The Steel Guitar Forum

I have built amps out of aluminum channel, but it's not the prettiest material. They make nice, uniform extrusions that wouldn't look too bad.

I should make one out of a length of structural aluminum. It would be a lot easier than finishing wood.

I have seen composite guitars from Israel before. Supposedly the sustain is superior, and they don't warp.

Beautiful.

Really excellent.

I was given Mupirocin because I had a bad scrape on my ankle, and my doctor wasn't sure the regular stuff was getting the job done. He said they don't like to prescribe it because they want to hold it in reserve as bacteria become more resistant to the old antibiotics. I do not put it on my bar. Not...

That's weird. That stuff is hard to get, and I happen to have some.

That tone is so great. It looks like you're picking around frets 15-17. I find my hand naturally moves toward the bridge, where the tone is tinny.

Watching that video makes me feel like a tourist watching a game of three-card Monte. I'll keep staring at it though.

I found a video of a guy doing it, and it looks like he makes no effort to pluck the string with the bar. He just picks up very quickly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpW0y1G7S60

Is there a trick to doing good pulloffs with a bullet bar? I finally managed it by putting a finger to the left of the bar and using it simultaneously, but I have no idea whether that's normal. If I don't do this, I get a buzz.

I wonder if Warmoth could help. They sell a gigantic variety of pickguards made from different materials. I don't know if they do custom work, but maybe they can cut out a control plate from a tracing. At the very least, they could probably sell you the correct color.

http://www.warmoth.com/

Very nice! I would turn it up and add reverb to kill the air conditioner, though.

Maybe my comment wasn't brilliant, though. I know it can be a real pain getting machining done.

Drill press is the wrong tool. You need a lathe. A job like this would take 15 minutes.

This has been an interesting discussion which I have enjoyed. Thanks Steve, for initiating the topic. You're welcome. If I made a useful contribution, it was probably a fluke. Now that I am a veteran with almost four days of practice behind me, I have learned a number of interesting things. For exa...

I love the tone of that Century 6. I am tempted to get a BR-9 with that pickup, for those times when the humbucker isn't doing it for me.

Thanks again. This is one of the strangest things I've taken up, and coming from me, that's saying something. I look forward to interacting with all of you.

Sounds wonderful.

I have some decent tools. I'm thinking I'll wait until I figure out what I want, and then I'll try making one.

This is all interesting. I was referring to a Troy Brenningmeyer video. He uses a Scheerhorn dobro bar, and he lifts the back end when playing notes on the high strings. After watching him, I just assumed lifting was standard practice. I'm wondering if the bar I got is too short. I should have paid ...

One of the instructional videos I have shows the near end of the bar coming up as the teacher hits notes on the higher strings. Is that unusual?

I intended to order the 918, but I clicked the wrong product!

Normal steel playing doesn't require much to any lifting of the bar completely off the strings, is this what you actually want to do? Mainly I am interested in not having it drop onto the guitar and bang the paint off when I lift the near end. I am studying these suggestions and will apply them ass...

Thanks. I guess I'll get used to it.

This is my first day of posting, and I already have a question. My lap steel showed up yesterday, and I was using a dobro (Lap Dawg) bar to play it at first. Today I received a round bullet bar (Dunlop S919). The round bar has no recesses cut into it to make it easy to lift. Are there any tricks to ...