While guitarists have been hotrodding their guitars from time immemorial, certain modifications designed by musicians stand out more than others. There was Les Paul's original "log", the first solid-body electric guitar, which led directly to his design efforts with Gibson. Then there was Jimi Hendrix's flipped over, restrung right-handed Stratocaster, which radically affected his sound and technique. Another intriguing and long lasting guitarist invention was the B-Bender, originally designed and built by Gene Parsons and the late Clarence White of the Byrds for White's Fender Telecaster electric guitar.

Guitar.com recently assembled a list of albums that featured the Parsons-White B-Bender on at least one song. For fans of rock and roll, Led Zeppelin's "All My Love" from their mega-selling In Through The Out Door album of 1979, is probably the most frequently heard example of a B-Bender in action, since it still gets frequent airplay on AOR stations. All of those sweet-sounding bends were played by Jimmy Page on his B-Bender-equipped Telecaster (the instrument he's playing in the photo above). Another popular tune with lots of B-Bender action is "Peaceful, Easy Feeling", by the Eagles.

The B-Bender, popular since the early 1970s amongst Nashville's hottest guitarists, was originally designed by Parsons and White in 1966. It's a series of cams and levers that run through the body of the guitar from the strap holder above the guitar's neck to under the tailpiece of the guitar, where it manipulates the guitar's b-string. It allows a guitarist to bend one note while holding others, and it also allows him to bend notes faster in succession than is possible for most players using only their fingers. For chordal playing, a chord can be strung and held and a note in the chord bent higher.

Parsons recently told me:

I was doing some sessions with Clarence White, and Clarence was one of the very first ones to chime a string-the B-string, or high E-string, and pull it over the nut of a Telecaster. We were doing a session, and we put down the rhythm track, and then he was putting down the lead part over it-a real simple lead part-and he wanted to chime the string and pull it over the nut, and then he wanted to do it at the second position and the third position. And he said, 'Gee, I wish I could that. But I'd need a third hand!'

So we were fooling around, just kind of kidding around there, and I said, 'Well, I'll be your third hand. I'll pull the string up over the nut.'

So we fooled around, and we recorded it, and it was never used, but it was fun. But of course, the idea remained: how can we do this? And of course, the first thing I said, 'well, I can rig up a bridge on the back of your guitar here, and attach cables and foot pedals'.

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