First: sustain. It's markedly better; playing a single note, then pull/release, pull again, moving my fretting hand too, and the note is still singing after a single pick-stroke.
Biggest improvement for me, though, is the new string-loading gizmo. My old bender (2009) was a bear to restring, involving capos and much stress to the operator! The new one is great - just feed the cut end of the string through a tiny tube. It's then guided out over the saddle and, after that, it's a breeze to tune when there's no fear of the ball-end becoming dislodged.
It's now possible to dissemble the saddles and adjust the bender to pull the G. I can't see enough applications for that pull. Would I like to be able to pull both the 2nd and 3rd? Yes!!! But the single option was $600, the double, $1200.
One last point. I paid $600 back in 2009 and, just a month or so ago, I paid just $600 - sixteen years later.
Okay: one 'before' picture, and a close-up of Joe's new bridge-assembly.
