The Steel Guitar Forum

I am guessing that the suggestions to get a pedal steel and forget about wasting time with benders are coming from people who already play pedal steel guitars. I imagine this is like guitar players telling ukulele players that their instrument is a waste of time because it only has four strings. Whi...

That's very interesting. I had the same thought, some kind of outboard extension to the back of the guitar and figured there was just no way to set up a small block of wood that would withstand the string tension. I guess I was wrong. How is it attached, long bolts?

Thanks, Mark. Bob's guitars are about $500. A used Asher Hawaiian Jr. is $700 or $800 used, but they are very nice guitars. And the Asher guitars have plenty of room on the rear deck for benders. Bob said he could extend the back deck of his design to accomidate the benders.

Thanks for the note, Michael. May I ask what roller bridge you are using (or if you are using one)? I thought his guitars looked like a very good value, with excellent pickups.

And may I ask why you decided to pursue the benders on your lap guitar?

Thanks for that thought. To be honest, there are so many styles of guitars played with a slide—dobros, Weissenborns, regular acoustics with an extended nuts, Tricone Nationals, single cone Nationals, lap steels, lap steels with benders, two or three neck lap steels, entry level (3 pedal?) pedal stee...

Thanks very much for the thoughtful comments and advice. I am trying out the benders because they seem like an achievable middle point towards the sound of a pedal steel, which are not only very expensive, but seem to be a fairly formidable challenge to play. I am already a good finger picker and pl...

Thanks for the suggestion. Melbert Guitars looks quite nice and their basic model is very affordable.

Thanks but I already have the Peters benders, and they are an honest 2". Looks like the Certano benders sit on a one inch foot but the benders themselves stick out over this so the real estate is still limited. But thanks for the suggestion.

New member here, thanks for having me. I have what may be an odd request. I have been learning to play slide guitar (Lap steel) and I have been playing an early 50’s Rickenbacker Panda, which sounds great, but I wanted to try to use benders to get a little closer to the pedal steel sound. But most v...