The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi folks, finally got around to a few jobs since returning. After Dallas I spent some time in Austin taking pics and hanging out. This year I was lucky enough to spend a a day at Tribotone with Eric Ebner where I actually got my make my own 'Tribo Slide' Eric is just a few tweaks away from creating yet another high quality product to be released shortly. Heres Eric in his shop



Myself fashioned a slide



The result



I always enjoy my time with Eric, we talk lap steel, recumbents, solar power, the state of the world ! usually over Catfish at the Manshack Fire station, wonderfull !

Kevin,great pics!

Kevin took to the lathe like a champ, a few more machine stations, and an hour or so later- he was making music with his brand new new Tribo-Slide! It's our new "Build Your Own Slide" service here at the ranch. [laughter]

Great having you here again Kevin Brown!!!

Ooh! Tell us about that slide!

Do they also come metal filled for more weight? I like a hefty bar.

Eric's a great guy. I was really impressed with his bars. I will buy one someday, I promised myself!

The Tribotone bars come in different weights. I have a B weight and a C weight Byrd length bar. They're both great, and Eric is great to deal with. The B weight weighs about the same as a Dunlop, the C weight is heavier than any steel bar I've tried. They both have fantastic tone with very little string noise and they're easy to hold on to.

Thanks Kevin for the pics and report!

Ron - Kevin's picture above is of Eric's soon to be launched bottleneck slides. The Tribo-Tone lap steel bars are solid bullet bars.

I have used the Tribo-Tone bars since Eric first launched them in 2007 - they are just great! B-weight is my favourite.

Fred

These bars sound so great...but please: the world (ok, at least me..) needs a Tribo Stevens Style bar !!!!

thanks again for your great product !
Martin

Dear Martin you might be interested to know that the possibilty of a tribo stevens bar did crop up during my conversations at theTribo shop. Maybe Eric could add a word or two here.

Hey Eric and Kevin, thats good news !! Yezzzzzzzzzzzzzz !!
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I would LOVE to build a Stevens/Lap-Dawg type TriboBar!!! I know many players use them and not only for Dobro. From the beginning I wanted to make 3 things: Steels, Slides, and Stevens. We’re about to release the Slides (bottlenecks) shortly. Building anything like this takes a lot of planning and investment to “tool-up” and run smoothly as well as a lot of time. I’m always aware that it is about music and am having a wonderful time teaching my boy to play steel at the moment [thanks for the lessons Kevin Brown]! I hope my version of a Stevens type bar can become a reality in another 1-2 years. Thanks for asking!

See you on the strings,
Eric Ebner

I'm very happy with my bar. I'm going to try a C weight though this year. I also need to try those pro-pik thumb picks. I too really like the heavier bars. My experience is that the Tribotone is excellent with my pedal guitar but not so much with the non pedal. I think it's the lack of weight. That's why I'm going to order a C weight bar. And as good as the Tribotone is with the pedal guitar, I still think the C weight will be better.

Thanks Eric...but 1-2 years is not so good news.........I`m honestly thinking of cutting
by TriboBar lengthwise into two pieces and then
glueing some kind of "handle" on to it.
The reason is simple: The Tribo Bar is the ONLY bar
on the market, that eliminates these horrible hissing
when slinding the plain strings.....which I hate !!
Especially with acoustic instruments like Dobro and
Weissenborn it drove me crazy in the studio before
I started using a (miracle-like) Tribo Bar.
Electric lapsteels, bottleneck guitars or pedal steels is not a problem with a regular steelbar......
But the acoustics are ! And what is the mainly used bar for acoustic players ? Yes, a Steavens style shape.
So please, Eric..........................!!

best regards from Germany

Martin / Duesenberg Guitars