You like the Telecaster B-Bender? Means nothing to you? But there is a strong chance that you’ve heard it and appreciated the effect, without even knowing it existed. It’s a mechanism which, on a Fender Telecaster electric guitar, allows the musician, while he is playing, to move up or down the tone of the B-string (2nd from the bottom) and obtain a very recognisable portamento or glissando melodic effect. The melodic interval between two adjacent notes is not done in a step, but by a continuous slide. The first B-Bender was invented almost 59 years ago for the guitarist Clarence White, a member of The Byrds. This clever device is used by the musician by putting tension on the shoulder strap which attaches to the guitar via a lever which – via a mechanism – stretches or relaxes the string. There now exists, and it’s that of which we now speak, a quadruple bender made with four servos controlled by an Arduino by means of pedals. Alas, the video below does not show the pedal...