Clarence White

Jason Odd · Post by **Jason Odd** » 28 Nov 2008 8:28 pm

Jim, you and a couple of others mentioned Dan Crary, that cat was around Berkely in 1965-66 going to college. I never hear of him going to gigs, he reckons he lived right near the Haight and never saw anyone play live.
I don't recall anyone mentioning him at any folk or bluegrass gigs, even as a spectator.

He later said in an interview that he didn't do gigs, although the local Jabberwock Club (1965-67 lifespan) mentions that he did do some gigs there.

I found it fascinating that he seems to have missed CW altogether during that period.

Sandy Rothman also mentions going to see Clarence play with a band at the Palomino in 1966.
No idea who it was, Sandy mainly recalls the gig as he was dissapointed with the fact the CW was playing electric at this point.

Jim Sliff · Post by **Jim Sliff** » 28 Nov 2008 11:49 pm

Jason, that's true - Dan did some recording but little touring early on, and was always more involved with his day job - which was going to school and becoming a speech communication professor - than going to clubs or jamming. Even when he ended up here and was playing with Byron (and teaching at Cl State Fullerton) he was a nonentity at festivals - Byron was a Topanga regular but stopped going t most by the mid 70's; their playing partner John Hickman, though, seemed to be at every festival near L.A. I only recall seeing Dan at two - both Topanga, the oldest but by the late-70's the smallest of them. he showed up an hour before he played on stage with Byron, jammed with a few of us on about 3 tunes, played the gig, and left.

Talking to him several times I found out he'd supposedly never met OR seen Clarence, and wasn't influenced by him at all - and his picking shows it, with a hard, machine-gun style that's more like contest fiddle playing than Clarence or Tony Rice.

Somewhere I do have a cassette of a live broadcast taken from the national guitar flatpicking contest - it's a short jam with just him, the previous years' winner and Norman Blake, and I he used to play at Strawberry - but this was all 1980's or later and I think he just missed Clarence completely, even though Byron obviously didn't - but they hooked up after Clarence was gone.

Tom Quinn · Post by **Tom Quinn** » 29 Nov 2008 5:29 pm

I don't have time to read all these posts at this time. Suffice to say, I played a '54 Tele with a bender in it for 35 years. I count Gene as one of my best friends and one of the best people on the planet.

Clarence was and still is the greatest Bluegrass guitar player who ever lived, hands down. Ask Tony and a bunch of others.

Tq

Mark Lind-Hanson · Post by **Mark Lind-Hanson** » 3 Dec 2008 5:14 pm

Well, I will tell you something which always bugged me.
It was that Fender went on with only a B-Bender, when Clarence's guitar pulled all 4 middle strings. No wonder his sound was inimitable! I suppose they wanted to cut costs? Personally I would prefer having a G-Bender if it had to be only One string, but being able to pull all four middle strings is almost obviously a huge advantage. I guess they didn't want the "average" player to get that kind of leverage...

Tom Quinn · Post by **Tom Quinn** » 3 Dec 2008 6:37 pm

That isn't correct. Clarence's guitar could pull different strings depending on the setup, but not four at once. A B-Bender is all you will ever need to get that sound, and Gene makes the best-- and original one -- in my book...

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 3 Dec 2008 6:40 pm

are you trying to say clarence's guitar had four separate pull functions available at any time..set up and ready to go?? with one strap?

Mark Lind-Hanson · Post by **Mark Lind-Hanson** » 3 Dec 2008 7:39 pm

I'm not aware of four separate pull functions, but certainly looking at the bridge work and interior pics of the "Frankenstein" that four strings ARE definitely pullable. If they did not need all four then why did they design it like that? Maybe Gene could enlighten us further. At least it looks like that to me, and sounds a bit like it too.

Brint Hannay · Post by **Brint Hannay** » 3 Dec 2008 8:55 pm

I don't recall where I read it, but I've read that Gene and Clarence experimented with pulling various strings or maybe combinations of strings, but eventually concluded that the B bend was the most useful, and settled on that. I don't think Clarence ever used any other (mechanical) string-bends in any recordings that exist, but I could be wrong.

(Four pages, and this is still in the "Steel Players" section?)

Mark Lind-Hanson · Post by **Mark Lind-Hanson** » 3 Dec 2008 9:12 pm

That's fair, but, I wanted a G-Bender because I start the greater majority of my own runs on the G string rather than the B. I wasn't too happy though when I found it out that they had built the machine for four and it was narrowed down to one. And I DO think a four-pull-at-once machine would have given you lots of latitude esp with the Open G chord & its utility up & down the neck for slide players. Maybe nobody else is with me on it, but, that's OK too.

Brint Hannay · Post by **Brint Hannay** » 3 Dec 2008 9:17 pm

I believe Brad Paisley uses a G-bender rather than a B-bender, and Jimmy Olander (Diamond Rio) has both B and G benders, but says the G is his primary one.

