Today’s video is called
“10 Cool Ways to Bend Your Guitar Strings”.
Please watch and see if you know some
or all of these techniques!
BTW, People have been asking a lot about my amp sound lately… I’ve been
using a killer new practice amp which I actually mic’d up properly in this
video today. Check it out to hear how phat the tone really is.
Best part is you can grab one for yourself.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE ATOMIC AMP DEAL
Hey, how’s it going this is Claude Johnson with Guitar Control, I’m really excited about today’s lesson. It’s called “10 Cool Ways to Bend Your Guitar Strings”.
Before I get started, a lot of people have been asking me about my amp and my settings. Lately I’ve been using a Meteoro Atomic Drive 20 amplifier. It’s an amazing practice amp and also it doubles as a guitar head. You can plug it into a cabinet, like a 4X12 guitar cabinet and get some amazing sounds.
So if you like the tone, I definitely encourage you to pick one up. I actually can hook you up with an awesome deal. We’ve got it at a discount price.
Just go to guitarcontrol.com/atomic and pick up the Atomic amp.
So let’s get ready for the lesson and I’ll zoom-up on the fret board. The first bend is the bend with vibrato. So we know vibrato is shaking the notes.
So first let me just demonstrate vibrato, and then a bend without vibrato, and a bend with vibrato.
The next technique is the repeat bend. This means we’re bending, releasing and then bending again so we can get a nice effect. You can do this at different speeds and you can also combine it. You can do the repeat bend and then bend with vibrato.
The third technique is the bend with delayed vibrato. This means we’re bending without vibrato, holding it in place and then adding the vibrato after a slight pause. So it’s a very expressive technique.
The fourth technique,is the rake bend. This means raking across the strings as we go into the bend. This is like a Stevie Ray Vaughan
trademark. It gives it a little bit of edge to it.
Number five is the oversize bend. Normally we would bend up a whole step or a half step. Oversize bend would be like one-and-a-half steps or even two steps. A normal bend could go or like two-and-a-half step bends. You can just do some crazy bends. Just be careful, you might break a string.
Number six is the compound bend. This means you’re bending up and then you kind of stop on the way up at one note and go up to the next note. In practice this is really done with a lots of repeat bend and the oversize bend. So you might bend up, come back and then bend. This is like a David Gilmore style. Anywhere you can use that is great. When you’re actually doing it there’s a lot of bend and releasing that you might do. Rarely would you just bend and then go up. But that’s basically the technique.
That next technique, number seven, is the double-stop bend. You’re bending two notes at the same time. A great place to do this is on the G and B strings. The key with this one is to bend down. Sometimes that’s called a choke. You’ve got your middle finger on the 9th fret of the G string, ring finger on the 9th fret of the B string and you can just tug them down together. That’s the double-stop bend.
The next technique, number eight, is the unison bend. What that means is playing two different notes and the note on the lower string we’re bending up to make it in unison, or the same pitch, as the higher note. I’ve got my 1st finger on the 7th fret of the B string and my ring finger on the 9th fret of the G string. I’m in the key of B and I’m going to bend up the G string so it matches this F sharp here. You’ve seen Hendrix to this a lot. And you can add vibrato to that, too. You can also do it on the higher strings, again, same principle. Instead of two frets apart you’d be kind of three frets apart.
The next bend, number nine, is what I call the hybrid bend. It’s like the unison bend, but you’re not bending necessarily in unison, but you are bending just the longer string when you’re playing two strings. A great example is this one, Hendrix style. For this one I’ve got my pinkie on the 10th fret of the B string and my ring finger on the 9th fret of the G and then I’m just bending up with the G string.
Finally, number 10 is the pre-bend. So this means you’re bending up to the pitch without playing the note and when you play you’re already at that bent note and then you release it. So it’s a very lyrical, expressive kind of vibe.
So there you have it, “10 Cool Ways to Bend Your Guitar Strings”. Again, if you like the tone I encourage you to pick-up one of these Meteoro guitar amplifiers. We’ll give you a great price on it. Just go to guitarcontrol.com/atomic. Go there right now and check-out the dealio and stay tuned for some more guitar goodies.
