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Topic: Terminology - Tone Bar |
Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 4 Apr 2016 10:31 am |
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Where did the term "tone bar" originate?
People outside of our fraternity refer to it as a "slide", and that's the term that the early Hawaiian guitarists used.
Yes, the bar does affect the tone, but it's not the bar that determines the tone but rather the wrist action. But the major setting of tone is in the construction of the instrument itself, especially if it's an acoustic instrument. In an electric instruments, tone is effected by the woods, the pickup, the amplifier, and external electrical devices.
So, why do we call it a "tone bar"?  |
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Ray Montee
From:
Portland, Oregon (deceased)
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Posted 4 Apr 2016 1:05 pm good question
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"STEEL" guitar is the way I learned it..
Hawaiian Acrylic or Hawaiian brass or copper or plastic guitar just don't cut it with me. |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 4 Apr 2016 1:53 pm
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I've always taken "tone" in this context to mean "note" or "pitch" rather than "timbre". But as Doug says, pedal steel vocabulary is not going to repay careful study any time soon.
_________________
Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs |
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Jerry Overstreet
From:
Louisville Ky
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Posted 4 Apr 2016 2:13 pm
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| I was taught that the steel guitar got it's name from the "steel", which is the bar, that is used to play it. |
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 4 Apr 2016 2:28 pm
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Now that much does make sense.
_________________
Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Stuart Legg
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Posted 12 Apr 2016 10:46 am
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Originally due to the advent of steel strings the words steel guitar were used to set it apart from the usual catgut string guitars which were simply called guitars.
It mattered little if you held it upright, on your lap or under your arm nor what you placed on the strings fingers, wooden sticks, glass bottles or a coconut it was still a steel guitar. |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 12 Apr 2016 11:44 am
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When I was a young whippersnapper, there were two kinds of guitars: the Hawaiian guitar and the Spanish guitar.
The former, you laid on your lap and the later, you tucked under your arm.
There was no mention of steel guitar. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 12 Apr 2016 11:47 am
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I think Stuart is right. Most of the public nowadays think a "steel guitar" is a guitar with steel strings, as opposed to one with nylon strings.
I've talked to people about steel guitars, thinking that they understand, when suddenly they'll pull out a Jumbo 6-string and say, "Here's mine."
Sears Roebuck used to refer to archtop f-hole guitars as "Spanish Guitars". I wonder how many people bought one to learn Flamenco on.  |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 12 Apr 2016 11:55 am
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| A steel guitar is played with a "steel", bar that is. |
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Stuart Legg
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Posted 25 Apr 2016 6:05 pm
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| watch a player change a string on an old Sho-Bud and you'll really learn some new names for this kind of guitar! |
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Dustin Rigsby
From:
Parts Unknown, Ohio
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Posted 26 Apr 2016 3:35 am
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| Stuart Legg wrote: |
| watch a player change a string on an old Sho-Bud and you'll really learn some new names for this kind of guitar! |
I'd tell them that they should have bought an MSA, I don't have that problem  
_________________
D.S. Rigsby |
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Tim Weaver
From:
Minnesota, USA
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Posted 26 Apr 2016 3:03 pm
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| Stuart Legg wrote: |
Originally due to the advent of steel strings the words steel guitar were used to set it apart from the usual catgut string guitars which were simply called guitars.
It mattered little if you held it upright, on your lap or under your arm nor what you placed on the strings fingers, wooden sticks, glass bottles or a coconut it was still a steel guitar. |
That's an example of one of my favorite obscure ideas; retronym.
"a new term created from an existing word in order to distinguish it from the meaning that has emerged through progress or technological development"
"For example, the term "acoustic guitar" was coined at the advent of electric guitars"
It's funny to me that wikipedia has "acoustic" guitar as an example when the electric guitar came out. Stuart, looks like they're a few years behind your example! |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 27 Apr 2016 6:49 am
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I'll drink to that!  |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 27 Apr 2016 6:55 am
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I've tried some bars that had no tone whatsoever.
_________________
Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Scott Duckworth
From:
Etowah, TN Western Foothills of the Smokies
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Posted 27 Apr 2016 7:43 am
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When is a steel guitar bar not a steel bar? When it's made out of brass, porcelain, etc...
Would that mean a steel guitar would then be called a brass guitar, or even a porcelain guitar...
Oh my brain hurts... I may have to go to the porcelain seat.
_________________
Amateur Radio Operator NA4IT (Extra)
http://www.qsl.net/na4it
I may, in fact, be nuts. However, I am screwed onto the right bolt... Jesus! |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 27 Apr 2016 7:52 am
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Scott,
Try out the reverb when you're in there. |
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 27 Apr 2016 3:57 pm
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| Quote: |
| Either way, I never used the term because it's confusing to musicians and everyone else. A bar is a bar. |
I always just called it a bar - picks and bar. Alan, why is this so difficult?  |
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 28 Apr 2016 5:07 am
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| Alan is looking for the origin of meaning. |
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 28 Apr 2016 7:22 am
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| Quote: |
| Alan is looking for the origin of meaning. |
He may find it here..
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-origins-of-meaning-9780199207855?cc=us&lang=en&
but more than likely he will find it here from an article at premiereguitar.com
"It originated, pre-pedals, in the Hawaiian Islands. The 6-string guitar was introduced there by visiting European sailors in the latter part of the 19th century. The Hawaiians developed a playing style based on straight major chord tuning called “slack-key†because the strings were slackened relative to standard tuning.
Legend has it the guitar was first laid flat by a young Joseph Kekuku on the island of Oahu in 1874. As a boy, his shop teacher helped him fashion a cylindrical steel bar and metal fingerpicks. Kekuku developed a method of playing this new instrument—called “steel guitar†after the bar used to play it. He then taught it to his classmates, who carried the style to other islands. The method soon became popular all over Hawaii."
A rose by any other name, Alan, but I think you knew all this already... |
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Posted 28 Apr 2016 9:22 am
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Thanks Barry! I never knew what "slack key" meant.
_________________
Fender Kingman, Sierra Crown D-10, Evans Amplifier, Soup Cube. |
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 28 Apr 2016 10:16 am
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| Ditto. The Origins of Meaning looks interesting. |
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