The Steel Guitar Forum

I had carpal tunnel surgery on my left hand and elbow last fall and I was having some difficulty in controling and hanging on to tonebars - So I applied some stair tread safety strip material to them and it helps me a great deal to hold on to and especially to control the bar - Here's a photo of one of my custom glass bars made from a glass vial and a pyrex bar I'm testing - You could also use any type of sand paper that suited you and apply double sided carpet tape to the back for your peel and stick adhesive - If it starts to wear just remove it and clean off the remaining adhesive with acetone and apply more - Just thought some of you might be interested - DB

I don't have much of a problem holding my bar, but that's a good solution for those who do.
Shubb makes a bar with a wood handle, and it's supposed to be a lot easier to hold onto than glass or metal....maybe you could glue your wood veneer to the outside of the glass, rather than putting it on the inside, and it might be easier to hold onto, and look really cool. Just a thought.

Ryan - Thanks for the suggestion but the veneer I use is very smooth as well - I've looked into a lot of different bars and have a Shubb although not the one with the wood handle and so far I like the smoothness of the glass - DB

To all the slicky handed players,

There is a material found in your WalMart secretarial supplies a material called "Take hold" by Keena, for using on you r fingers to turn paper pages. Rub a little on the bar and your fingers and thumb of the bar holding hand, let it dry for a few seconds then wipe both hand and bar off. This will work great.

Hope this might help some one.

God bless all,

Ronald Smith

I read of someone using tennis racket grip tape...applied pieces for the ball of the thumb, edge of the finger(s) and they raved about how well it worked.