The Steel Guitar Forum

I have a dunlop tone bar,and I have heard of bj bars and others is there a difference in tone between bars?

Here's how to tell the difference in chromed bars... pick your thinnest string, and slide the bar *across* the string, like you're sawing it. BJS bars have the best feel I've seen when doing it that way... although I'm a Paloma Stone user because of the weight. You won't find thicker chrome or smoother finish on any other bar... that's why they're so expensive. I wish Butch would come back to Dallas!

SDF bars out of Topeka Kansas makes bars in several materials. The important things are hardness and polished smooth. I did a shootout of several bars here
Demo of SDF steel guitar bars: http://youtu.be/--1I9UOHISU and the differences between them is kinda subtle.

After many years of playing steel, I find the best bar is a toss up between a BJS and a Zirconia.

Clinton Zimmerman wrote:I have a dunlop tone bar,and I have heard of bj bars and others is there a difference in tone between bars?

I think the difference is sorta proportional to your playing time/skill level. A seasoned player will notice the difference, but a "newbie" (someone who's been playing a year or less) struggles so much with just the basics of bar handling, picking, and muting, that small improvements like the sound of an expensive "pro-level" bar likely wouldn't be noticed.

(For my first 6 or 7 months of playing, I didn't have a pedal steel-sized bar, so I used a wrist-pin from a Mack diesel truck engine for a bar.)

My favorite tone bar.

BJS bars are far superior to any bars I've ever used. Butch put my testimony and picture on his website when I Emailed him how much I loved these bars....I told him when I bought my 15/16's bar, two yrs. later that I felt kinda funny as a nobody being pictured with Paul Franklin, Doug Jernigan, and Mike Johnson on his photo page....Made me feel good when he said, "your business is as important to me as anybody else"....Besides selling a stellar product, he is a fine man to deal with.

It has been said that the zirconia bars don't sustain as long as a steel (BJS) bar. This is not exactly accurate. The difference is not on the length of the sustain, but in the shape of the decay. The volume of note will gradually fade away with the BJS bar. It will drop more quickly with the zirconia bar.

It's a subtle difference, but you can hear it. My wife, who is not a musician, can tell whether I'm using the steel or zirc bar by the difference in the way they sound.

Thanks for everyone's input I wasn't sure how much a bar played into the overall tone or if there was much of a difference between them.

A number of years back someone who I guess was a fan of mine came up to me at a gig & gave me 3 tone bars that he made for me (he was a machinist) They were & still are the best bars I have used to date.

I am not as good a player as most of you on the forum, but I find sustain is maintained or blossomed from your bar hand technique. And your pedal, but the bar hand makes it sound more interesting.
As to bars, I agree that the BJS and zirc bars are my favorites as well--I go larger with a zirc because they are so light, but a Grorge L Chrio bar is nice with stainless strings if you like the darker sound. I don't. I like bright and piercing.
If you want to compare I can send you a Zirc, a George L and a BJS do you can decide.

Sorry, I meant Pearse Cryogenic bar. Spell keeps changing to chrio

As noted above I can send a bar of Dial too if needed.

Erv Niehaus wrote:After many years of playing steel, I find the best bar is a toss up between a BJS and a Zirconia.

I agree. But I'd add the John Pearse frozen bar and Glenn Porter's new bars with the brass inserts to that list. IMHO, they are just as good.

All 4 are excellent. It really doesn't matter which of them you use.

After trying lots of bars, I've settled on the powder coated ones available here on the forum. Very smooth on the strings.

My question is: just how long will the powder coating last?

I meant Pearse Cryogenic bar, not George L

Erv Niehaus wrote:My question is: just how long will the powder coating last?

I'll let you know. So far, don't see any signs of wear.

Powder coated is very wear tolerant.
It is NOT, however, drop tolerant.

I've tried and tested several bars: Sho-Bud, Emmons, John Pearse, BJS and the Zirconia bar. The audible differences between these are so subtle that it is irrelevant. In my opinion, the way it feels in your hand, eg size, weight etc. is the most important decision factor. Take the one which feels the most comfortable to play

John Pearse bars are excellent. I bought a couple Long Tom's at the steel guitar forum store and their price's will not put you in your pajama's. Tenn. Lee

I recently got one of the Red Barn Music bars and it's my current favorite. It's hard to describe the subtleties in bar feel, some are vastly different. Diameter can make an enormous difference in feel as well.

Mark van Allen wrote:I recently got one of the Red Barn Music bars ...

Is that Glen Porter's new bar?

Other than size and weight I cannot find any difference whatsoever in the "sound" of any bars playing at any kind of gig-level volume.
I think all these discussions about sound and tone should be categorized into either 1)music room or 2)live gig as far as what evaluating what works.

I like BJS bars, but I recently dragged out an old Dunlop that I'd used years ago and I honestly couldn't tell a huge difference. The BJS is harder chrome and maintains a higher polish. The Dunlop shows some light surface scratching, but it doesn't seem to affect the tone or "slideability" all that much. Although I've got some pretty well-worn nickel wound strings on the guitar now. The Dunlop would probably make more sliding noise than the BJS on a fresh set of stainless strings.