Which Bars Do You Frequent????

[simon_f3]

Cheers Calum! In my defence of said document, I was young and needed the money... It was actually a really interesting period in my life, though it's not been a whole lot of use for me since! Still, I got a funded place for 3 years which meant I made a net profit out of being educated

My 'reasonably scientific' feeling re. bar material is that the wee wiggle applied by many players will indeed excite the strings, but also provide a slight 'spread' of natural frequency, which may help with dynamics. But add to that a small loss in sustain due to friction between bar and strings...
I was just pondering all the variables that would affect the tone at the output jack:

• strings (age, material, thickness...)
• quality of saddle finish
• pickup (type, height...)
• resonance of the guitar cabinet itself
• connection between saddle to bridge, and bridge to cabinet
• bar (material, surface finish, technique)
• picks (material, condition, technique)

My take is that technique will be far be the dominant variable when it comes to tone. I love this video by Randy Richter on how to get an authentic rockabilly guitar tone: You need to watch the first 3 or 4 minutes to appreciate the beauty of this demonstration, but it pretty much sums up my personal thoughts on how bar choice makes a difference to the final sound, i.e. if you can play the thing it will sound good; if you can't play the thing then, like me, you just need to find a bar that feels right and spend more time sat behind the steel!

Stop press - seems a few people have looked into the science, but only on 6-strings. Anyone fancy a winter project to apply this to PSG? https://www.physicsforums.com/attachments/final-year-project-11-pdf.33394/

[Haddock]

Well I would fail that project on the first page! He doesn't know the difference between tremolo and vibrato so I find it hard to read further. The youth of today....... Now the paper I would write if that way inclined would be about 'Maclean's theory of the infinite eq cycle'. If you take a track, put it through an equaliser and let a person adjust it to their taste, they will make it sound 'better'. Take that eq'd track and give the same set up to person 2 and they will also make it 'better'. And a third and fourth ad infinitum. Obviously, at any point you can compare to the original and, provided its at the same level, it may or may not be 'better'. My proposal is that at no point will anyone make it 'worse'. Got to be an 'Ignobel award' in there somewhere!
Cheers
Calum

[Danny Mitchell]

Well, that's what I get for asking about the 'science' (he said, simultaneously scratching his bald head and chin).
I don't think we can escape subjectivity.

Harking back to Billy's post, I can't imagine what a wooden bar would be like. I guess it would have to ebony or lignum(which is even harder than my lingam, allegedly)

[Ken Byng]

INteresting topic, particularly as I was just thinking recently about trying something different. I wonder if anyone has done any actual ‘science’ on the topic. Musicians are notoriously unreliable when asked to give up the subjective. I used to get singers in the studio who insisted that they only sounded ‘right’ when singing through a particular mic like an SM58. So, give them what they want, and never let on that it was actually the innocent looking large diaphragm condenser mic sitting nearby that was doing the work while they sucked on their dummy! And a plectrum is just a piece of plastic. It really doesn’t matter to your tone if its yellow or not!
Cheers
Calum

That's an interesting use of a 2nd mike for a placebo effect. I once wasted a whole day recording a guy who wanted me to get the same guitar sound that Dave Davies from the Kinks got on You Really Got Me. I used valve overdrives, solid state overdrives, plug-ins, you name it. I have a large number of amps in my studio, but I didn't like to tell him that Dave Davies actually cut slits in the speaker cone in his small Elpico amp back in the 60's.

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

I have no medical proof of what I am spouting here just a feeling that the poly bars will stave off the athritas
In the hands much better than the steel after a lifetime of playing, I know Gordon had it in his hands towards the end. The worst bar i ever used (when i left home without one ) was a 17mm extended 1/2" socket, it got me through but tone was compromised..

[hickenjr]

I had this conversation with my old man and out of it came a sentimental piece of kit I will cherish.

He's gone and given me his "spare" bar that a friend on the scene in the 90s give him. He believes it was made by Ronnie Bennett but could be wrong. There's no branding on it but is high quality.

There are subtle differences between the EZ and metal. I'll be alternating between them depending on what the project requires but always great to have options.

That being said...the EZ slide has got me a long way and has been a part of the majority of my first 50 songs in my discography, starting from around song number 6. No one has complained...apart from about the idiot behind the wheel anyway.