ChordBender.com
Title
ChordBender, Inc.
Description
ChordBender electric guitars were introduced in late 2009 and include a newly patented & advanced Tremolo/Whammy Bar/Vibrato system. ChordBender, Inc. in Ohio says it had identified a number of problems with other whammies. It then says it succeeded in producing a whammy without those problems. Physics fact: the same amount of extra stretching will change the pitch of one of the strings by roughly three to five times as much as one of the others. Problem with almost all existing tremolo devices: they decrease the stretching of all strings by essentially the same amount so the most sensitive string changes pitch by about 4 times as much as the least sensitive one. This means the harmony is dramatically altered, even for fairly minor vibrato. http://www.chordbender.com/ has videos showing the properties of various whammies, samples of a new kind of guitar music based on “bent chords” (some on YouTube), a description of the various ChordBender models now available, etc. It also has a video (Why ChordBender Works) showing how dramatically differently each string needs to be released so all strings change pitch by the same amount (useful information for those using their fingers to bend strings to change pitch). ChordBender says it decided to address the following concerns before designing their whammied guitar: 1) almost all whammies change the pitch of the various strings by significantly different amounts (destroy the harmony of the notes played initially), 2) retuning one string usually results in changing the pitch of strings already tuned, making tuning unnecessarily hard, 3) the arms are too hard to operate (require too much force), 4) many whammies can also rapidly become out-of-tune due to the operation of the whammy, 5) they can audibly squeak/creak as strings catch on various sources of friction, 6) it is usually unnecessarily difficult to replace strings, 7) some will not allow the pitch to be increased (which makes vibrato unnatural and limits usage), 8) pickup alignment looked “random” at guitar stores, 9) the arms would often “droop” and not be in a predictable place when the musician reached for the arm, 10) the arm was not adjustable to be where the musician wants it, 11) the arm’s positioning could not optionally and adjustably be limited so the picking hand had a predictable placement relative to the strings, Once ChordBender was confident that harmonious whammies could be efficiently produced they made their whammy to - 1) have an easy and optional feature (a Half-step Stop) to guarantee perfect bends (up or down) of whole chords (or a single notes for predictably perfect oblique bends), 2) be readily adjusted for when alternative tunings are used (guitarists now use many tunings), 3) be readily adjusted for when different thicknesses of strings are used, 4) be readily adjusted to allow morphing chords (A Minor to G Major), 5) not need adjustment after being set initially (a problem with some guitars), 6) use “standard” strings, 7) have a convenient main spring adjuster, 8) have bearings to reduce friction (knife-edge pivots tend to curle instead of wear out), 9) look attractive
Excerpted from the website:
- 2. New "Half-step stop": You can automatically bend chords or individual notes down exactly one half-step using the built-in "half-step stop" - when you want. Accurately prebending strings is a problem for even the best professional guitarist. Now you can play a perfect note and consistently and confidently release it precisely a half step with the whammy ! The whammy will keep you from overdoing the release.
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