What do you do when you can no longer hold the bar?

[Dave Zirbel]

Good ideas! Stan Wes from southern California had a stroke several years ago that affected his entire left side. He was more of a bottleneck slide player but had a pedal steel at his store with pedals on the right and his bar had a fitting to keep him from dropping it. He basically drilled a small hole in the bar and made a couple of half hoops....I tried to make a drawing...

[Bill Burch]

I'm inspired by everyone's input, encouragement, and creativity!

Bill

[Shane Byrd]

Hi, Bill!
Have you gotten anything to work better for you yet?

[Bill Burch]

Progress! After crafting a couple of options including the wrist-mounted bar and a palm device, I think I've come up with something workable. Anchoring my fingers in as much as a standard playing position was going to be the best solution. I also needed some additional weight to replace the downward pressure my fingers weren't providing.

I found some copper fittings at the hardware store and fashioned segments that fit my first and second fingers. JB Weld 2-part steel epoxy held the sections together. I then epoxied the metal "fingers" to a mountain strip of InstaMorph shapeable plastic, arched to fit my 7/8" bar.

Finally, I dipped the finger sections into Plasti Dip to give a good gripping surface .

This is going to work. I can see the bar tip for intonation and the hand position is where it should be. My hope is that my condition is temporary and soon i can dispense with the prosthetic bar and just get back to learning. But in the meantime, I have a work-around.

Bill

[Shane Byrd]

That’s an ingenious looking solution, Bill!

[basilh]

1

[basilh]

1

[Charley Bond]

Maybe one of the Pedal Slide Bars by Axtremity would help out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exthprt-QVA#t=44