Is it true that you need two or more fingers on a string when you preform a bend, and should you use the same none finger moving wrist motion that you use for vibratos, or is it O.K. to use your fingers to bend the strings.
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How many fingers you need depends on the strength of your fingers. Stevie Ray Vaughan managed bends on amazingly heavy strings (his high E was generally .13). He could bend those with one or two fingers. Most people find it diffcult to bend 9's satisfactorily.
Yes, you really need to use a wrist action, rather than a pure finger action.
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I have .11-.50s. And thanks.
"The answer is practice.
Now, what's the question?"
Words by David Mead.
For a whole step bend, I use 3 fingers. I keep my fingers locked in place and use my wrist to bend. Like turning a doornob. I use 9's or 10's for string size. The hard part is bending to the correct pitch!
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It is possible to do it just with your fingers, but if you want to add vibrato to your bend you really need to do it the proper way: using your wrist insetad of the fingers. I have the same gauge as you have and I find it VERY tough to do a proper vibrato on a full bend. :cry:
I've got 9's on my esp and I ussually can't get a full bend to sound right without using two fingers. I pretty much always just use my fingers to bend and then use the wrist for the vibrato.
When doing huge bends say on a 7th fret, I put my ring finger on 7, then my middle on 6 to bend, my middle finger stays a little higher to move the next string out of the way so I don't get any unwanted sounds out of it. You don't need to do this on half or ussually full bends, but if you wanna go past that I recommend this technique.
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Thanx for the help. I've almost got it down.
"The answer is practice.
Now, what's the question?"
Words by David Mead.
The solo from Another Brick in the Wall has a 2.5 step bend on the 13th fret of the B string - I can do it on 10s but not 11s - takes all three fingers. I find I always bend with my ring finger anyway.
Vibrato on a bend is different from a non bend. With a non bend you just hold the note and shake your wrist along the direction of the fretboard - on a bend you vibrato by actually bending and unbending a little amount quickly, ie. moving your hand at 90 degress to the direction of the fretboard. Different technique entirely.
Of course you can use the bend vibrato technique on a non bend note but you can't vibrato as fast that way. I like starting out (on a non bend note) with a slow vibrato, then speeding up a lot and speeding down again - sounds very dynamic - hard to do with the bending technique.
Luck
