No Whammy Bar. OK to Bend the Guitar ?
 

Love my Classic Vibe fixed-bridge Tele but love my tremolo bars as well. I notice that I can get a bit of bent tones by pulling the neck towards me. I've seen this done by performers frequently. Question is: Assuming this is harmful to a guitar in the long run, will it significantly reduce the life of the neck or body, and will the neck eventually "soften up", getting so weak it can't withstand the string tension ?:confused:

unless you are monstrously strong, i wouldn't worry about it. people have been doing it for many years.

play music!

Yeah, what could possibly go wrong??

https://www.tomasmichaud.com/wp-cont...ken-guitar.jpg

;)

I have seen someone break a neck doing this. He got a little too into it and was just cranking on the neck all the time. The good news with a Tele is that you can always get out the phillips head screw driver, unscrew 4 screws and put a new neck on....unless you damage the neck pocket.

I suppose if you're going to stress the neck often you could add some collars and machine screws to your neck attachment:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/GUITAR-NECK...lt-On-Guitar-N


I've never actually installed these before...

Easier to push on the strings past the nut.

https://i1.wp.com/rollingbender.com/...elog.png?w=800

Rolling Bender makes a nice B and/or G bender that can be used on 3 or 6 saddle Teles.

I used to do this all the time and it never seemed to hurt a Telecaster. It's not like you're going to attempt or expect Floyd Rose style pitch shifts.

After years of avoiding them, I now actually use a Bigsby on a Tele sometimes.

Ken Dykes used to do it all the time on a Stratocaster. He said he just threw them in a dumpster after a year or so.

I've always avoided doing it even though I know it's probably fine if not done constantly or with too much force and as long as you have the right guitar (I'd really be hesitant with a set-neck). I do know that Slash had one of his Les Pauls "explode" (his words, not mine) when doing this but that's hardly grounds for a blanket prohibition.

Threw them in a dumpster? That should answer the OP’s question.

I’m not sure about some of these answers. I’ve been doing it on acoustics and electrics for over 30 years, with no issues. Granted, I haven’t been doing it to the same guitars for that long, and maybe not to the same degree, but I’ve never even considered it enough of an issue to be concerned with. Are you talking half and/or whole note bends? Or just a nice vibrato?

Mark

Slack key masters do it all the time. Berry Flanagan of Hapa uses this technique almost every song. Jeff Peterson also, but not as often. Our other guitar player use to do this with his Tele, but now plays an electric with a whammy bar.

JB from Widespread Panic does it all the time. Even in liner notes he refers to his role as singer & guitar bender

Lots and lots of people do this. Especially with an electric like a Tele, with a truss rod and a bolt-on neck, you're not going to harm anything, certainly if you just use it for mild tremolo. If you want to do dive bombs, get a bar and use that instead.

Note to self: Don’t buy a used guitar from Tele111.😀