The Steel Guitar Forum

Coming into my third year of business making Paloma Stone Slides for Bottleneck, Resonator, and Steel Guitar players... I'd like to thank all the members of the Steel Guitar Forum for their support, referrals, comments, and suggestions. As a direct result of player suggestions and special orders, this group of tone bars has now become a reality.

All shapes are available in three profiles, four lengths, and three glaze treatments... giving the discriminating player an excellent selection to choose from. My web site has not been updated with this info yet but I hope to have all this squared away in a few days... BUT you can order these shapes NOW!

And all shapes, sizes, and colors of Paloma tone bars are still $20 plus $4 shipping to the US and Canada.



As mentioned above, there are three profiles for shaped tone bars now, with the newest shaped being the "OJ" model... named after Orville Johnson, who requested I make this custom profile for him. He has very graciously consented to letting me offer this profile to other players. It offers a "bridge" between my previous profiles and features a small radius-ed contact surface with a taller profile for hand comfort.

Jay, you're carving out a nice niche of quality and needed product, especially with this latest batch. You sell at a very fair price and it seems you're accomodating to buyer's wants. Big thanx, and good luck in continuing!

Three glaze treatments: clear, cobalt blue, and...?

Thanks for the most kind words, Ron!

And Lev... Marble is the third glaze treatment as shown in this photo of my bullet bars in Marble...

Would you be so kind as to contrast the tone of the marble bars with your clear and cobalt blue bars?

Stephen... Funny, I had not "sound-tested" the marble treatment yet. I have used a marble glazed bar on my 8-string Melbert steel and can say that it's a bit brighter than the cobalt and similar to the clear... looks cool too.

I have had a couple of players say it's in between the clear and cobalt blue in tone. I'll do another audio test tonight with headphones on and let you know what I think. Of course there are some who would question my "ear" these days...

As promised, last night I put the headphones on and did a tone test with my three glaze treatments... cobalt blue, clear, and marble with an RB280 tone bar on my Melbert 8-String Steel Guitar.

I already knew that the cobalt bar had a warmer tone than the clear bar but I didn't know where the marble bar would check in tone-wise. I found the marble bar had virtually the same tone as the clear bar. And that was actually no surprise to me! It took me about 6 months to figure out how to do the marble treatment and still have the surface of the bar extremely smooth and extremely hard.

I have just finished updating the Paloma Stone Slide web site by adding the new resonator tone bar shapes, the three glaze colors, the new Orville Johnson tone bar, a new bullet tone bar size, and some photos. If you haven't visited the site in a while, you might like what you see!

www.stoneslides.com

I had the pleasure to meet Jay at this years Texas Steel Guitar Jamboree. I got to play some of his work and bought a cobalt for my 6 string Bristolian (I preferred the cobalt tone over white). Joyously fun & fast playing bar. From 1 craftsman to another... hat's off to your work;-)

Eric Ebner
Tribotone bars
Austin, Texas

Thanks for the most kind words, Eric. Indeed, you are a gentleman and a scholar... and you set the bar (pun intended) for those of us who strive to make high quality tone bars for players... Tribotone Bars have been top rated for many years! I look forward to seeing you in Texas in 2012!!!

I recently received an OJ-BNSC cobalt blue bar from Jay. It's got a beautiful smooth finish and fits quite comfortably in the hand -- lighter than metal yet sufficiently hefty. The tone is warm but not muted; I'm hearing plenty of harmonics. This Paloma bar is a nice alternative to the SP1 I've been using. It could be my new favorite. Thanks, Jay!

Hey Jay

I'm so amped up to try your tone bars. I've been bugging the postman as it hasn't arrived in the UK yet. But just found this post which has me wondering that yes the OJ model is slimmer but it has a higher profile than the SB2.

I rely heavily on string pulling and I just realised that maybe I should've ordered the SB2 profile as long as it's as skinny as the OJ model.

Man I can't wait for it to arrive. Maybe I should've bought both to compare at the 90 MM. Length rather than just one.

Anyway I'll let you know how I get on. Fingers crossed the profile isn't too high