord" and Arlo Guthrie's "Coming Into Los Angeles".

The StringBender was hardly the only modification for this iconic guitar, however. After recording the Byrds' Ballad of Easy Rider, the neck pickup was swapped for a Stratocaster pickup. White also added two banjo tuners to the high E and A strings to allow for quick tune changes.

Aesthetically, the guitar had several pickguards throughout its lifetime, from black to dark pearloid to its current red-brown tortoise look. And you can’t help but notice the stickers—one of the Frankfurt city crest from when the Byrds played in Germany; one of Nudie Cohn, the famous tailor who made the stage suits for the Byrds; and the logo of a Plymouth Satellite—that make White’s Tele instantly recognizable.

White tragically died in 1973 when he was struck by a drunk driver while loading gear into his car, but the original StringBender Tele is in capable hands, as country legend Marty Stuart bought it from the family.

“Roland White got me my first job with Lester Flatt in Nashville when I was 13, so the Whites were like family, even though I only met Clarence once,” Stuart said. “After he was killed, his wife, Susie, moved back to Tennessee and was looking to sell some of Clarence’s Nudie suits and guitars. I was interested in a ’54 Strat, but she said, ‘You really want to see the Tele, don’t you?’”

In a matter of minutes, Stuart couldn’t believe he was holding the ’54 Telecaster that had contributed so much to country music.

“I had just gotten a job with Johnny Cash, so I was making a little bit of money. I laid a check down on the table and asked Susie to write down the number she wanted for both guitars and some suits. I said, ‘If I don’t have it, I’ll run to the bank and get it.’ But she just wrote down $1,450. I said, ‘Susie, the E string is worth more than that!’”

Indeed, for $1,450, Stuart walked away with a collection of Byrds memorabilia, some Nudie suits and the Strat and that one-of-a-kind Tele, which he continues to play today.

Link

[Pigeon]

Nuta Kotlyarenko (December 15, 1902 – May 9, 1984), known professionally as Nudie Cohn, was an American tailor who designed decorative rhinestone-covered suits, known popularly as "Nudie Suits", and other elaborate outfits for some of the most famous celebrities of his era. He also became famous for his outrageous customized automobiles.

Many of Cohn's 'Nudie suit' designs became signature looks for their owners. Among his most famous creations was Elvis Presley's $10,000 gold lamé suit worn by the singer on the cover of his 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong album. Cohen created Hank Williams' white cowboy suit with musical notations on the sleeves, and Gram Parsons' infamous suit for the cover of the Flying Burrito Brothers' 1969 album The Gilded Palace of Sin, featuring pills, poppies, marijuana leaves, naked women, and a huge cross.

He designed the iconic costume worn by Robert Redford in the 1979 film Electric Horseman, which was exhibited by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

Many of the film costumes worn by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were Nudie designs. John Lennon was a customer, as were John Wayne, Gene Autry, George Jones, Cher, Ronald Reagan, Elton John, Nicky Panicci, Robert Mitchum, Pat Buttram, Tony Curtis, Michael Landon, Glen Campbell, Michael Nesmith, Hank Snow, Hank Thompson, and numerous musical groups, notably America and Chicago. ZZ Top band members Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill sported Nudie suits on the cover photo of their 1975 album Fandango!.

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[Royal]

Didn't know that about Guitars. It was like the auto-tune of their day.

[Pigeon]

Interesting take on the subject.

[Pigeon]

Clarence playing the B-Bender

[Royal]

Nice song.

The graphic artist for the cover art "going to make everyone popping out of their own head"