The Steel Guitar Forum

How much pressure do you put on your bar when playing? and does it change for any reason? like for some special effects?
I am getting a ring sometimes, seems like more pressure helps.

ernie

Ernie,

What you are hearing might be noise from poor damping of the strings behind the bar. If the strings are not dampened behing the bar you can get some strange sounds. Too little pressure on the strings can do this too, but you should not need to mash down on them to hard.

M.

Ernest,
It could be a roller bridge problem. Is this one of the guitars you had redone? Have you changed string gauges? You might be able to swap some of the rollers around, and help/correct the problem if it's only close to the bridge where it's happening.(or what Matthew said)

I never thought much about bar preasure exept when playing close to the bridge. Probably, just the weight of your hand in most cases.

Bill<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Bill Ford on 13 March 2006 at 12:40 PM.]</p></FONT>

Ernest,

The less pressure the better. As long as you don’t pick to hard the weight of the bar will be enough to create a clean ,pure note. This is of course if you don’t have any roller nut trouble.

Pressing down hard will pull the strings sharp and it also kills the sustain.

I once saw a video by a guy named Doug Stock called: Great Tone Begins With You. In it he showed a great exercise where he placed the bar on the strings and only put a finger next to it to keep it from rolling away. Then he would pick the string very soft to show that a clean tone is not only possible, but that all the ‘good” overtones don’t get choked off when you pick soft. He then used a harmonic as guide to tell if you’re picking to hard( if the picked note is louder than the harmonic, you’re picking to hard).

This video did wonders for me. I don’t know if it’s still available though.

Good luck….James

I'm just a beginner but feel that the left hand is the main source of tone. In the "pickig power" thread Gene Jones mentions learning tunes with the amp off. I gave this a try and was appalled at all the buzzes that were eminating from my left hand. My big discovery was that sometimes the first joint of my ring finger would push the string down a bit below the bar thereby causing it to buzz!

So now I start my practice session with the amp off for a few minutes or until I get a clean sound by making fine adjustments to the pressure of my left hand. The result is that even after one session my tone improved dramatically.

This is a great forum! I want to thank y'all and especially b1g b0b for putting together.

Joe

Great process, Joseph, you're paying attention for sure.

I use Jags and this problem just started, I will try a new set of strings these are about 5 month old.Nochanges have been made on the guitar since I got it back, but the problem just started, never had it before on either axe. I may have started picking harder, Nan And Leon heard it before I did.
Could it be I got to agressive in my playing???

ernie

Ernest,I am not trying to sell you a bar,but you struck a chord with me.That ringing is one of the reasons I started building my own bars.Every bar I build is tapered alittle on BOTH ends.This sounds backwards,but believe me this takes care of the ringing and provides a balanced feel.
Jim BUrden Bullet Bars

If I hit the strings soft enough it does not ring that shrill sound.

ernie

After nearly 5 months Put on new set of jags, problem solved. String finnally died.

ernie