Jim Sliff · Post by **Jim Sliff** » 3 Dec 2008 9:58 pm

It was that Fender went on with only a B-Bender, when Clarence's guitar pulled all 4 middle strings.

Completely incorrect.

First, Clarence's guitar had a bender made by Gene with parts from a "donor" Fender 800 he got from Sneaky Pete. It was one of Sneaky's "parts" guitars for his 400.

Gene installed four fingers from the changer - which was a short-scale changer, not like Sneaky's earlier model 400. They played around with different pull for about a day before settling on the "B" string; the "E" is an easy finger-bend, same with the "G" (which also works well in chords with the other fingers in place); the "D" was a non-player right away. The "B" was most logical because it was the one used the most for chimed behind-the-neck bends in "A". worked with a D7 chord to pull up to a major, worked for double bends with the manually-bent "G" and was the easiest for counterpoint stuff using the B bender and E string fretted in different directions.

So "B" became the only one he ever used, and always set for a full-step. That guitar has a 1 1/8" throw - very long compared to what came later.

Bob Warford, a good friend of Clarence's and former bandmate, had Clarence's old white Tele and designed (with his dad and some engineering students) his own version - somewhat similar, but a MUCH shorter throw...less than 1/2". It's like playing an on-off switch until you get used to it (I've played with Bob many times and messed with...and taken pics of the guts of...his guitar).

That was it for a short while, until a non-playing recording engineer/machinist named Dave Evans began making "Pullstring" guitars - the first slightly crude B benders, but gradually pretty refined. they were known for their butcher-block bodies; that's what Bernie Leadon used on the Eagles' first album; Al Perkins still uses his; Albert Lee has one as well. About a hundred or so were made out of Dave's shop in Torrance, CA. Dave's design sort of accidentally morphed itself into a 5/8" pull, which became the de facto standard for shoulder-strap benders.

Then Gene, after the Byrds disbanded and Clarence was killed, eventually decided he wanted to start production of his own design (different than the Evans and very different from the original). He and Dave were friends (Dave had also been working on a guitar for Clarence when Clarence died - and Dave burned it in his fireplace)...so Dave, who had a "real" job anyway, stopped production out of respect for Gene. Gene initially even called his benders (installed in other's Teles, primarily...although he did some odd ones like a Les Paul for Jimmy Page) "The Parsons-White Pullstring". But so many people called them generically "stringbenders" that the name stuck and he adopted it.

Interestingly, there's a patent on a device granted to Gene Parsons, Clarence White and Eddie Tickner (Byrd's manager who paid for it) and other potential makers stayed away from Gene's "patented design".

Except the patent is for the ORIGINAL one based on a pedal steel changer, with a totally different mechanism than his production bender!

Leo Fender knew this and developed his own (which HE patented) - which was OK, but they were mounted on an awful "Custom" Fender made of castoff parts. There were at least two prototypes, and although he wanted it made CBS management said no (a local guitar tech here owns one of them...and the bender plays well, but the guitar IS awful!).

A few clone makers popped up but never made a dent. Joe Glaser and a few others began making different designs with less routing and a shorter throw, which were/are popular with the Nashville crowd while Gene's always held sway with the country-rock and rock crowd.

Then an installer in Virginia, Mike Nihen (a monster bender and dobro player), owner of the Stringpull Guitar Shop, started modifying Parsons-White benders into long-throw benders to match Clarence's (he got the measurements from Marty Stuart) - eventually installing Red Rhodes' "Velvet Hammer" pickups and making the "Nashville West", with the long throw, a double thick body (but fake..the bender was in the usual route but the extra chamber gives the guitar a unique resonance), and the same relic-finish, stickers and even the Plymouth Satellite logo Clarence had on his. He made 42 or 43 before the pickup supply ran out, and they were, to him, an integral part of the guitar (and a huge part of getting Clarence's tone IMO, having had a few pickup sets and owning the Nashville West prototype).

Gene was unfortunately kind of upset...but it seemed as if his ex-wife who ran the business was really more upset than he was. Gene started making long-throws as well to satisfy the demand; as h put it after deciding it was good thing: "there's a lot of music in a long throw".

Eventually Gene's patent expired, and machinist Bill Bores began making clone parts at a lower cost, building quite a market. Gene, manwhile, had developed the "Parsons Green" (named with his ex-wife) bender and licensed it to Fender - that's the bender in their production guitars. Now Hipshot produces the Parsons-Green ( slightly improved model) under license.

So the "Fender" bender is actually a Parsons...and made completely different from either of the other two as it's attached to a rear plate as an entire unit (although it's closest in function to the original, with a rocking cam instead of a turning hub).

