The Steel Guitar Forum

Amazing new bar

Who's sick of playing "Margaritaville" for the 10,000th time? Not me that's for sure. I love it.

Ok, here's a trick you probably already know. I was jamming on stage with this guy a few years back and in the middle of the song he pulled a pocket comb out of his back pocket and started using it for a bar!(yes some people other than my uncle still carry pocket combs and pocket knives). The tone was sort of like a honky tonk piano (with tacks), and sort of like steel drums, and sort of, well,... wierd, and cool at the same time. I can only describe the sound as 'oink'.

I finally decided to create my own 'oink tone' bar. It took me a while to design and perfect this bar, and now you can have one for your very own!... for the low low price of - nothing.

After much study and extensive testing, I cut a chunk of 3/4" PVC pipe to the exact length of a Jerry Byrd bar, no more, no less! This is critical! Don't screw this up. Then, I sanded down the rough edges - and bwalla. I now have my own 'oink-tone' bar. Because I refuse to carry a pocket comb, this now gives me the perfect cheezey tone I need to pretend to be a steel drum player in all the lame "parrot head, kenny cheezy, island-ville" songs we have to play every night in the C&W band. The best part is it really cracks up the guitar player.

have fun

chris (p.s. - buy stock in PVC pipe companies now because this it going to be big!) (P.s.s - next year we release the 'wooden dowel Oink Tone custom', taking orders now!)

What!

Are you tryin to put me out of Business???



Looks like fun, I will try it.

better use plain or flat wound with that.......

Carrying a pocket comb?!?! I resemble that remark

Chris, I'll take one - how much$?

I like the "oink tone" logo on the bar.

What font is that?

Any thoughts of using mother of pearl to inlay the logo?

I have used a 1" wooden dowel for certain tones for a while. Different, but not bad. On the pedal steel that is.

Try playing with a ping-pong ball, the cats love it.

I saw a guy a little over 30 years ago playing a pedal steel using a plastic pen for a bar. As I recall it made it sound like a banjo. Has anyone heard of that?

I know b0b would probably think that was a waste of time.

Jon

I've used a bic lighter to get calypso type sounds.

I saw some Hindustani players in the mid 90's play with a bar exactly like that (minus the logo)! Great concert... very reverent. This 'slide' concert was put on by the Austin area Indian Arts Foundation. I can't recall the name of the artists at the moment but did post a review on the IGS at the time. They played what I would consider the far east predecessor to the oink-tone

Bic lighter! cool - yes that would work for oink-tone. Ya, banjo, steel drums, honkytonk piano are all simulated with oink-tone, - depends how you pick it.

If you do some Travis style stuff (alt-thumb) it's sort of like stride piano, do some rolls and be a banjo, or just play two note rhythmic things and be a steel drum -

As the professor would say , "use the think system" ! , think like a banjo player and you'll be sounding like a banjo.

...on second thought, never mind, who want to sound like a bajno

Bic lighter! cool - yes that would work for oink-tone. Ya, banjo, steel drums, honkytonk piano are all simulated with oink-tone, - depends how you pick it.

If you do some Travis style stuff (alt-thumb) it's sort of like stride piano, do some rolls and be a banjo, or just play two note rhythmic things and be a steel drum -

As the professor Harold Hill would say , "use the think system" ! , think like a banjo player and you'll be sounding like a banjo.

...on second thought, never mind, who want to sound like a bajno

With the bic you have the option of getting weird sounds from the metal guard, you can pull off using the end like a Stevens bar... I even got a sitar sound by laying the lighter flat. I like toys...

BUT, can you create a bullet-nose version?

What's wrong with carrying pocket combs?

A pocket comb would, in my case, be superfluous...

Me too, I may try the handle of my beard brush...

Or maybe a frozen chippolata, as it thaws you'd get a unique change in tone.
My cat would find that more interesting than a ping-pong ball, as she is rather old.

Hmm, a beer-fuelled post if ever I saw one!
I should go and record a "Pork Guitar Rag"...

Like a lot of the posters I've fiddled around with different slides over the years. I use glass and brass bottle neck slides quite often still. I used a Zippo lighter to finish a set once because I dropped my bar and the stage was real dark and I was in the middle of a tune. That was back in my drinking days. "Adaptation is the esscence of strategy" (Or was that tactics, I can never remember)