The Steel Guitar Forum

Does the BJS bar have a hole at the flat end under the decorative end piece?It must have fallen off after dropping it and I just noticed it missing last nite on stage. Now I'm not sure if I mixed it up with a cheaper bar that has a hole at the flat end.Hard to ID it without that fancy end piece. Thanks

The sticker on mine fell off too...yes it's got a hole at the flat end.

My BJS is easily identifiable by the sharper point at the very end of the nose. My other bars are have a more rounded end.

The decorative sticker keeps coming off one of my BJS bars too. Does anyone know what the best adhesive would be to refix it?

Super Glue?? (my body is held together with this stuff).

Is it just a sticker or is it a plastic insert? If it is just a sticker, get a hold of Bill Stroud. He may give you a new one.

You mean you can't tell the difference without the sticker. Seems if it's SO much better than a cheap bar you should be able to tell just by picking it up. YOU BETCHA,DYK?BC.

Bill will send you some spare stickers if you need them.

Mitch Adelman wrote:Does the BJS bar have a hole at the flat end under the decorative end piece?It must have fallen off after dropping it and I just noticed it missing last nite on stage. Now I'm not sure if I mixed it up with a cheaper bar that has a hole at the flat end.Hard to ID it without that fancy end piece. Thanks

Most pickers say that BJS bars are the best there is. If you can't tell the difference between a cheap bar and a BJS bar, how do you then know that BJS is the best? Sorry, I just could not resist

If you can't tell the difference between a cheap bar and a BJS bar, how do you then know that BJS is the best?

By reading the label, of course.

Oh, I can most definitely tell the difference once i start playing the BJS but on stage I had it in same pouch with my spare (also with a hole on the bottom) and the cap just makes it easier to ID by looking. Now without the sticker I'll keep the spare out of the pouch.To me, with my bad eyes all bars look, but don't sound, alike! Thanks

Peter,You made my point. If a bar is SO MUCH greater than another you should be able to tell the difference just by picking it up. Just my opinion. YOU BETCHA,DYK?BC

I could tell the difference in my BJS and a cheaper one in about 4 notes. It is night and day difference. BJS is hands down the best sounding bar to my ears. JMO

I also have a BJS and an Ernie Ball bar. I can tell the difference while playing, but not by just picking it up. Not sure anyone could do that if the 2 were the same size and weight.

BJS is the best,no doubt about it.

What do we learn from this? What used to be in the hands is now in the bar.

Where can I buy a BJS bar?

How did all those guys in the 60's and 70's who were recording what became the "classic sound" do it? Did Lloyd Green, Buddy Emmons, Curley Chalker, Rusty Young actually not sound as good as they should have? You guys are fun.

Peter, You can order a BJS bar from Mr. Bill Stroud in Dresden Tn. He has a link here thru the Forum.

I am really not allowed to judge the BJS bar, because I never used or even saw one... but we all know, how much dough you can spend as a six string guitarist on getting "THE TONE" (preferably 60's reference sounds). True bypass FX, handselected and mouthblown tubes, cords with a "direction"... but I love the sound guys like Neil Young or Clarence White got with their spiral cords:)

I always thought that it's a hoax, but appearently not:

http://consumerist.com/2008/03/do-coat- ... ables.html

Anyway... my ears get 48 this year, and I want to believe that they still can tell the difference between a cheap bar and my beloved John Pearse;)

Email me at bjsbars@frontiernet.net with your name and address to ship to and I will get you a new logo in the mail, let me know if it's John Hughey bar or the solid bar as the solid bar has the black logo and the john Hughey bar has the red logo.
Sorry you had that problem.

Here`s what I do:

My stickers gone, I stuff four wooden match heads barely sticking out of the hole.the striker is taped to the rear apron of my steel. At the end of my uptempo instumental(it ends with a stop followed by a barless "splash") I light it up, and make a "pistol" with my hand,with the flame appearing to come from my finger tip. Then, I blow it out,like a sixshooter and appear to holster my pistol. Unbelievably corny, but people eat it up in a Honky Tonk. It is showbizz, aint it? People want to be entertained.

I`m not suggesting anybody else do it, but the crowd digs it. As hard as we worked to play this contraption, why not have some fun?

Oh, I can most definitely tell the difference once i start playing the BJS but on stage I had it in same pouch with my spare (also with a hole on the bottom) and the cap just makes it easier to ID by looking.

+1. I'm also confident I could feel/hear the difference after a few notes, but that sticker is very useful on a dim stage. No problem ID'ing my black Zirconia bar, but others look similar, except for the sticker.

OK - I won't argue that any one is 'better' or 'worse' than another - but what I use almost all the time are the BJS and Zirconia bars - the others are backups. They each have their own unique mojo, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. For a chrome-plated bar, nothing I've touched feels or sounds like a BJS.

BTW - I'm sure I've told this story before - I got my first BJS bar with a Sierra pedal steel that I bought used. That BSJ moniker just looked like an S to me, I assumed it was just a bar that came with the Sierra steel - but very quickly I was using nothing else, there was no comparison to the Dunlop and other cheap bars I had. A couple of years later, I got on the forum and started hearing about BJS bars and decided I better give one a try. So I bought one from someone here, and when I got it, lo and behold I suddenly had a spare BJS bar. That is the absolute truth, no lie.