The Steel Guitar Forum

Alright friends, I think I'm missing something. I'm a new steel player, but a longtime guitar and lap steel player. I don't really understand how almost everyone in PSG world seems to be comfortable with sub 1" bars. They feel too small and cramped to me. And I have very average, medium hands. I know from experimentation with sockets, bottleneck finger slides, and one 30mm glass tone bar I got from Etsy, that I really like the feel of a bar closer to 1.25 inches. But after extensive forum searching, I could find almost none available.

All previous discussions on this topic are many years old and any links/sources to such bars appear long broken or out of business. Best I can tell, Basil's Ezzee Slide bars might still offer a large Sneaky Pete spec tapered bar, but that is all I could find. Are there any others makers producing tone bars over 1" in diameter?

Also, I have to assume from these context clues that there might be a good reason why no one sells or uses such bars. What kind of problems might I run into with a big bar? Am I headed down a dangerous path?

I prefer the 7/8" diameter, but a few years ago I bought a 1" dunlop bar. I did't use it much for quite a while, but have found in the last year or so that it's a great 'weighted bat' sort of thing. If I play for an hour with the heavier bar, then switch to the 'regular' size, the perceived agility is substantially increased. Makes the 7/8 feel like a little pen knife.
But, the heavier bar in itself is great. The tone and sustain are definitely affected.

I've been playing about 4 years, have medium hands. I feel 7/8 is great and I'd be afraid of accuracy with a bigger bar.

My standard BJS is the heaviest I own, which is great, and a lightened BJS (about 6.5OZ.?) which is my favorite.

Being new, I tend to follow what is the norm but to each his own!

I like and play with a 1" bar. To me I want to be able to grip the bar a little below the center of the bar diameter, This gives you a wedging advantage to hold the bar firm. I also like a 3 3/4" bar, This allows my thumb and index finger to surround the back of the bar making the it more of a part of my hand, Not just under my finger. To me it allows better control of the bar up and down the neck.
I Guess, To each their own when it comes to bars and picks.

The heavier the bar, the more it slows you down.. Yes big bars will increase sustain, but if you play a lot of fast runs and need to move the bar quickly, it will slow you down.. At least for me it does.

I use a 7/8 bar and feel thats about as small as I want to go for my style of playing.

Use what fits your hand. You wouldn't choose shoes based on what other people find comfortable.

Bob Carlucci wrote:The heavier the bar, the more it slows you down.. Yes big bars will increase sustain, but if you play a lot of fast runs and need to move the bar quickly, it will slow you down.. At least for me it does.

I use a 7/8 bar and feel thats about as small as I want to go for my style of playing.

I don't find that to be true. I gig with a BJS 7/8" bar and a New Generation 1" bar with the brass insert in the nose end. While I use the 1" bar as my main bar, I can play equally fast with either one. The tone and sustain are slightly better to my ears with the 1" bar, but I get good sustain and tone out of the BJS too. I like the feel of the 1" bar better than the 7/8".

Appreciate the input gents. I think I started developing this preference on my lap steel. For a while, I only had an old Stevens bar laying around that I didn't like. So I started using a larger bottleneck finger slide. Just seemed way more comfortable in my hand. Something about the way that larger diameter tucks into the webbing of my palm feels like it gives me much greater control. But those are much too light and short for PSG.

Andrew - I did recently try out that big Dunlop 921 and completely agree with your analogy. It's a big old beast and slow as molasses. But it sure sounds good and sustains forever. I also really like the "grippability" of larger bars, but even the 1" feels kind of small to me. Add the 11.5oz weight of the Dunlop and it feels like I can barely pick it up and move it.

The slide I currently use most is a 30mm pyrex glass slide about 3.5in long. It feels wonderful in the hand but is definitely too light (around 5oz). The downward pressure I have to apply to get a clear tone really starts to fatigue my hand pretty quickly when playing. Unsurprisingly, it also doesn't sound nearly as nice on the low strings of my U12.

So I'm kind of stuck in the middle. I'd like the big diameter of my glass bar, but probably the tone of a metal bar, but without all the weight. I'm guessing that something halfway between the glass and the Dunlop (maybe 8-9oz) is going to feel right. Which almost certainly means I'd need some kind of custom, hollowed out bar.

I'm sure it would be much easier and cheaper to just get used to a 1" bar, but I sure do like the big ones better. Doesn't look like I have many choices though.

Charles, for glass Voodoo Slides in the UK can likely make what you want, they show up to 30 mm diameter. I just received a 15/16 glass bar with a 5/8 hole, into which I installed a tungsten rod. The goal was contact surface of glass but weight of metal bar. You are looking for a different combination of course but they offer various diameters.

https://www.voodooslidecompany.co.uk/pr ... s-tone-bar

Call me a contrarian, but I've become hooked on the heavy Robert Randolph bar for non-pedal steel. And I've started using it with my GFI as well. The model is RR2, weighs 6.8 oz.

Thanks Scott! That's actually exactly the slide I have. But mine doesn't have a hole to add weight to. I didn't see any such option available. Did you specifically ask for that?

I don't have large hands but I like a 15/16" bar.
It's a toss up between a zirc bar or a BJS, John Hughey bar.
Erv

First: Brilliant thread title. Eleven extra points for hiphop allusion on SGF.
Second: Sneaky Pete.
(Heavier bar especially handy for opening-act gigs with sketchy security such as Altamont Speedway)[/img]

I sent Rob a simple sketch of what i was looking for and he did it no problem. My 15/16 x 3-3/8 with 5/8 hole came out at 8-1/4 oz with tungsten powder and 10-1/2 oz with tungsten rod, tried it both ways. I purchased both the rod and powder off Amazon it comes right up. The powder is obviously easy to work with, the rod is very difficult to cut so be warned on that. Could use steel rod thats readily available at hardware stores since you are looking for less weight.

Also I would think one of the steel bar makers could make a bar with a hole, going the other way.

I have a steel bar with tungsten rod insert made by SDF, not sure if steve is still making bars or not.

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtop ... t=sdf+bars

Bart Bull wrote:First: Brilliant thread title. Eleven extra points for hiphop allusion on SGF.
Second: Sneaky Pete.
(Heavier bar especially handy for opening-act gigs with sketchy security such as Altamont Speedway)[/img]

I started using a larger diameter bar a couple months into playing after watching Sneaky in the "Christine's Tune" vid. 7/8" bars feel weird now.

The huge bar Sneaky Pete used was probably employed to get some extra sustain out of that old Fender. (They were pretty poor in the sustain department.) I use a 3/4" bar or a 7/8" one. Anything larger just slows me down on the fast moves and hampers my playing up in "Hugheyland". Of course, players who don't do fast bar moves and don't play above fret 18 probably don't notice a problem. Frankly, I discovered that bars over 7/8" add zero sustain if you're playing a guitar with decent sustain and tone, so I don't much care or worry about what others use. I have about a dozen, from 1/2" all the way up to 1 1/4", but I only use what works.

Also, if a bar cramps your hand, regardless of the size, you're probably just holding it too tight.