The Steel Guitar Forum

OK...I know almost all of you have a collection of Tone Bars & Slides. Lets see them....just lay 'em out, and click a picture with you phone or camera. Here is mine...

Looks like ya don't have one of these friend

No John I don't. Nice...brass?

Yes, brass.
Check him out from 1932

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFWf1UFU9_w

PM me if you want to add this bar to your fine collection.
I don't really need it.
JB

I have three Tribotone B Weight Bars in lime green. That's all I've got.

Thanks John. PM sent. I am also searching for Bakelite bars.

Lots of lap/dobro bars. I only play pedal.

Here are the ones I have. The Stevens is from 1964. I bought while on a high school band trip in Memphis. That was my first. The last one is the one with the cone shaped butt end. I don't know the brand and I think it is stainless. Does anybody know.

This is probably about 2/3 of mine - I get a little fiendy about slide guitar, too, and this pix lacks a lot of experiments in forging the perfect pinky slide. And another half-dozen bars or so. Pray tell, where did you get the all-brass Shubb-Pearse bars?

John Speck, your bar in your middle pic looks like the one from
http://www.bulletbars.com/images.html

David, I got my brass SP-1 & SP-2 bars from Shubb. Special ordered. I had them pulled out of stock before they covered them. It's a 2 step process, they get the brass bars in, and send them off to be covered. They were kind enough to get them to me all brass, uncoated.

Terry, what is the bar in the bottom right corner of your photo -- the one with the matte-silver finish (aluminum?) & the SP-1-ish profile? And where/how can I get one?

That one is an Aluminum bar in SP-1 shape that Wayne Johnson of Innovative Guitars made for me by request. I call it my "TV-1" bar...he does great work Lev.
You can find him here...
http://www.innovativeguitars.com/

Thank you, Terry. And I see that he's located in the great state of Oregon!

Here are some unusual bars and some in their original packaging.

Wow, you guys got some great bars

The one on the left is a 7/8" x 3 1/4" Dunlop Bar. The one on the right is a 1" Diameter x 3 1/2 bar i made myself.

Now That's cool !

Doug
How usable is that bar with the slide extension? It looks like someone was thinking about it alot.

Mark, it's not very usable because it's not smooth sounding. When you press down on the extension part (what I call the mini-bar) the little bar makes contact with one string and pushes it down below the main bar, creating a flatted note. The pitch change is heard instantly, it's not a smooth change. And that clip for the finger inhibits and restrains a player's bar movement.
So two bars are in effect at the same time, the main bar and the mini-bar. I tried using it to lower the 3rd tone (major to minor chord), but it sounds too choppy. Basically, it's an early, futile attempt to mechanically change the pitch of a string. I think a player would be better off learning how to do slants properly. The slants sound better.

That is what I thought. It is fun to see what inventive ideas come up over the years. They all seem to be a substitute for what some good practicing would accomplish.
Cool though!

Yes, and that other bar with the swiveling finger pick attached looks like a home made attempt to make slanting easier...? Another bad idea IMO... the clip (the pick) does not allow the player to grasp the bar properly for a bar slant. Necessity is the mother of invention, but these devices are not necessary! And that Stevens bar with the round nose sticking out... well, that just looks obscene!

From ebay