bar diameter

David Cook · From: Florida, USA

Hi everyone,
Why not use a small bar(7/8th) on the pedal steel? Why use the larger diameter? Is it cause you want less of a vibrato. Thanks. I have been playing mostly lap steel lately and just wondered. Hi, to Herb Steiner as I never got back to him.

Andy Sandoval · From: Bakersfield, California, USA

the extra weight and diameter gives you a little more sustain and control especially on the larger diameter strings.

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

It is worth you while to try a BJS 15/16" diameter bar. Then you'll have arrived. Very Happy

Scott Denniston · From: Hahns Peak, Colorado, USA

I've been using a 1" (I think) Peirce Bar for years. When I got it I thought it would just be for slow tunes. Now the smaller bar feels wierd to me and I don't get the tone I do with the larger one. I'm not at home now so can't measure it but I think it's 1" not 15/16.

Dean Parks · From: Sherman Oaks, California, USA

Two of the top pro recording steelers in Nashville use a 7/8 bar.

-dean-

Robert Porri · From: Windsor, Connecticut, USA

I have not been playing a very long time, but in the several years I have, I've tried 7/8", 15/16" and 1". They are good bars too. I thought I liked the larger sizes. Then, I bought a 7/8" BJS and I just haven't let it go since. When I try the others on occasion now, to me, I just don't have as much control. This sounds sort of opposite from what others are saying. I really think it is just a matter of what feels right to you in your hand and to a point what you get used to.

Bob P.

Paddy Long · From: Christchurch, New Zealand

David I have played a 7/8" BJS for 25+ years and recently bought a new BJS 15/16th Hughey bar ... I found that the slightly larger bar gives me a little added control (without any extra weight) - and a little better tone (subtle), so I would suggest you try one out and see what you think.

Colby Tipton · From: Crosby, Texas, USA

All I have ever used is 7/8" and 3-1/4". I did find out that I am going to get a different bar made. I want it to be drilled out a little bit (Less Weight). I have found that the older I get the more I bare down on my bar and I think that a little less weight will work better for me. Also I want it to be 304 stainless. The softer grade of stainless has a better sound to it to me.

Colby

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

I use a tapered 1 1/4" - 1 1/8" bar, and a 7/8 bar just feels and sounds weak in comparison. It doesn't (to me anyway) have anything to do with vibrato - it's feel and tone.
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No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
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Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

I use a 7/8" bar most times, and see no difference whatsoever in sustain compared to a 15/16" bar. Too many pro players have used a 7/8" inch bar to make me think there's anything "deficient" about their tone or sustain.

Use whichever size is more comfortable for you to hold, and forget about losing "sustain". IMHO, that's just a myth. Rolling Eyes

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

It's a subjective thing. Different people prefer different bars. There's no right or wrong, any more than there's a right or wrong color.
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David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

I have been fascinated by the technical abilities of Indian lap steel guitarists for several years now - they can go up and down single strings faster than many guitarists can go across them. You'd be hard-pressed to find a six-string jazz guitarist who can keep up with Debashish Bhattacharya, this is his best CD:
Calcutta Slide Guitar
He's also played with Bob Brozman and John McLaughlin and learned some Western things - the Indian tradition has always been open to outside influences, and some of them can play blues better than the whisky-and-funny-hat "real" bluesmen. You don't have to love Indian music or want to play it to understand that this kind of technique will be extremely useful for jazz, classical, rock or anything else, at least I hope people can see that.

I have found that bars less than 3 oz. sound dead and bars over 6 oz. are too slow, so I play anything from homemade acrylic and delrin bars 1 1/4" in diameter to hollow 7/8" bars, even a 3/4" X 3 3/8" Bullet bar that Jim Burden made me. I just got a couple of 5/8" bars off of Ebay that I'm having a blast with - "Oahu", oldsters?

I have the requisite 1", solid 7/8", and BJS 15/16" bars but they are too slow for what I want to do. I use them for weight training and to wear the top hair-edge off of wound stainless strings, cause those will munch up the plastic bars when they're spanking new.

David Cook · From: Florida, USA

Thanks to everyone for their replies.

Jim Bob Sedgwick · From: Clinton, Missouri USA

My take on this...... Different people have different sized hands. Each player has to determine by trial and error what size bar is most comfortable for them. The size of the bar does not do anything to the tone that tweaking a few knobs on the amp will not take care of. Jerry Byrd used a very small bar. Didn't seem to hurt his tone any. JMO

Dennis Schell · From: Shingletown, Shasta county, Kalifornia

I've always used a 7/8" bar, no particular reason, just because it's what I had available from the start...

Funny thing though...a larger bar "looks" big to my eyes. I asked a guy on YouTube awhile ago if he was using a "fat" bar as it "looked" large to me. Turned out he uses a 15/16" bar. Gee, am I sharp eyed or what?!?

Weird huh?

Dennis
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b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

Ochre and puce are wrong colors... Smile

James Morehead · From: Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.

I have a Dunlap bar that is 3/4", I got it in a trade some where. I just keep it around for a spare. You who have been around the steel guitar for a long time, correct me if I'm wrong, but I suppose the 3/4" is more intended for speed pickin'??

My favorite bar in the whole wide-wide-wide world is a BJS 15/16" John Hughey. Mine sounds better with a diamond in the end of it. I call it my tone stone.

richard burton · From: Britain

Dennis,
Did the guy with the 15/16" bar also tell you that it had a copper insert?

I think I know him... Wink

Dennis Schell · From: Shingletown, Shasta county, Kalifornia

Rick Abbott · From: Indiana, USA

I had a bar made for me by a dude named Willy Halterman. It is an exact replica of an E.R. Watson Kona Bar from the 1950 era, only stainless steel instead of lead-filled bakelite. It tapers from 3/4 to 15/16 in 3 1/4 inches. I play a U-12 and the butt end is great for control of the lower notes on a wide voicing.
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