Bar again

Billy Henderson · Post by **Billy Henderson** » 28 Jan 2001 5:39 pm

Which bar is best for the lap or console steel? The regular pedal steel bar feels a bit awkward.

Thanks

Bill

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 28 Jan 2001 6:34 pm

I can relate to that. I wanted to get away from the Stevens bar when I went from Dobro to lap steel, but felt very uncomfortable with a steel bar. I found the Shubb-Pearse SP 2 bar, a heavier,more substantial bar with a semi bullet nose and a top groove which gave me a decent compromise between the two. It has a more substantial sound and the ability to move it fast and hop around.For six strings,it's great. For some eight strings it's fine. For wider string spaced eight strings and ten strings,it's too short. The SP 1 is a longer bar of the same style, but,is narrower and becomes rather uncomfortable (unless you have less than medium size hands). I have become more comfortable with the steel bar the more I play with it and even just handle it. I would like to see a regular size steel bar with a groove,channel,or trough on top though. Is there such a creature?

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<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by HowardR on 29 January 2001 at 04:59 PM.]</p></FONT>

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 28 Jan 2001 6:38 pm

I use a ten string BJS pedal steel bar (.75") on the Stringmaster, and a big 1" bar on the Sierra Laptop. To me, it's whatever works best for slants with the string spacing.

Rick Collins · Post by **Rick Collins** » 28 Jan 2001 7:53 pm

I use a 7/8" pedal steel bar. I had the length cut down to 2& 3/4" and the flat end machined out so a dime will barely fit inside. This shallowly hollowed flat end helps a lot with allowing the thumb to have a more positive grip on the bar when slanting.

Rick

C Dixon · Post by **C Dixon** » 28 Jan 2001 8:16 pm

The Dunlop #902 is a very nice bar for lap steel. It is 3/4" in diameter and 3 and 1/4" long. It is polished to a high luster and feels very good to me on lap steel.

Scotty sells them.

God bless you,

carl

Paul Crawford · Post by **Paul Crawford** » 29 Jan 2001 3:22 pm

BJS has a 3/4" bar that 2 7/8" long. It's got a special taper to the nose designed specifically for 6 and 8 string lap steels. Makes reverse slants a breeze and really helps those three string chords with two strings on the same fret. I picked one up in St. Louis and love it.

Jim Burden · Post by **Jim Burden** » 31 Jan 2001 1:49 pm

Hi, I can build you whatever you would like to try. I make my bars from 303 stainless and each bar is designed by you and built to your specs. Jim Burden Bullet Bars http://www.bulletbars.com

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