A Mint Candy Apple Red B-Bender Telecaster.

1999 Fender Telecaster (Nashville B Bender).

This 'custom color' Nashville B Bender Telecaster weighs 9.80 lbs. and has a nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Solid alder body, one-piece maple neck with a medium-to-thin profile. Maple fretboard with 22 original medium jumbo frets and black dot position markers. Headstock decal with "Fender"  logo in silver with black trim. Individual Fender closed-back tuners with five-sided metal buttons. Single string tree. Four-bolt neck plate with 'Micro-Tilt' adjustment and "Fender / Corona / California" stamped in the center. Small black decal with serial number "N9413028" on back of headstock. Three single-coil pickups: one plain metal-cover pickup at neck position with an output of 7.42k, one Texas Special Stratocaster pickup with staggered polepiecesand an output of 3.63k in the middle position, and one black six-polepiece pickup angled in bridgeplate with an output of 6.81k. Three-layer pearloid/black/white plastic pickguard with eight screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) plus five-way selector switch for Strat-o-Tele switching with 'round' tip, all on metal plate adjoining pickguard. Chrome knobs with flat tops and knurled sides. Fender American Telecaster combined bridge/tailpiece with six fully-adjustable stainless steel saddles. Custom "Fender 'B' Bender / Parsons/Green / String Bender system fitted to back of body.This guitar is in mint (9.50) condition. Complete with all the original hang tags and case candy incuding the Fender/Schaller Straplock Buttons. Housed in the original Fender black rectangular three-latch hardshell case with black leather ends and red plush lining (9.50).

"The B-Bender is a mechanical device that raises the pitch of a Telecaster’s B string by a whole tone (up to C#), producing plaintive, sinuous bends very much like those produced on a pedal steel guitar. This is accomplished by spring-loaded levers inside the guitar’s body, which connect the bridge to the strap button on the upper bout. The strap button itself is attached to a lever that moves up and down about an inch. When you wear the guitar over your shoulder and you push the neck downward, the guitar strap pulls the strap button upward, activating the lever system and raising the pitch of the B string. The B-Bender was invented by two country-rock pioneers, guitarist Clarence White and multi-instrumentalist Gene Parsons, both of whom played in Nashville West and the Byrds, among other acts, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Their device was called the Parsons/White Pull-String, and it was designed to fit White’s 1954 Telecaster (White was killed by a drunk driver in 1973; his guitar with the prototype bender mechanism is now owned by Marty Stuart, who has played it often). After licensing the Parsons/White Pull-String to another manufacturer in the early 1970s, Parsons renamed it the StringBender and began making and installing it himself in 1973. He produced hundreds of units over many years before partnering with California folk musician Meridian Green in 1989 to increase production. Parsons and Green eventually approached the Fender Custom Shop, resulting in the signature Clarence White Telecaster model, which was introduced in 1995 and featured the modified “Parsons-White B-Bender.” About 200 of these guitars were built through 2002.

Not long after the Custom Shop’s 1995 introduction of the B-Bender-equipped White model, however, Fender also decided to introduce a production version of the guitar. Parson and Green modified the B-Bender once again for the mass production of this instrument, which was introduced in 1996 as the American Standard B-Bender Telecaster. A three-pickup version of this two-pickup model was introduced in 1998. The Fender Nashville B-Bender Tele Electric Guitar was modeled after the personally customized guitars of some of Nashville's top players. This versatile instrument can open new worlds of music to you. It features the Parsons-Green B-Bender system and adds a Texas Special Strat pickup in the middle position and 5-way Strat-o-Tele switching. "Our Nashville B-Bender Telecaster guitar was inspired by the customized instruments of top Nashville players, and produces those plaintive country bends and spine-tingling steel guitar glissandos. This model features a Texas Special Strat pickup in the middle position, five-way Strat-o-Tele switching, and the B-Bender string bending system, which puts those beguiling pedal steel licks right at your fingertips.

If the whole concept of the B-Bender sounds a bit strange, keep in mind that you’ve very likely heard it before. You might not own a copy of the Byrds’ Live at the Fillmore: February 1969, which features Clarence White’s sterling use of the B-Bender, but you probably have heard “All My Love” by Led Zeppelin and “Peaceful Easy Feeling” by the Eagles, both of which feature a B-Bender. Other guitarists who have put a B-Bender to good use include James Hetfield (Metallica), Pete Townshend, Albert Lee, Rich Robinson (Black Crowes), Mike Campbell (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers), Peter Buck (R.E.M.) and David Gilmour." (http://www.fender.com/news/index).