Meanwhile, some of us had started the Clarence White Forum - a bunch of So Cal and other bender players, including Bob Warford and several other "original" players. Murray Cullen, who started the forum, had an exact clone of Clarence's bender (minus the electronics) made from a Custom-Shop Tele by Gene, who got hold of every tiny detail from Marty Stuart and his tech. It plays and feels almost exactly like the Nashville West, which pretty much legitimized Mike's design (and the guitars, when they are sold at all go for a huge sum...plus Red's pickups...just the tapped bridge alone...sell for $4-500 each!)

Meanwhile, back at the farm..

...some of us..mainly me, who lived near and hung out at the same studio Evans did, although we never crossed paths, were hunting for Dave wondering what he was doing...and wondering if he'd be interested in making a butcher-block bender or two like the old ones.

Dave's not a computer-guy, but still builds studios and has an incredibly-equipped, modern machine shop in northern CA. He got a computer, got on line, learned how to "google"...and found the Clarence White form, posting "I'm right here!". We chatted and it turned out he was interested in making benders again for fun...he had talked to Gene and Gene was fine with it - Dave didn't want to offend his old buddy.

So somehow I ended up with the prototype of his new design in one of my guitars so I could beta-test it; we made a few changes and additions, and he's back in business making Pullstrings...including working up to maybe an old-style butcher-block body or two. his design has gone beyond any of the others - with adustable spring tension (you have to move a screw and guess with the ones you CAN change tension on...or change springs...but this one turns with an allen driver in seconds. And he also has three different pulls built into the same bender - 5/8", 1 1/8" (long throw) and one I came up with in the middle - 7/8", which to me is the "sweet spot" nobody did before and I use all the time. I posted pictures of it in another thread.

So - there's your history lesson for the day; and no, Fender didn't make a mistake.

Lastly - if you play a bender...please don't try to play fake pedal steel on it...it's a different instrument. Listen to old recordings of Clarence (especially from about 1970-on) or Warford - they are THE guys.

Brint Hannay · Post by **Brint Hannay** » 3 Dec 2008 10:27 pm

Jim, Thanks a lot for that very informative post! That's the most complete information about the history of Stringbenders I've encountered anywhere.

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 3 Dec 2008 11:16 pm

so on one gig opening for marty, i saw his pinkish model with the fat body and a see through cover over the mechanism similar to the original clarence guitar (i thought at the time) do you know which incarnation that one is? this was probably twenty years ago (?)

Jerry Dragon · Post by **Jerry Dragon** » 3 Dec 2008 11:53 pm

Brint Hannay wrote:Jim, Thanks a lot for that very informative post! That's the most complete information about the history of Stringbenders I've encountered anywhere.

I second that.

Danny Bates · Post by **Danny Bates** » 4 Dec 2008 12:48 am

Brint, I met Jimmy Olander once before a Diamond Rio gig. He told me about his B and G bender guitars. He said his G bender was connected to his belt buckle with a strap.

In the early 80's a guy came into a club I was working at and sold me the best B Bender I ever had. It was like a Bigsby Palm pedal but the lever was on the other side and you played it with your forearm.

BTW, Chris, he was from Sac and I think his name was Boughman but pronounced "Bowman"... You probably met him before... I'd sure like to get another one if you see one around.

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 4 Dec 2008 10:32 am

Danny, I use a Hipshot double-bender, and I play the G lever with my wrist/forearm.
And then, there's this guitar. Love to get my hands on one of these benders, just for fun!

Dave Burr · Post by **Dave Burr** » 4 Dec 2008 12:31 pm

Great post Jim!

There's lot's of info on Gene's website. Incidentally, Gene offers a double bender (both B and G). See the link.

http://www.stringbender.com/bender/classic.htm#Double

dave burr

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 4 Dec 2008 12:39 pm

danny, that's jimmy baughman who lives up around auburn. he's the guy who could play like a hot steel player with his bender and chord grips and comping chops...great player and a nice guy. use to intimidate the heck out of me..now he's settled down and is a wonderful guy. i'll see if i can find his number for you and you can ask him about them.

Eric Jaeger · Post by **Eric Jaeger** » 4 Dec 2008 9:53 pm

Jerry Dragon wrote:
Brint Hannay wrote:Jim, Thanks a lot for that very informative post! That's the most complete information about the history of Stringbenders I've encountered anywhere.
I second that.

I third that. You may be the first who's actually unsnarled the genealogy of the Stringbender.

Some of us'll be interested when Dave gets around to offering his benders.

-eric

Mark Lind-Hanson · Post by **Mark Lind-Hanson** » 5 Dec 2008 5:54 am

Well thank you Jim for clearing all that up for me!

Jim Sliff · Post by **Jim Sliff** » 5 Dec 2008 5:57 pm

Thanks guys! I've been involved with these gadgets since hearing it in '68 and my goose was cooked (grin) I met Clarence in '72 and he clued me in on a few "tricks".

One quick note regarding Dave, Eric - the new Pullstring is available now:

www.evanspullstring.com

There will be some new pics up on his site shortly.