Scott Swartz
From:
St. Louis, MO
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Posted 4 Nov 2014 8:41 pm |
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I think everyone would agree that the weight of the bar contributes to the sustain, with lighter bars having less sustain.
With regard to bar diameter, I have found that smaller diameter bars have a crisper attack, when comparing like materials, say a 7/8 chrome bar vs a 1 inch chrome bar. I believe this is due to smaller contact area of the bar on the string. This same effect can also be seen on guitar bridges and even drum bearing edges, less contact area equals purer vibration.
Normally, the bar weight and diameter are linked, and you have to trade off weight and contact area.
Other issues come up in a designing a real world bar, such as handling ease for a given diameter, surface hardness for long life, and friction, string noise, and so on.
For example if you wanted a heavier 7/8 bar than steel, you could theoretically use lead. However, lead is way too soft to directly contact the strings, does not polish well, is poisonous, etc.
Tungsten is an even heavier material, but its difficult to machine and very brittle, and I’m not sure about the feasibility of polishing it.
Looking at all these factors, it’s not difficult to see that a bar made of a combination of materials would allow you to combine different weight, diameter, and outer bar surface. Chrome plated bars are doing this already.
The logical next step is to use a core of a different material to allow different combinations of weight and diameter.
Many combinations are then possible, for instance a 7/8 steel bar with the weight of a 1 inch steel bar.
I recently had Steven Gunder of SDF Bars build a bar for me using this idea, its his standard 7/8 chrome plated steel bar with a ½ inch diameter tungsten rod core, see picture below. The weight came out to 11.9 ounces, as compared to the normal 8.5 ounces for a 7/8 bar. Typical weight for a 1 inch bar is about 11 ounces.
To my ears, the attack is noticeably clearer compared to the 1 inch bar I have been using, and the sustain is better also.
Steve made a couple more of these bars if you are interested, see his post here.
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=274337
Here are a couple pics
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Scott Swartz
Steeltronics - Steel Guitar Pickups
www.steeltronics.com |
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