Tone bars

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

The pick up or drag from a stainless bar on stainless strings is well known about and the topics seems to come up every now and then... out of all the customers that Becky has had over the last few years for her Buddy Emmons Signature series S.I.T strings (and there are many of them) only two ever insisted on stainless strings and eventually I talked those two into using nickel I honestly think they sound better and we no longer order or sell the stainless ones.

[Basil Henriques]

Well I suppose that answers Will C's doubts, and YES Ben offer hard-chrome as an option. Meanwhile I will persevere risking life and limb, making these NON metallic bars. Soon to be launched..

[Ben's bars]

Iv'e be been working with alluminium and phosphor bronze on occasions, which are extremely tough copper based alloys with similar characteristics to stainless. They are harder than some of the stainless grades and are classed as having excellent resistance to wear. Hence they are used in bearings. The trouble is, they are very expensive.if anyone would like to try a tone bar made from one of these metals and give it a trial I could make one at cost price which is around the £12 mark for 100mm depending on diameter. Although I've sold a few on eBay and had positive feed back, no one has got back to me with a proper comparison to stainless bars. Although some one did say that it seemed to "warm up quicker" and had a "more mellow tone". With its beautiful light copper colour it may add some novelty to playing with it. I also wonder if it would help with the galling that Basil mentioned with the stainless strings. If anyone's interested let me know the size you want. Without buying in bulk though I may not be able to get the exact size, ie I can get 25mm but not 1".

[Ken Byng]

Ben
I have decided to find a company locally to me who have the facility to plate stainless steel with industrial chromium. I am used to using a bar with chromium plating.

Your bars are superbly polished with no 'swooshing' marks, and so would take a coating of chrome and retain a mirror finish. I will source a company who can do this work (not all chromium platers are keen to plate stainless steel). I'll let you know the outcome from a player's perspective.

[rogerp1]

Just received another bar from Ben....one of the aluminium bronze ones and I have to see it is very good, great weight, sound and colour. A big improvement on the original aluminium bronze one I have that has quite a bit of drag. The new one is super smooth....Cheers Ben

[Ben's bars]

Thanks Roger. The original one was phosphor bronze which I thought would be just as good as ally bronze. Unfortunately I found that it wasn't as hard. I'll stick with the ally bronze in future.

[sabatica]

I think I need to set the record straight.

I have owned both a BJS chrome plated bar and Ben's Bar

4 years later and here is my comparison.

Summary:
BJS Bar - chrome plated
12 string BJS Bar Chrome plated was silky smooth and felt light in the hand.
Being based in the UK it was quite expensive plus shipping and duty - about £100 delivered.
Customer support was fantastic and responsive.
The tone was bright and crisp which was impressive.It made love to the E13th/E9th crispness with the tone turned up but was still a little too crisp when the tone was turned down. The weight also meant I required a little more pressure to cleanly play chords at speed especially closer to the nut.

Ben Burrows Bar's
12 string bar was unbelievably finished and smooth on the strings
Cost and shipping was about a 3rd of the price
Customer support and customisation was endless at no real extra cost on width, length, weight.
The tone matched that in brightness and crispness but also responded better to the tone control giving a more mellow Emmons C6th sound. Allowing a bright crisp high of soulful country and warm smooth tone of Jazz. It simply was by far more responsive. The bar also felt slightly heavier however the extra weight on a lap steel means I can let the bar do its job of cleanly fretting the note so my touch is considerably lighter/smoother and noticeably FASTER Yeah.

Both bars had similar sustain at the Nut, 12th fret and 24th fret near the bridge.

Gailing/Friction/Scratching - NONE I can see with my naked Eye - and Music is about what you can hear. No scratchiness for mean either bar. Thanks BJS and Ben.

4 years later and I'm still happy with Ben's Bar and in fact sold my BJS this year. Which confirms for me that maybe the previous generations who were master builders of metal/planes/trains/toys and steels got it right. You simply can't beat a Steel bar that is built/polished and finished to such a high level. Hence why we play Lap/Pedal Steel So obvious the clue is in the name. Sorry British humour. Ben's Bars are simply made by someone of that calibre and who by golly has a hell of a touch at finishing and polishing steel bars..

Note: at Ben's price range test it yourself and decide for yourselves but this is my experience. You can take it or leave it.

My bar was a 12 string heavy bar with recessed tail - no hollowed out centre or fancy anything. Long, heavy and finished to a glass like mirror finish - I thought it was chrome its so bright.

Congrats Ben once again. I'll be ordering another bar soon as I have an idea for customisation that would simply be a nice visual touch. No change on perfection to the bar.