The Steel Guitar Forum

There was a guy who played for Tommy Cash. He was the world's greatest imitator of pedal steel on a regular guitar by an infinite margin IMHO. I saw him at Ponderosa Park with the Tommy Cash show opening for Ernest Tubb. This guy was doing chromatic E9th riffs and pedal pulls and had the Sho-Bud tone nailed. If you closed your eyes, you heard pedal steel played better than many road players were doing at the time. Buddy Charleton stared agape at this guy the whole show from one of the side curtains. Not sure but his first name might have been Wayne. On top of this he played Orange Blossum Special on a guitar using a bow.

Charlie McDonald wrote:The Frankenbender, attributed to Brad Graham

OH MY LORD
That's Bee-utiful !

Diamond Rio's lead guitarist Jimmy Olander uses a B-Bender on his Fender Telecaster. A great example of the sound would be on Diamond Rio's song "Mama Don't Forget To Pray For Me" before the chorus after the second verse. It sounds like a steel lick that usually ends a song.

Wayne Gray was the guitar player you saw with TC,Greg...a wonderful guitar player and a very nice man.

Brett, Jimmy O's guitar is more like an Esquire as it only has a bridge pickup. Also he uses a Glaser B and G bender and uses them very tasty... Listen to "Meet in the Middle" for a good example of his work....JH in Va.

If you ever want to get into "acoustic" guitar bending there are several options you can go with.. Richard Bowden (Pinkard & Bowden fame) makes some nice devices. I have the one for the Ovation guitar which you simply take the strings off, set it behind the bridge and put the strings back through and it's ready to go except you have to have a new B string. He also makes one for a "pinned" bridge acoustic that has a screw which goes down into the B string pin hole and attaches with a wing nut, you can intall one in 5 minutes.. Here's a shot of my Ovation bender from Bowden...



Or you can use a Bigsby Palm Pedal (if you can find one..... See photo...JH in Va.

Jerry Hayes wrote:Brett, Jimmy O's guitar is more like an Esquire as it only has a bridge pickup. Also he uses a Glaser B and G bender and uses them very tasty... Listen to "Meet in the Middle" for a good example of his work....JH in Va.

"Meet In The Middle" featured great guitar work by Jimmy-one of my favorite songs! If I played guitar, I'd have a bender on it

Well, well some amazing stuff in this little debate and it has certainly opened my eyes. I never knew of any of this . JAMES TAYLOR

It seems a lot of it goes to the hands the guitar is in. When I played with a band we had a gig one night and the house band asked me to set in with them after our show. The guy who ran the show has 2 sons who were great guitar players in their own right. He came on stage and started singing George Jones' He Stopped Loving Her Today. The son playing lead guitar had a Fender with a B bender and a volume pedal. It was confusing trying to figure out if sound was me on my MSA or the guitar player and his Fender. I would not want to play in a band with a Guitar with a Bender.

So, I want to install a Parson/green on a Tele myself, but the only kits I’m finding are the hipshot ones. I would really like the chrome one that says parsons/green. Does anyone know where I can procure one? The lucite cover ones are super cool too, but I feel like those are demo models?

This thread is 9 years old, so keep all the comments in perspective.

Regarding the Parsons Green vs the Hipshot PG, it appears that only Hipshot was licensed to offer the PG kit. There is a slight difference, the PG has a Chrome string tower while the HIPSHOT has a Brass string tower. When I had the Fender PG guitar many years back, I acquired the brass tower from Hipshot and installed it in the Fender PG system. You may find a Fender PG system on EBAY or REVERB, or maybe contact Gene Parsons directly.


These days I only play a B Bender, one is the custom installed Forrest Lee jr system in a very fine 08 Fender Tele, and the other other is the Glaser system which is in the Fender Brent Mason Tele.

Many years back I did settle on the B Pull over the G Pull, it just seemed to fit my style of playing. That 08 Tele with the FL jr system it pretty much my go-to guitar for every gig. I have gone into the G pull world a few times, its extremely effective, but I kept reverting back to the B Pull, which is where I reside.

There's is an original tune on my website titled "B Simple" its in one of the music players. Its played on the 08 with the FL Jr system


Have fun !