The
Epiphone EZ-Bender reviewed
Epiphone’s EZ-bender
brings B-bendability to stop tailpiece guitars at a very reasonable
price, is easy to fit and requires no permanent modifications
to the guitar.
Designed by Richard
Bowden, the Epiphone EZ-bender ships in a blister pack, along
with an instructional video tape (NTSC) an Allen key and two rubber
shims. Fitting instructions are printed on the back of the pack
and fitting is demonstrated by Richard at the end of the video
tape.
Manufactured from brass
and steel and finished in a satin nickel plate, the EZ-bender
consists of a square bar, approximately 12 cm long, with a ‘C’
shaped clamp at one end. This clamp fits over a stop tailpiece
and is locked into place by two hollow hex screws, that locate
in the string holes in either edge of the tailpiece. Two rubber
shims, of different thickness to allow for the different sizes
in stop tailpieces, are supplied. One of these shims is fitted
between the top of the tailpiece and the ‘C’ clamp
and helps to stop any movement between the EZ-bender and the tailpiece.
A palm operated lever is attached by a hinge pin to the far end
of the square section bar. A grooved, round, cam is formed at
the hinge end of this palm lever. In use the B string is run under
a small pulley at the front of the ‘C’ clamp, through
the hole in the tailpiece, via the two hollow hex screws, along
underneath the square bar, around the groove in the cam on the
end of the palm lever and eventually attached, by hooking its
ball end over a small steel pin on the lever. String tension pulls
the palm lever up, away from the top of the guitar, until it hits
a stop pin above the hinge. The player can then push down on the
lever using the palm of the picking hand. As the lever moves down
the cam rotates around the hinge and the string is stretched,
raising the pitch. An adjustable stop screw, fitted to the lever,
allows setting so that the string pitch changes by a fixed musical
interval, usually a whole tone.
Fitting the EZ-bender
is pretty easy, since all that’s really involved is locking
the ‘C’ clamp into position by tightening the rear
hex screw with the supplied key, after first removing the B string
from the guitar. Inserting one of the supplied rubber shims between
the inside surface of the clamp and the top of the tailpiece before
tightening the clamp helps keep everything solid. To make things
easier the ‘C’ clamp detaches from the rest of the
assembly, the parts are held together by a cunning combination
of an internal steel post and chevron joint. This arrangement
means that the EZ-bender can be swiveled and folded down against
the face of the guitar, for transport, after slackening the B
string. Once the clamp is locked in place, the second part can
be slid back on the post joint and the new string fitted and tuned.
The design of the EZ-bender means that, although the B string
is the usual choice (since that string is tuned at a major third
from the G string instead of the fourth interval found between
the other strings) it can be fitted to any string. Two EZ-benders
can even be fitted to the same guitar. However use of a bridge
with roller saddles, such as those made by Schaller, is probably
advisable if the EZ-bender is used on a wound string.
The accompanying VHS
tape contains a wealth of instructional material on the use of
the EZ-bender in addition to a demonstration of its installation
by its inventor Richard Bowden and a message from Epiphone president
Jim Rosenburg. String bending wizard Dan Schaffer presents nine
examples of riffs and licks using Epiphone Coronet, Sheraton and
Les Paul guitars all fitted with one or more EZ-benders.
In use the EZ-bender
performs faultlessly and it’s almost eerie the way in which
an Epiphone Sheraton ‘335 style’ guitar can suddenly
morph from a blues / jazz machine to a country picking monster.
On the downside having a palm lever sitting just behind the bridge
may not suite some peoples playing styles, particularly the more
flamboyant and the EZ-bender is a lot more at risk to being accidentally
knocked and damaged than the original Parsons/White design. Overall
though the Epiphone EZ-bender is a brilliant little gadget and
it’s probably the easiest way to get a bender (or two) on
your guitar. If you have a stop tailpiece guitar the EZ-bender
is highly recommended.
Copyright 2003 Terry
Relph-Knight |
|
The
history of guitar string benders The
Hawaiian music craze that started in 1930’s in America resulted
in the manufacture of large numbers of ‘Lap Steel’
electric guitars. These simple instruments are not much more than
a block of wood with strings stretched over it with a pickup at
one end. A lap steel is played using a steel bar (hence the name)
to control pitch, by sliding it along the strings to adjust the
vibrating length. This technique limits the chords that may be
played and the instrument must be re-tuned to play in different
keys. Lap steel guitars eventually evolved into the Pedal Steel
guitar, an instrument of far greater sophistication. It’s
available in many variations and utilises numerous knee levers
and foot-pedals to change the tension and therefore the pitch,
of various strings between fixed intervals while the instrument
is being played, allowing key changes and giving it a characteristic
sliding sound.
Back in 1968, the guitarist Clarence White of the Byrds had the
wild idea of fitting a lever to his Telecaster that would allow
him to change the pitch of the B string to emulate some of the
sound of the pedal steel guitar. The original Parsons/White B
bender is a complex arrangement of levers and springs that can
only be fitted to a Telecaster and requires massive modifications
to the guitar body. The bend on the B bender is activated through
pulling down on the upper strap button. The button is mounted
on the end of a lever that sits in a routed channel running along
almost the entire length of the body of the guitar. Other levers
and springs translate the movement of the strap lever into the
rotation of a pulley mounted just behind the bridge on the top
surface of the guitar. The ball end of the B string is attached
to this pulley so the string pitch changes as the pulley rotates.
Although the original
Parsons/White B Bender is still available today it is the most
complex and expensive string bending mechanism, it only fits Telecasters
and it requires a lot of skilled work to fit it. Over the years
various other string benders have been developed, such as the
Joe Glaser bender, the Mackenzie 3 string puller cable pedal,
the Hipshot String Bending system and the updated Fender Parsons/Green
B Bender, but none of them are designed for stop tailpiece guitars.
NOTE - It's obvious
from our site logs that there is continuing interest in the Mackenzie
string puller. While this device is a fine piece of engineering,
unfortunately, as far as we know, the Mackenzie company ceased
trading several years ago. |
