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Topic: Thimbles Instead of a Tone Bar |
Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 15 Jul 2014 2:56 pm |
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Has anyone ever thought of using metal thimbles on the left hand instead of a regular tone bar?
It would obviate the necessity to play straight chords, and make slants very easy. In fact you could even play three or four note slants, which are impossible with a tone bar. |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 15 Jul 2014 3:06 pm
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Alan,
I tried it on bottleneck. Very thin sound. I play with the slide on my ring finger, and tried the thimble on my pinky, for some more "advanced" chording. Although it worked to some extent, the sound was pitiful! |
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Pete Burak
From:
Portland, OR USA
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Posted 15 Jul 2014 3:16 pm
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I recently picked up a cool Oscar Schmidt Autoharp for 10-bucks, and have been thinking of going with a thumb-pick and thimbles instead of fingerpicks.
Do you believe in Magic?...
Hey, Janis played one, too...
Last edited by Pete Burak on 15 Jul 2014 3:27 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 15 Jul 2014 3:24 pm
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| Thimbles just aren't thick enough, dense enough to provide a good sound. Try it! I did. You'll be disappointed with the weak sound. |
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Tony Glassman
From:
The Great Northwest
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Posted 15 Jul 2014 3:47 pm
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| Tone issues aside, accurate intonation of four seperate thimbles on a steel guitar fretboard would be dicey! |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 15 Jul 2014 6:44 pm
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I've made a bunch of things to slide around with, and when you get below around 3 oz. you start running into serious tonal issues. Obviously, if you were really dedicated and money was no object, you could get a fitted set of hemispherical fingertip fittings. You can look at the slides from these links and envision a set that just fit on the last knuckle of each finger:
http://www.therockslide.com/shop/balltip-rock-slide/
http://www.daddyslide.com/index.php/en/slide/handmade-nose-tip-slide
But you won't get to 3 oz. that way. The best, weightiest thing I could think of in the seat-o' the-pants, budget-type "thimbles" department would start with some copper plumbing end caps - not the thin soldered ones, the thick threaded kind. You could screw them onto a section of pipe mounted in a lathe, turn them down to some shape, unscrew them and have a go at the threaded inside with a Dremel. However, I don't think a hemisphere is the best shape to concentrate the mass you'd want - what that might BE, I haven't the faintest. This idea is just another one of them that's ended up in my rather large pile of ideas I wish I'd had when I was 13 years old instead of a bit more than four times that. I coulda been a contender.... 
How about this: I promise I'll buy a set once you spend all the years and thousands of dollars prototyping them and get the bugs worked out! Oh, and get that pesky "economy-of-scale", mass-production thing worked out so they're cheap too.
I do know from my experiences with fretless basses (and now guitar) that you'd want an instrument with the widest possible string spacing, 0.375" (7/16th) at the minimum. Take a 12-string steel guitar, and remove every other string, maybe.  |
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Pete Burak
From:
Portland, OR USA
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Storm Rosson
From:
Silver City, NM. USA
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Posted 16 Jul 2014 8:22 am
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| David Mason wrote: |
I've made a bunch of things to slide around with, and when you get below around 3 oz. you start running into serious tonal issues. Obviously, if you were really dedicated and money was no object, you could get a fitted set of hemispherical fingertip fittings. You can look at the slides from these links and envision a set that just fit on the last knuckle of each finger:
http://www.therockslide.com/shop/balltip-rock-slide/
http://www.daddyslide.com/index.php/en/slide/handmade-nose-tip-slide
But you won't get to 3 oz. that way. The best, weightiest thing I could think of in the seat-o' the-pants, budget-type "thimbles" department would start with some copper plumbing end caps - not the thin soldered ones, the thick threaded kind. You could screw them onto a section of pipe mounted in a lathe, turn them down to some shape, unscrew them and have a go at the threaded inside with a Dremel. However, I don't think a hemisphere is the best shape to concentrate the mass you'd want - what that might BE, I haven't the faintest. This idea is just another one of them that's ended up in my rather large pile of ideas I wish I'd had when I was 13 years old instead of a bit more than four times that. I coulda been a contender....
How about this: I promise I'll buy a set once you spend all the years and thousands of dollars prototyping them and get the bugs worked out! Oh, and get that pesky "economy-of-scale", mass-production thing worked out so they're cheap too.
I do know from my experiences with fretless basses (and now guitar) that you'd want an instrument with the widest possible string spacing, 0.375" (7/16th) at the minimum. Take a 12-string steel guitar, and remove every other string, maybe. |
.375 = 3/8" Dave....  |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 16 Jul 2014 8:30 am
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| Pete Burak wrote: |
I recently picked up a cool Oscar Schmidt Autoharp for 10-bucks, and have been thinking of going with a thumb-pick and thimbles instead of fingerpicks.
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This has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm talking about. I'm referring to thimbles on the left hand, not strumming on the right hand. |
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Posted 16 Jul 2014 8:46 am
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| Alan Brookes wrote: |
| Pete Burak wrote: |
I recently picked up a cool Oscar Schmidt Autoharp for 10-bucks, and have been thinking of going with a thumb-pick and thimbles instead of fingerpicks.
... |
This has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm talking about. I'm referring to thimbles on the left hand, not strumming on the right hand. |
Pete that's some serious topic drift, you rascal!
I like the John Sebastian picture! 
_________________
Fender Kingman, Sierra Crown D-10, Evans Amplifier, Soup Cube. |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 16 Jul 2014 8:48 am
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"I'm referring to thimbles on the left hand, not strumming on the right hand."
Left-handed Autoharp? |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 17 Jul 2014 8:36 am
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...or a left-handed pedal steel.
Now let's get back on topic. |
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Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 17 Jul 2014 9:32 am
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Alan, you started this topic in "Pedal Steel" so bearing that in mind, with the typical guitar having 10 strings per neck and closely spaced, this might make some form of thimbles pretty difficult in which to develop accuracy and proficiency even if the material were found to be viable.
Add multiple pedals and knee levers along with a thumbpick and two or occasionally even three fingerpicks depending on the player - I think we already have our hands, feet - and brains, pretty full.
Sounds like a concept more suited to straight steel or lap steel. Part of the development of the pedal steel was that one couldn't achieve some of the things you wrote about with a straight bar as opposed to the chord positions on a standard guitar one gets with their finger tips on the fretting hand.
_________________
Mark |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 17 Jul 2014 3:53 pm
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| You're absolutely right, Mark. The pedals were introduced because of the limitations of the straight tone bar. And yes, being able to finger chords on a pedal steel, in addition to being able to use the pedals and kneww levers, would make a complicated instrument even more complicated. |
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