Bender for the 8 Ball

[mayfly]

Hey Folks,

As some of you are aware, I have several warmoth telecasters.  Some of you may also be aware that I have b-benders installed in three of these telecasters.  Aaaaaaaand some of you may be aware that about a year ago I bought the 8 ball warmoth body during the first big sale.

Well, I made a guitar out of that body, and it's quite the instrument.  But I never played it.  Why?  no bender  -that's why.  My guitar style has evolved to the point where I need a bender to do the music that I do.

So what's a guy gonna do?  I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna put a bender in it.  Behold the starting point:

One perfectly good custom 8 ball warmoth telecaster (with a fine canary neck), one hipshot parsons/green bender kit, and one new set of lollar pickups and a new pickguard.  Yes, i'm also taking the oppourtunity to swap the pickups - more on that in a bit.

But the bender is the main event!  Heeeere goes......

 

[Mor Paul]

After recently playing a b-bender tele... I approve this. I may get one eventually.

 

[Alfang]

Sorry, I thought this thread was gonna be about drinking and shooting Pool.

But go ahead anyway Mayfly, we love your threads

 

[leo12.]

That tele looks great already, honest ,so your putting the bender in the corner pocket

 

[DangerousR6]

Bend away my friend... :icon_thumright:

 

[anorakDan]

Sorry, I thought this thread was gonna be about drinking and shooting Pool.

But go ahead anyway Mayfly, we love your threads

I thought it was going to be about Bender from Futurama, drinking beer and shooting pool!

 

[mayfly]

Hey guys,

so I take it apart and get the bench all set up.  The first step was to remove the string ferrules.

I had originally installed these using the "soldering iron trick", so I was not sure how easy they would come out.  I didn't have a better plan than punch the out from the top, but I didn't want to chip the finish.  So I made up a little jig for the body to sit on while I pounded them out.

then I got an appropriate sized punch and pounded them out from the other side:

Well, I was glad that I made a jig - because those suckers were in there!  I did end up chipping the finish, and it's kinda ugly.  What was interesting is that in each hole there was a perfect circle of black finish, presumably pushed inside during the installation process.  I'm guessing that the hot ferrules cut the finish cleanly, and then the finish flowed around the ferrules after they cooled.  Very interesting - and a cautionary tale for all of you would be ferrule removers out there!

:blob7: :doh: :headbang1:

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

It's about getting an 8 ball on going on a Bender, literally.

 

[stubhead]

You ever think about getting a G-bender on one instead? Brad Paisley plays one and he says it keeps the cliche bender licks away. There have been people who have both installed, there's a lever poking out the bottom you push with your hip for the G bend. It might look kind of contortionist (AKA spazzy). Or you could get real:

:hello2: :blob7: :hello2:​

 

[mayfly]

Naw - those pedal steels are just too heavy.  Besides I like to play the thing behind my head sometimes - hard to do with a pedal steel...

 

[mayfly]

on to the next bit.

So with the ferrules out, the next thing was to notch the bridge for the b string. 

Experience has taught me that you don't have to extend the notch all the way down.  About halfway works just fine.

 

[mayfly]

while I was doing that I glued in the chips in the finish that removing the ferrules caused:

still looks like ass.

 

[Cagey]

It'll be less obvious once the ferrules are back in. Maybe take a Sharpie after the light spots before you do.

 

[Alfang]

Cagey we all know your joking about the sharpie because this is a mightfly project, if it was anyone else, I'd say yeh use a sharpie.

 

[Updown]

Now this is what I call a Bender Tele  :icon_biggrin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7NL9oMdjWs&feature=youtu.be

 

[DangerousR6]

GO...GO...Gadget Bender...

He's got too much shyt going on there...

Someone just needs to tell him to put a Floyd on it... :guitarplayer2:

 

[Tonar8352]

Now this is what I call a Bender Tele

That looks more like a wrestling match than guitar playing.
I don't know if you should be giving Trevor ideas like that.

 

[mayfly]

cooooooooool 

That's a lot of bender action going on there

 

[mayfly]

hokay - on to the most dangerous step in this whole thing - drilling the hole for the pull tower.  If you get this wrong - the b-string is in the wrong place and you're basically screwed. 

First, measure measure measure where that hole should go:

That's where it's going to go:

and here's the drill that's going to drill it:

Are You READY?!??

 

[mayfly]

AHAHAHAHHHAAAHAHHAAAHA!!!