The Steel Guitar Forum

"Look, Mom, no pedals"
A nice way, to do at least a few sounds that otherwise are limited to PSGs.
Got it a few weeks ago, attached it to my old Gretsch Syncromatic and now I'm trying to get familiar with it:

Lapsteel Waltz with Multibender

.. and don't complain about my obviously non-existing slant technique
That will be the next thing to work on.

Great job Peter - you are actually the first person I've seen play something utilizing the bender.
What kind of steel is that?

Jerome Hawkes wrote: What kind of steel is that?

Hi Jerome,

thank you for your kind words!
Did you mean steel guitar or steel bar?
The first is a Gretsch Syncromatic, the last my signature model from "Daddy Slide":
http://www.daddyslide.de/index.php/de/s ... /petersone

Greetings,
Peter

H Peter, I checked out the bar demo videos also and nice playing and sound. Jerome you should check out Nob Sugino/Fruits of Fortune on Youtube. That was the first video with the benders I saw.
Dennis

Dennis - thanks for the tip. I checked it out, and while I really do appreciate and respect each individual following their inner musical creativity - I really do - that's the joy of music - I have to stick with my initial praise to Peter and say its good to see someone finally use this new device to play a tune.

I've been using a Multibender since they first became available. Although it can't do everything a pedal steel can there's no set-up time, so it's a great to just leave a lap steel in the trunk of your car and pull it out at short notice.


I made the mistake of buying four levers. In practice I find that I just fold two of them out of the way most of the time. Two is all you really need.
Check out these other discussions on palm levers...
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... duesenberg
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... g&start=25
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... duesenberg
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/posting. ... &p=1696287

I think you convinced me, the next guitar I build is going to have a palm bender on it. Very nice work, it sounded very natural in a way that I have not heard palm benders sound in the past.

nice playing utilizing the bender & slants......

Sounds great.
Are you using E7 tuning there?

Nice job Peter! Great playing and your clip shows it off well.

I've built a few steels with the Dusenberg multibender and although they are not cheap, they are a well made and cool little unit. About the only problem I've had with them is that some brands or batches of strings can have an excessive breakage issue. The quality of the string is not really the issue, but rather the length of the wrap at the ball end. If your experiencing string breakage at the end of the wrap transition like the below pic, then this should help.

Whats happening is that the transition point is riding directly on the pivot point of the benders axle. The fix is to move the wrap section back off the pivot point. There are a couple basic ways to accomplish this. Either find a string with a shorter wrap or use a string like a Fender Bullet that has no wrap. Another option is to take a brass ball end off an old string and thread it onto the new string before putting it on. What this does is move the wraps transition point back about an 1/8" and off the axles pivot point.

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All guitars with tremolo arms, and all pedal steel guitars, have roller nuts, and tremolo-fitted guitars also have roller bridges. These are necessary to avoid string breakage, and to ensure that the strings don't stick at the nut, but return to their proper pitch when the pedal/lever is released.

The Achilles Heel of the Duesenberg Multibender is that people fit it without changing the nut to rollers, and that shortens string life.

Also, I've found that the springs aren't strong enough to return the bass strings to pitch after the lever is released.

It's a shame that it was designed such that you can only attach one string to each lever. Otherwise the levers could be set up like the pedals in E9.

Once again, it's a shame that they don't make an 8-string version, but you can get round that by building a second bridge and having two of the strings bypass the Multibender unit.

Alan Brookes wrote:All guitars with tremolo arms, and all pedal steel guitars, have roller nuts, and tremolo-fitted guitars also have roller bridges.

Very few vibrato-equipped guitars have either roller bridges or nuts. You can get LSR nuts from Fender... I don't find them worth the time, graphite in the form of pencil lead is what's normally used. The only roller bridges are the Kahler and the Wonderbar... and they suck the life out of the tone. The absolute best situation is locking nut with a rocking bridge a la Floyd Rose... still doesn't have the tone of a Fender Strat, but you won't find it going out of tune at all. The world needs a keyless Strat!

TWO ball ends over the string before installation and no more breakage,and i have tried lots of diff strings ,Bulletts do NOT work the ends come off real easy.I even modified the pivot point shaft.Special strings,TWO BALL ENDS OVER THE STRING BEFORE INSTALLING AND PRESTO,NO PROBLEMS ANYMORE

Jeff Mead wrote:Sounds great.
Are you using E7 tuning there?

I'm using Open D. The first lever raises the second string from A to B, the second lever raises the third string from F# to G.

@Tom and Carl:
Thanks for your tips. But since I'm using the multibender only for a few days, there was no time to experience string breakage

I have an sx lap steel like the one in the thread. I was wondering if the palm pedals would work well with a c6 tuning and what strings you would put them on.

Since i got my bender ,i tried a lot of different ways to use it with C6 and seems like just bending one string was the only thing that made any sense.I'm no expert but i found it just wouldnt justify buying one for a 6 string lap in C6th.If a person could get one for an 8 str,it would make more sense..My 2$ worth.

Clayton Pashka wrote:I have an sx lap steel like the one in the thread. I was wondering if the palm pedals would work well with a c6 tuning and what strings you would put them on.

Maybe E -> F
and C -> D

Or if you wanted elements of the E9 sound
I'd suggest G -> A
and E -> F
(a bit like the A&B pedals on E9) which gives you a nice C-F change as well as C-Am

Because with palm pedals you are limited to raises rather than lowers, they seem to me to work better with E tunings (E B G# on the top 3) and the standard AB setup
(G# -> A and B -> C#)

Maybe the guys over on the pedal area might be able to help?

You can srt the bender to raise OR lower ,but not both on sme string.Anyone have a setup if you were to lower a string,to make a 6 string C6th??