The B-bender is a built-in guitar accessory that allows you to raise the 2nd string (B string, next to the G string) a whole step with no hands. That leaves all 10 fingers to do other stuff at the same time.

It’s all done with body english, by performing a special secret “bender dance” that some of us know. The mechanical mechanism is hidden inside the guitar body. I was told it uses parts from a pedal steel, a screen door spring, and a couple of bolts from a garden tractor motor. This mimics the sound of a pedal steel guitar, but it has a sound all it’s own.

Catch up with me between sets and I’ll show you how it really works.  Hint: The front strap button on the guitar is not just a strap button any more.

One of my favorite guitars is a Telecaster with a Lapdancer neck. This particular neck is large and square, and specially designed for lap-style playing by Loni Specter. He calls this particular model a Redneck. The guitar itself is sunburst with a small Lollar pickup in the bridge position, that’s wound like an old Gibson P-90. The neck pickup is an overwound humbucker. I use very heavy strings and Spanish (lo-bass G) tuning that is very common in Delta Blues, Hawaiian, and other musical styles.  These photos were taken by Lesia Tatarskty at one of the recurring Sunday Blues Jams on the Missouri River at Huntsdale, MO.