Steel Guitar Thimbles

Mat Rhodes · From: Lexington, KY, USA

There are times I wish I could get those extra voicings that a bar just can't get. Sometimes a pedal or knee lever just won't pull the string I need pulling up 3 whole tones, or whatever. Or down a 5th. Sometimes you just need to do that kind of practical stuff.

Has anyone ever tried using stainless steel "thimbles" as a substitute for the bar?

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

Yes, I found that my hands absorbed the string vibration and dulled the sound. Couldn't find steel thimbles, though, had to use my grandma's old brass ones, and had to do a lot of sorting to find ones without indentations.

An alternative is to put a piece of ebony of the right thickness between the neck and the strings, so that you have about the same gap as on a violin, then press the strings against the ebony as you would a violin, with your bare fingers. It no longer sounds like a steel guitar, though.

[This message was edited by Alan F. Brookes on 24 October 2006 at 05:12 PM.]

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