Building Bender for Lap Steel. Have Question.

[Ted Duncan]

I am building my first lap steel and would like to build my own string bender for it. I will be coping the Bigsby design. I have bought a foreign made Bigsby rip-off and will be making the arms for it.

My question has to do with the adjustments on the arms. Of course I will need the bender adjustment which allows the player to tune the pitch of the raised tone when pressing on the handle.

But why is an adjustment needed when the handle is released and at rest? Unless I am missing something, that tone is already adjusted with the tuners at the other end of the guitar.

The adjustment I am talking about is in the red circles in the photo below. Obviously, some sort of "stop" will be necessary but for the life of me I cannot see why it has to be adjustable. Any ideas?

[Fred]

The first thing that comes to mind is that it allows adjusting the height of the lever at rest.

[Ted Duncan]

The first thing that comes to mind is that it allows adjusting the height of the lever at rest.

I thought of that too ... but once I establish a desired or required height, I can build that in with a solid post and no need of adjustment.

[Karlis Abolins]

I will chime in here based on my experience with benders. The front screw sets the final stop point of the bend. The rear screw sets the at rest point of the lever. It is true that you can determine where the at rest point should be at build time. However, if you want to change the gauge of the strings and keep the same final stop point, you have to adjust the at rest point to compensate for the difference in the travel of the string. The other consideration regarding the at rest point is the difference between a half-step raise and a full-step raise. If you want both levers to end at the same level, then you have to start at different at rest points.

The benders with both screws give you the freedom to experiment without having to rebuild the unit.

Good luck on your project. Benders are fun to use.

Karlis

[Ted Duncan]

I will chime in here based on my experience with benders. The front screw sets the final stop point of the bend. The rear screw sets the at rest point of the lever. It is true that you can determine where the at rest point should be at build time. However, if you want to change the gauge of the strings and keep the same final stop point, you have to adjust the at rest point to compensate for the difference in the travel of the string. The other consideration regarding the at rest point is the difference between a half-step raise and a full-step raise. If you want both levers to end at the same level, then you have to start at different at rest points.

The benders with both screws give you the freedom to experiment without having to rebuild the unit.

Good luck on your project. Benders are fun to use.

Karlis

Thanks for the tips, Karlis.

I bought my first "real" guitar in 1970. It was a Gretsch Tennessean Chet Atkins model with a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece ... which I never used. I'm building my lap steel using all the components from the Gretsch G5700 Electromatic Lap Steel I could find. Since I wanted benders, it seemed fitting to install a Bigsby. Until I can afford the real deal, my cheap DIY copy will have to do.

I've listened to a lot of lap steels and I think benders bring a lot to the party ... can't wait to use them.