Ever Drop The Bar While Playing?

[Paul King]

I have never dropped my bar while playing but have come close many times. How would you handle such an ordeal? I am sure it would be embarassing as well. I have tried lotions and other products to help hold the bar. Does anyone have an interesting story about dropping the bar and how you overcame it in front of a crowd? I would bet there are several here that have had this unfortunate deed happen.

[Jim Cohen]

Back in the '80s when I studied with the Big E at Jeffran College, Buddy would charge us $1 for every time we dropped the bar. I think he doubled his Jeffran salary...

[Lane Gray]

I sing as well as play: one night, there was a ground mismatch between amp and sound system: my lips touched the mic, the bar flew out to the dance floor and the lyrics changed. I don't recall what the next word should have been, but the next word out of my mouth started with S.

[Jack Hanson]

One look at the once beautiful birdseye maple rear apron of the Sho-Bud 6139 I traded my Red Baron for would answer that question.

[Joe B. Long]

Yes, and it seem to be inversely proportional to the amount of beer consumed.

[Jim Cohen]

Yes, and it seem to be inversely proportional to the amount of beer consumed.

I think you meant "directly proportional", yes?

[Clete Ritta]

Hasn't happened live yet (knocks on wood), but I did drop the bar on my toe once when I was first learning. (I used to practice in socks cause the steel was too low height for me). It hurt so much I vowed I would never ever do that again.

[Dick Wood]

Never dropped the bar but I did leave it at home and the gig was 40 miles away. I had to use a spark plug socket that night.

[Dave Hepworth]

I did a theatre gig years ago and the bar slipped out of my hand when doing a solo -sliding up to the higher registers on the neck.Not only did it hit the floor but rolled off the sloping stage to land in the audience near to where I new was sitting a fellow steeler !!!!

[Paul King]

Dave, How did you overcome it? Did they just bring it back to you or did you have another bar?

[David Anderson]

I too drove an hour away to a gig to find out I left my bar at home. I did have a Stevens lapsteel slide, which wasnt a great substitute. I always keep a spare bar in the console of my car. Never dropped it before, while at the gig anyway.

[Doug Rolfe]

Ask Jerry Roller if he ever did.

[Ken Metcalf]

One time I kicked off Sleepwalk and the bar just kept rolling... hit the floor and BOOM! real loud through the P.A.

[Larry Petree]

Yes, back in my Bigsby playing days, I and other jammers dropped the bar, leaving dings in the wood. This is why I will always play a formica steel. No more bar dings...

[David Nugent]

I have noticed that some players have a small bag hanging usually from the keyhead of the C6 neck, I am assuming this is used to hold a spare bar and set of picks? As for myself, I keep a second bar within easy reach resting on the strings on the inside of the C6 keyhead. Have not dropped the bar as yet on a job, but suspect that I will the first time that this precaution is overlooked...FWIW: I am with David Anderson, always keep a bar and set of picks in all of my vehicles in case of emergencies.

[Paul Sutherland]

Just this past summer I was in the middle of a steel guitar instrumental and I dropped the bar clear to the floor. The band kept playing while I retrieved it. Fortunately it was a low key gig so I was able to laugh it off and finish the song. The audience, such as there was, still clapped. But it left me wondering if that was a senior moment or just a fluke.

[Tom Wolverton]

I drop bars and picks all the time. It's part of the fun. Just this last weekend during a song, I slanted and slipped and managed to spin my bar 90 degrees and push it down thru the strings, so it was stuck under the strings. Had to dig it out. I was also catching fingerpicks on strings every once in a while (until I got the new smooth finger picks).

The bar rolling off the stage story cracks me up. I remember as a kid, I was a trombone player in a marching band. We were in downtown San Diego and it was a big important parade (4th of July). We marched down a side street and turned onto Broadway. The place was packed and the trombone players were in the first row ('cuz of the slide room needed). We hit that corner turn and had to pivot quickly. We were holding our instruments under our arms and as I made that snap turn something happened, similar to dropping a bar. I didn't have my slide locked and the slide part of the trombone shot out like a spear across the pavement. clang-clang a lang, all the way over to the curb where
it came to rest, as the poor people sitting there jumped away from it. I had to break rank and run over, pick it up and get back into place. Luckily, the slide was not dented bad enough, so the horn still worked. But, lets just say, that gave a grand entrance to the crowd on that corner. Ha !

[Donny Hinson]

Sure, I drop mine, but I don't consider it a big deal. I happen to hold the bar very loosely, and well, $#!& happens. At a show earlier this year, I was playing with my watch on, something I almost never do, and when I was going to switch necks on one song, my watch caught on the C6th strings and the bar slipped out of my hand and went skittering across the floor! I got up, picked it up, sat down, and resumed playing. No one was hurt or killed, and no animals were harmed. OSHA was not involved, so no remediation or preventive measures were deemed necessary.

At my age, it no longer makes sense to worry about such silly things. If the worst thing that ever happens to you is that you drop your bar, you are truly blessed.

[Henry Matthews]

Dropped mine at our Opry show one night and it went into audience. Someone on front row handed it to me. We just laughed about it.

[Ben Lawson]

I have dropped it, thrown it and tapped someone on the head with it. He sat on the stage in front of me and used my pedal rods for a backrest.

[Joe B. Long]

Yes, and it seem to be inversely proportional to the amount of beer consumed.

I think you meant "directly proportional", yes?

Nope inversely, the more I consume the more relaxed I am and very rarely if ever drop...now on the other hand when I play when there is not any beer, I seem to be as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs and drop it....lol... strange but true. I have dropped it on the hardwood stage at church several times...man it can be loud!

[Marc Friedland]

I think the important thing is once you do drop the bar - then you get to raise the bar, and that's a good thing...

[Brett Day]

While playing a show in Gray, Georgia in 2005, I was singing the second verse of "Bartender's Blues" and my bar decided to slide around in the middle of the verse and into the chorus. By the time I'd started to play the steel solo, I'd gotten the bar back in place-it was a close call. Not sure why the bar started acting up, but I wondered if it was because I was sitting too close to my steel. I adjusted the bar as quick as I could in the middle of "Bartender's Blues". With cerebral palsy, I almost have to adjust the bar frequently to get a better grip.

[Dave Grafe]

What forty years of exposure will do for ya...I've had a dropped bar roll across the dance floor, once the bar rolled under the stage. worst was when the bar fell off the end of the guitar when I wasn't playing, and landed squarely on my digital recorder, ending it's career permanently...

[Paul King]

Thanks for all the comments and experiences. And Donny Hinson, I sure am happy to see no one was hurt or killed, and especially OSHA was not called in. That is all we need is the government getting involved in bar dropping.