The Steel Guitar Forum

I remember watching Sneaky Pete play with a HUGE bar, a long time ago. I've never been able to find anything wider than one inch. Does anyone make them bigger, like an inch and a quarter, or inch and a half? I wonder if the bigger mass affects the sound in any way, perhaps less bar-chatter?

Barney Horn had one as big as his arm.

Oh. I thought this had to do with a really large establishment that sold alcoholic beverages.

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Lee, from South Texas

How big was his arm?

It's not how big it is that counts; it's how you use it.

Right on, Jim!

I have a pretty big one which is 3 3/8 X 1 1/8, and seldom use it. I can't imagine any reason to use anything bigger.

Use your imagination. I guess none of us are working tonight.

Jim, what are you talking about, and Donny, what are you talking about?



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Lee, from South Texas

Lee, I know not of what they speak, however, size is not nearly as important as the methods used in getting on and off! ( so I've been told) regards, fred

I was talking about "Bud's Bounce". I have no idea what Donny was talking about.

I'll be glad when all this cheap humor peters out.

Yes Donny, without a doubt ... peter in or peter out!

Once, when I was showing off my bar I heard a request for "Is That All There Is?"

At least I thought it was a request.

Here's one of many such big bar pictures--

Photo Gallery

4th one down, "Buddy Emmons, Jimmy Day"

Jeese... ask a simple question...

You're welcome. Anytime.

I see that my bandwidth limit has been exceeded so that's all for that.

I've never seen a larger bar than 1". And even though I changed to a 1" bar a couple of years ago and did notice a fatter tone, I also found the weight to be a bit of a liability. At the moment I have found 15/16" to be the ideal compromise.

I'll answer your question Rich. I saw Pete play with the bar you're talking about back in about 1978 at the Palamino and I asked him about it.He told me it was custom made for him by an aerospace machinist he knew.He said it was made of monell which is a molybdenum/steel alloy and told me it was virtually indestructable.I don't know the exact dimensions of the bar in question but it was over 1". Although I'm a fan of big heavy bars and I use a 1"x4" George L on my 12 string,I don't think I need to go any bigger.Among other reasons,anything bigger would start to affect your view of the fretboard especially in the high registers. -MJ-

You know what, I started with a small bar, then decided that wasn´t cool because every player I knew used a bigger one... got me a big (1" x 3 3/4") bar because I thought that the mass would make it sound better, and had nothing but trouble with it. Intonation became more difficult, especially in the higher register. Slants and hammer-ons were much harder. It felt clumsy. I was more out-of-tune than before. Last but not least, I lost the grip on it a couple of times and it put some ugly dings in the finish between the necks (fortunately I succeeded in repairing those).
Now I´ve found the perfect bar for me - EMMONS stainless steel, 7/8" x 3 1/4". Band members made jokes about how small it is, but I don´t care. It´s a marvel. It feels just right to me and everything, including intonation, has become a lot easier. It slides so much better. No loss in sound at all. I guess it´s just - different bars for different folks

Regards, Joe H.

Joe-Right on. 7/8 is fine for me too. 14/16. They get to big then they are too heavy to move around for one thing, and another as mentioned, harder to get on the frets.

I once had a bar very large and heavy. Thought I would get more sustain, it did seem like more sustain, but I couldn't even pick it up, hardly, so could only use it for slow songs, with no movement. I got it too, from a machine ship, flat on the ends.

Jerry Byrd has a smaller bar than any of us, and he doesn't have any trouble with tone or sustain.....al <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Al Marcus on 28 July 2002 at 05:56 PM.]</p></FONT>

Hi everybody,

I like the fatter bars too (1" dia.) but found out that if you get much larger than that you may start getting the sitar bar sound. This is because the outer surface of the bar is almost flat on the string so you may get a buzzing effect. This is probably not desirable.

Dennis

I had one back about 20 years ago that was 1 1/4", that was drilled out, I don't know what happened to it. I saw Jimmy Day play with a beer bottle.

Barney's bar was solid metal, about 2.5" or 3" diameter. He said he was trying to get more sustain.