Really, Really Big Bars?

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

In the interest of attaining more speed, I have been experimenting with bars made from 1.25" acrylic rod. The combination of lighter weight and greatly increased grip has a lot of potential. My impetus has been from listening to Debashish Bhattacharya, an Indian slide guitarist, and the phenomenal speed that he can obtain on single-string passages. It's way beyond anything I've heard from Buddy Emmons, Doug Jernigan or others in my collection. I have also tried a 1.5" bar (a little too fat to mute behind) and there is a company in England, Diamond Bottlenecks, who have made me a glass bar, 1.25" by 3.75" which works well. They are now stocking 1" and 1.25" bars and can cut any length. www.diamondbottlenecks.com, if you're interested. I don't have the anticipated problem of muting behind the bar with the 1.25" size, and I am eagerly awaiting a piece of 1.375" rod to see what that will do.
(UPDATE - it works fine)
I recall reading here, somewhere, that somebody (Buddy Cage?) was using a large alloy bar - does anybody remember? By my calculations, a 1.25" by 3.5" titanium bar would weight about 7 ounces, just perfect, but it might be devilishly expensive to produce. The obvious tradeoff with the lighter weight is some loss of sustain, but does anybody have the attention span for sustained notes in the 21st century anyway?

[This message was edited by David Mason on 11 October 2006 at 06:31 AM.]

David Doggett · Posted 1 Apr 2004 11:20 am

Myself and others find that a big bar blocks the view of the frets high up the neck. Going to a big but light bar for speed doesn't make sense to me. For that I have taken a tip from fast Dobro players and Sacred Steelers, and I use a smaller, lighter grooved bar. My favorite is the Shubb Pearse #2, with a half-bullet on one end and a slant on the other.

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

richard burton · From: Britain

Note the date of the original post: April 1st

Rick Aiello · From: Berryville, VA USA

Debashish

He IS incredible !!!!!

Mahima ... his latest collaboration with Bob Brozman ... is a good start.

Talk about "Virtuosity" ...

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www.horseshoemagnets.com

[This message was edited by Rick Aiello on 03 April 2004 at 04:58 AM.]

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

No April foolin'. The best album I have by him is called "Hindustani Slide Guitar". Amazon's got it, just search for "Debashish".
Tracks 2 and 3 are scary. He's also done one of those "West-meets-East" albums with Bob Bronzman named "Mahima" which is supposed to be good. There's another Indian guy named Vishnu Mohan Bhatt who blows Ry Cooder right off the grooves on a collaboration named "A Meeting by the River", I think they got a Grammy for it. I read the bio of Ravi Shankar, and they basically take these guys at the age of seven or so and lock them in a little room with their instrument for a decade - it sure does work!

Bob Knight · From: Bowling Green KY

This is a REALLY, REALLY BIG Bar. http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum6/HTML/004384.html

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Bob Knight
Sergeant at Arms NTSGA
WWW.NTSGA.COM

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

I have that CD too, and the guy really is incredible.

But Indian music is not my favorite, and a little of it goes a very long way.

Travis Bernhardt · From: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

I'll vouch for the greatness of "Hindustani Slide Guitar." Debashish is a monster.

-Travis

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

I have a lap-steeler friend in Minneapolis who has done the sound for a concert featuring Debashish, and his bar movement is apparently something to behold - basically, take your favorite across-the-strings arpeggio licks and chords and learn to play them up and down on one string. It is the need for that kind of movement speed and accuracy that has got me experimenting with wierd bars.

Dean Parks · From: Sherman Oaks, California, USA

What size bar does Debashish use?

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

Blast-from-the-Past post.... Debashish uses a variety of bars, changing them throughout a raga as it progesses from slow & sustainy to warp speed. I know he's using and endorsing the Diamond bottleneck glass bars, their hand-blown leaded crystal bars are works of art: http://www.diamondbottlenecks.com/p_ult.html

However, I think his main speedo playing bar is still a piece of stainless steel rod 3" X 3/8" or so - "1 centimeter" is what he had wrote me a few years ago, when I had basically asked him "WTF?" The way he plays, a rounded nose to glide over two adjacent strings isn't as big a priority. He picks his fast stuff T-I-T-M-T-I-T-M.

His latest album is "Calcutta Slide Guitar 3", available everywhere, it's certainly required if you want to know the parameters of steel playing. He tours India occasionally with John McLaughlin, and "Maha Shakti" is a tune obviously written as a tribute - Mahavishnu guitar licks played on a lap slide at 360 bpm, grrrgh....
Calcutta Slide Guitar http://www.debashishbhattacharya.com/

Michael Douchette · From: Gallatin, TN (deceased)

I think the biggest bar I ever played was Billy Bob's...

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Mikey D...

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

Added note - Sneaky Pete's bar is interesting. It's 1 1/4" at the flat end, tapering to 1 1/8" near the tip. It weighs just a hair over a pound, and is 3 1/2" long. Seems to work fine for 8 or 10 string, and th tone is unreal. But the ineresting thing is the weight - it makes you play diferntly, and I notice a lot of "Sneaky" stuff just by nature of how the bar has to be controlled, speed wise. Try to move it 4 or 5 frets too fast, and you're dead - you have to fness your way to the note, and it sounds different, and cool.

It's a great contrast to David's big...but light...bars, which have great tone and are lightning-quick. Good to have both.

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

A. J. Schobert · From: Cincinnati, Ohio,

Better watch where you are pointing that thing.

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