Marty OWNS Clarence's ORIGINAL '54 Telecaster with the ORIGINAL PullString/StringBender (as it's actual name implies) and it's VERY HEAVY. I had the honor of playing that very guitar on July 17, 2008 when I was in a local band here where I live that had the honor of opening two shows for Marty & The Fabulous Superlatives in Hiawassee, GA at the Anderson Music Hall. It was a day that will literally stay with me for the rest of my Earthly life. Marty is a true country music historian and knows all about the bender mechanism and he and Clarence's family are dear friends to this very day. Marty even met Clarence one time.....but, that was the only time he met him. Susie (Clarence's wife & widow, sold Clarence's '54 Telecaster to Marty in either 1979 or 1980 for the sum of (get this) $1,450.00 along with some Byrds paraphernalia like the masks that were used on the album cover of "Byrdmaniax".....I could go on and on but....I won't bore you.

awesome video, i am a die heart for Clarence white's playing on the "sweetheart of rodeo". My favorite record of all time. good to see the héritage is still alive

I owned a small music store in Roswell GA in 1981-82 and one day some guy came in and dropped off a Marlin pedal steel. He said sell it if you can. I never could get a sound out of it because to play a steel you have to move your knees, feet, use a bar and finger pick like crazy. No one ever looked at it so when I closed the store I called him and said come back and pick up your beautiful green Marlin pedal steel. Oh, it was called " OK Music ". I sure did a lot of shredding in there and reading. Folks don't open a music store unless you have the cash you want to make for a year. Met some famous players who wandered in though. Good experience for a young 24 yr old guy.

Absolutely fantastic. Always great to hear someone talking about their love for Clarence.

So cool stuff. Love this easy going interview . Gene has a great YT video on making these B benders . He is quite a craftsman. I've been a fan of his since way back.

The College of Rock and Roll Knowledge FB post Birds 8 Miles High 3/14/66 - 3/14/22 brought me here. (Actually Norm Miller's comment, "Well, I don’t know about all of this, but what I do know that the 1972 show The Byrds put on at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania was the best concert I’ve ever been to! The band was at its best, and Clarence White’s string-bender guitar made 8 Miles High a truly epic event!"

Front row seat. Toooo coool😎!!

Man, I love the licks he was playing, not to "mock" major third licks, but his own were amazing sounding. I am also a Clarence White fan-atic. Very cool that you have a real 1970s Gene Parsons-installed B-Bender.

I'd like to take a dose of Acid and try a B bender someday,,,sooner than later🎸

Love it!

Marty Stewart made the same observation about Clarence - a smooth motion that wasn't obvious when he would bend the string. I've also heard others say that you need to either play a Pedal Steel or a Bender but pick one or the other. There are people with the skills to play both but they aren't the same sound, technique, or style. This interview with Jon is well worth listening to.

Thanks Jon 👍🏻

Awesome Jon!

Interesting Vid. Jon sounds like a little bit of a Bender purist. I've played dozens of country gigs as the "steel guitarist" (good steel players are hard to find in lots of places) using a b-bender Esquire. Works in a pinch.

Pete Townsend used a B Bender on Eminence Front as well

The fills on "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" wee played by Clarence White as a studio musician BEFORE he joined the Byrds and before Gene had made the original b-bender. Time Between as also recorded before Clarence was a member of the Byrds.

5:35 I'm starting to come around to the idea that pickups don't matter as much as the sum of the parts. I don't buy the "tonewood" argument in the sense that it has to be insanely expensive, old-growth, unobtanium blah blah blah... but guitars DO have a certain voice that swapping pickups won't necessarily change. I like SGs and got one a few years ago but realized I do NOT like PAF style humbucker pickups. That set me on a pickup swapping binge. First came a set of low output humbucker sized p90s. They were actually great but I wanted it to be a tad brighter. I tried Lollartrons, gold foils, telecaster-voiced pickups, and finally humbucker sized Firebird pickups. The dammed thing sounded almost exactly the same no matter what pickups I tried, and in some cases worse, than the original humbuckers. Go figure. I ended up selling it but if I had kept it I would've put the p90s back in it.

Great Video I Have A Dave Evans Pull String Dave Installed FOR Me In 1973 I Love It.

Wow, such a complicated setup. Those guys really wanted to bend that B string!

Tonewood argument and riff gatekeeping in the same breath. My man is a walking Reddit post! 😉 But for real, great info and amazing playing

I've always mentioned that people buy upgrade parts for beautiful budget guitars before the guitar arrives. They can replace ever conceivable part on the guitar except for the wood which you can't replace the wood! That's how I buy my guitars with the features that I am looking for! I don't even have a soldering gun!

I have been a lead guitarist most of my life and have never had the opportunity to play a b bender equipped guitar. It's a sound I have always appreciated. My only question is does it cause tuning issues?

I have the Will Ray Hip-Shot set up and bend my B and G strings. Fit them yourself without marking the guitar in any way. Check out Will playing with The Hellecasters.

I sure would like to know the serial number on Jon's B-bender because I own one with a fairly early serial number of 0123. I talked to Gene about it and he said he didn't keep records on his builds so he couldn't tell me exactly when my B-bender was made. I would really like to know when mine was made.

What’s that next to him on his left with the red knobs ?

Nice #EarXTacy shirt

Marty Stuart...that is Clarence White's original b-bender.

Is this the guy that played with Ryan adams?

i own a 80s model b bender telecaster that i got from my uncle Billy Ray Lathum, he played the banjo with Clarence and Roland white, the b bender installed and signed by Gene Parsons, I'll never part with it

You two look like you could be twins

The bender came along before Parsons and White did their thing.. research it a little more, there's more history to it. Brad Paisley uses a g Bender, same mechanism on a different string. Some people like myself use both, Jimmy Olander is really the king of double bender guitar.

"If the wood is good, it doesn't matter what the pickups are" - ???

The comment about the pickups and electronics having nothing to do with the sound and all the sound comes from the wood is incorrect.

>santa fe new mexico >wearing an ear-x-tacy shirt Hmmm

Butchery!!! 🙄