The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi All:

I am new to steel guitar, been at it for about 3 months now, and I am loving' it. I initially bought a Dunlop cylindrical stainless steel tone bar (919), but had difficulty handling it because of weight and shape. So I then got a Dunlop Long Dawg tone bar made of chromed brass (927). Although I like the feel of the 927 because it has a raised "handle" (sorry, I don't know the correct terminology), I much prefer the tone from the stainless steel 919.

Today I came across a Shubb tone bar with a raised handle that is made of stainless steel. Would this give me the equivalent tone of my Dunlop 919? Has anyone tried the Shubb? The price is right too. Here is the link: http://www.shubb.com/sp/index.html

I would greatly appreciate any thoughts. Thanks!

regards
Luke

Shubb has several different contoured bars. I have the Shubb-Pearse SP-1, which has a similar contour of the round bottom and nose to my large Dunlop bullet bar. It, like the Dunlop, is a rather long bar that works well on 8 strings. I find the contoured bar easier to play with, too. There are many far more experienced players on here who can advise you. Starting out, though, I had the same issues as you, and I do like the SP-1. It is made of chromed brass, not stainless steel.

I, too, like the Shubb-Pearse bars, especially the SP-1. The SP bars that I have are chromed brass, but I believe that Shubb went to stainless bars a few years ago. He felt that machining stainless was easier on the environment than machining and plating brass. You can check the website for the real thing and current product info.

In my opinion, you can't go wrong with Shubb, Pearse, and related products. HTH. YMMV. Have fun. After a few years we all wind up with a bunch of tone bars.

For 8-string non-pedal steel, I love the Shubb SP-2. The first ones were plated and I wore thru many bars doing bar slams. When Shubb came out with the SS version, that problem went away. My SS SP-2 bars are holding up quite well now.

I believe the SP-2 bar was designed by Peter Grant.

I mainly use the Shubb SP-2, the round nose makes it workable for electric steel, whereas something like the Dunlop lap/long dawg is more for acoustic steels like dobros.

I use the SP2 on my 8-string lap steel - tried switching to a bullet bar for a while, but the SP2 feels more natural to me.

Thanks guys. I think I'm going to buy the SP-2 and see how it sounds. It's only about $29, so it wouldn't be a big loss if it didn't work out.

Regards
Luke

It's a good choice. I also have an SP-1 laying around somewhere. Aside from the materials, I find it too long for my hand, and the narrower build a bit uncomfortable. It extends too far past the tip of my middle finger, when really they should be close or the finger should even extend past the bar a little. While the SP-2 does in fact cover all 8 strings on my consoles, that is not really necessary for 8-string electric most of the time. Comfort and ability to manipulate the bar are more important, so I find the SP-2 works much better in this regard.

I had the same experience with Brad with the SP-1...too long. I ended up cutting about 3/8" off the non-rounded end to make it fit my hand better. Easier to grip, but the tone is not quite on par with a solid bullet bar

Bill

I favor the SP-1 because it makes 3 note slant chords a breeze.