B Benders for dobro

[Michael Breid]

Besides the Bigsby Palm Pedals which are hard to find, has anyone invented B benders for a dobro. I would like to find some benders for the D (1st) as well as the B (2nd). With my small fingers I'm unable to "pull" the first or second string while playing like some of the guys with Georgia hams for fingers. If anyone has any Bigsby Palm Pedal "arms" they are not using I'd like to purchase them. I can mount my Bigsby Tele base on my dobro.

[Brad Bechtel]

Here's a discussion from 2001 that may be relevant. Unfortunately the links on that page are no longer active.

[Lee Rider]

I work with Gene Parsons of StringBender. Gene started working on a foot pedal idea for Buck Owens years ago but the project died when Buck passed away. We worked up a prototype bender pulling with the strap from the headstock that worked pretty well but we both got busy and did not pursue the idea. It worked pretty well, just push out on the neck.

[K Maul]

Duesenberg makes palm levers that raise OR lower strings. A spring holds the string to be lowered up to pitch. They are expensive but very well engineered. On this G tuned Beard Decophonic it drops #2 B-A and raises #3G-G#.

[Lee Rider]

Duesenberg makes palm levers that raise OR lower strings. A spring holds the string to be lowered up to pitch. They are expensive but very well engineered. On this G tuned Beard Decophonic it drops #2 B-A and raises #3G-G#.

I have one of the Duesenberg dobro benders. Set up for raising strings 1 and 2 but found that doing 2 raises at the same time really puts it out of tune. Have not tried a lower yet, figured that I might need a roller bridge for that.

[K Maul]

I have one of the Duesenberg dobro benders. Set up for raising strings 1 and 2 but found that doing 2 raises at the same time really puts it out of tune. Have not tried a lower yet, figured that I might need a roller bridge for that.

I’ve tried D tuning, raising string 2 a whole and 3 a half. Generally I found it awkward so that’s why I tried lowering the B to A. I like it. Raising G-G# gives me a fuller dom 7 3 frets up and other useful passing chords. A roller bridge wouldn’t work for me because of the Fishman pickup. I use a graphite pencil on the grooves in the bridge and nut and that keeps the bends smooth. No need for a roller.

[D Schubert]

A long time ago, I mounted a Hipshot B-Bender on my Dobro, replacing the standard tailpiece. Tuned it to open E and could raise the B to C# when seated, like a right knee lever right. It was functional, but I put it back to stock after a period of experimentation.

With the Hipshot bender or Trilogy multi-tuner tailpiece, the change in string tension does result in some tuning/de-tuning issues.