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Topic: Best Tone Bar For 6 String? |
Carl McLaughlin
From:
St.Stephen,New Brunswick,Can
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Posted 25 Feb 2021 3:38 pm |
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Is the Dunlop 918 the best all round bar for a 6 string lap steel.?? 
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I have a Tele plus telecaster, Larrivee acoustic. Also have a Fender resonator guitar with new Quarterman cone and spider, and an Allan tailpiece .Playing through a Fender Super Champ XD, using a little delay on the amp and a Harmonix Holy Grail Echo pedal, set on Hall turned to about 1pm.Just Bought a Yamaha FGX5 Recently and love it. Recently got a Sho-NUFF 6 string pedal steel in open G.Still learning. |
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Miles Lang
From:
Venturaloha
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Posted 25 Feb 2021 3:57 pm
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I love my Ezzee-slide bar so much, I feel horrible when I play a Dunlop steel bar
_________________
Santo Fan Club - from the island of Coney to the sands of Rockaway
Jill Martini & The Shrunken Heads
All aloha, all the time |
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Cody Farwell
From:
Sunland, CA
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Posted 25 Feb 2021 4:05 pm
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| I have an Ezzee-slide bar too, & while it is very nice, I enjoy playing with my dunlop 919 more than anything else. I've had a 918 as well, but prefer the shorter length of the 919 for my hand. |
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Travis Brown
From:
Florida, USA
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Posted 25 Feb 2021 4:08 pm
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I'm still pretty new at this, but IMO the tone bar has to fit your hand, not the guitar. I have found I like the tone bar to be slightly longer than my first finger, so I've settled on a 3.25" tone bar. I have a few different thicknesses, I mostly use the 3/4" diameter, but I have 7/8" that I love the sound of and am trying to get acclimated to.
Some folks swear by hybrid designs like the Shubb SP1. I think they are a bit easier to hold onto but they do make slants a bit more difficult.
I suggest you watch the For Sale forum here and try a few used bars out. |
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Scott Thomas
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Posted 25 Feb 2021 5:05 pm Re: Best Tone Bar For 6 String?
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| Carl McLaughlin wrote: |
| Is the Dunlop 918 the best all round bar for a 6 string lap steel.?? |
It's the one I started with because Jerry Byrd recommended that size (3/4 diameter, 2 3/4 length).
That said, collecting and trying different bars is one of the fun things about this instrument. So far, I have stuck to the 3/4 diameter but I have one or two closer to 3" in length that I might use occasionally. Then of course there are the different materials to experiment with too. |
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Ian
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 26 Feb 2021 12:06 am
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Carl,
I used to really like my BJS bar when I used a bullet style bar and played C6, I guess it's what they call the 3/4" six string on their web sight (bjsbars.com). Quality stuff. I've been playing more dobro lately, and play electric in open G as well. I'm crazy about the new Sheerhorn bar. I'd been using the old one for 20 years or so. The new one is killer!
Best of luck,
Ian |
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Marcus Eads
From:
Minnesota, USA
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Posted 26 Feb 2021 2:45 am
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I really like my Shubb SP1. It's long: 3 and 3/8" and weighs 5.2oz. Has a semi bullet tip so it really glides over the frets. Very easy to hold onto. I can lift it without effort and single string stuff is a breeze. I use it on lap steel and weissenborn.
Last edited by Marcus Eads on 26 Feb 2021 10:07 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
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Carl McLaughlin
From:
St.Stephen,New Brunswick,Can
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Posted 26 Feb 2021 12:46 pm best bar
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I have been using the Shubb Sp1 and have become comfortable with it but thought that a bullet bar might be better.Thanks to all for you imput. 
_________________
I have a Tele plus telecaster, Larrivee acoustic. Also have a Fender resonator guitar with new Quarterman cone and spider, and an Allan tailpiece .Playing through a Fender Super Champ XD, using a little delay on the amp and a Harmonix Holy Grail Echo pedal, set on Hall turned to about 1pm.Just Bought a Yamaha FGX5 Recently and love it. Recently got a Sho-NUFF 6 string pedal steel in open G.Still learning. |
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Scott Thomas
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Posted 26 Feb 2021 1:36 pm
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I like that one too. Good weight and quality. I also like the way the scoop is milled out. Mine is an older Broz-O-Phonic. |
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Sebastian Müller
From:
Berlin / Germany
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Posted 26 Feb 2021 2:55 pm Re: Best Tone Bar For 6 String?
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| Carl McLaughlin wrote: |
| Is the Dunlop 918 the best all round bar for a 6 string lap steel.?? |
I would say: yes
It is my favourite bar in the moment, I really like the sound of chrome plated steels and compared to the 919 I like the extra weight and I think it sounds a tiny bit more fat.
It is also a pretty common bar and will probably be around for a long time.
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https://hawaiian-steel-guitar.com |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 27 Feb 2021 7:31 am
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When playing lap or console steel I use a BJS bar.
I like a BJS bar for one reason: SMOOTH! 
Erv |
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Tim Whitlock
From:
Colorado, USA
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Posted 27 Feb 2021 8:18 am
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| Miles Lang wrote: |
| I love my Ezzee-slide bar so much, I feel horrible when I play a Dunlop steel bar |
This!! I just can't - I WON'T - go back to metal bars! Anyone know if Todd Clinesmith is still selling his polymer bars? |
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Rob Fenton
From:
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Posted 27 Feb 2021 8:33 am
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I prefer the Latch Lake bar to the Dunlop. It's a little bit longer, but has a better nose to it, and is a harder material. The Dunlops are cheap, but I wound up with about 5 of them that each had a nick in them somewhere that grabbed the strings.
I mostly use Jim Burden's bullet bars. I ordered 4 of them in the same size as the Latch Lake about 6 years ago and they are all still in perfect shape. I don't believe you can get those anymore though. Please correct me if I'm wrong!
Todd is still making his bars. I have one in 13/16s diameter and it is the only other bar that I use. Great smooth sliding bar! |
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Carl McLaughlin
From:
St.Stephen,New Brunswick,Can
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Posted 27 Feb 2021 10:03 am tone bar
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Thanks to all for their imput.I may try a Latch
_________________
I have a Tele plus telecaster, Larrivee acoustic. Also have a Fender resonator guitar with new Quarterman cone and spider, and an Allan tailpiece .Playing through a Fender Super Champ XD, using a little delay on the amp and a Harmonix Holy Grail Echo pedal, set on Hall turned to about 1pm.Just Bought a Yamaha FGX5 Recently and love it. Recently got a Sho-NUFF 6 string pedal steel in open G.Still learning. |
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Jeff Mead
From:
London, England
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Posted 27 Feb 2021 11:49 am
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| Since getting my Ezzee-Slide bar, I've not used anything else. |
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Janusz Achtabowski
From:
Poland
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Posted 27 Feb 2021 12:22 pm
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| Is there a big difference between Shubb Sp1 and Sp2? |
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Tommy Martin Young
From:
Sacramento-California, USA
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Posted 28 Feb 2021 12:04 pm
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| Janusz Achtabowski wrote: |
| Is there a big difference between Shubb Sp1 and Sp2? |
Janusz, here's a pic. While the SP-1 is longer the SP-2 is heavier - 146g to 164g respectively (5.11oz vs 5.74oz)
That black bar is a great option for those (like me) who feel that the chrome bars are too slippery. It's from Latch Lake and features "Dynamic Diffusion Technology" not sure what that is exactly I just know it stays in hand! (157g/5.50oz) https://latchlakemusic.com/slides/hawaiian-dd/
_________________
The One & Lonely Tommy Young
"Now is the time for drinking;
now the time to beat the earth with unfettered foot."
-Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65-8 B.C.) |
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John Rosett
From:
Missoula, MT
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Posted 28 Feb 2021 9:09 pm
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| Tim Whitlock wrote: |
| Miles Lang wrote: |
| I love my Ezzee-slide bar so much, I feel horrible when I play a Dunlop steel bar |
This!! I just can't - I WON'T - go back to metal bars! Anyone know if Todd Clinesmith is still selling his polymer bars? |
He is. I just got one from him a couple of weeks ago. I love it!
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"it's not in bad taste, if it's funny." - john waters |
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D Schubert
From:
Columbia, MO, USA
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Posted 1 Mar 2021 8:39 am
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| I've been playing with the Shubb SP-1 for a long time, lap steel and Dobro. I like the way that you can swap ends, depending on the situation. Just out of curiosity, I bought one of the Robert Randolph RR-2 bars last year. It's big and heavy, and I'm surprised to find that it's very comfortable in my hands for slants, hammer-ons and pull-offs. If you adhere to the mass = tone theory, it's all that and a bag of chips. |
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Jean-Sebastien Gauthier
From:
Quebec, Canada
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Posted 1 Mar 2021 12:35 pm
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| The 2 best I tried are BJS Jerry Byrd and Clinesmith 3/4 |
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Jeffery Mercer
From:
Born in Portsmouth Oh. Dec. 10th 1954 Reside in City of Mentor, in Northeast Oh.
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Posted 5 Mar 2021 7:19 am Bjs
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Any ToneBar made by “BJSâ€
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Jeffery S Mercer |
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