New Zirconia Bars

Mark Kelchen · Post by **Mark Kelchen** » 25 Dec 2002 3:01 am

Put me down for one!

Pete Dalton · Post by **Pete Dalton** » 31 Dec 2002 7:07 pm

Put me Down For a 10 string bar Possibly 2

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 31 Dec 2002 7:47 pm

I don't mean to put the Zirconia Bar down and
Ed Packard is a fine gentleman but... I will not buy one.
A Steel guitar is a Steel Guitar because we use a Steel to play. I stand by that!
If you use a Zirconia Bar then you are playing a Zirconia Guitar.
Having said that,, I would not know the difference listening to a recording.
It's just a matter of principle with me.

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ed packard · Post by **ed packard** » 1 Jan 2003 8:39 am

Hey Roy, ..how are things in frozen NS? I may go to the "Maggies" again this year and if I do I might stop and annoy you.

Can the "sweet talk" and lets put on the gloves.......That AIN'T no guitar no how as they might say below the Mason Dixon, or is it the Carl Dixon. Any resemblance between what is referred to as a PSG and a common guitar is as close as man is to ape. The only remaining commonality is strings, and not even the quantity or gauges. The shape is different, the materials, weight, construction, roller nuts, rotating bridges, position of playing, lack of raised frets (except as Gene Fields uses one neck). The underside looks like an Olivetti manual typewriter, the top looks like a cheese slicer, the whole thing looks like a deformed card table. The string count and pedals bring to mind the concert harp.

I like the name of "Horizontal electric concert harp" myself as it is more descriptive, ..Those below the Carl Dixon line would say that AIN'T "country" enough, but neither is country music "country" anymore, ..not even sure that it is "music" in the sense that us "old pharts" think of music.

Some "showoffs"(showmen?)play the thing with hard boiled eggs, blocks of wood, combs, and anything else that the audience wants to throw up to them. Then there was the plastic and bakelite coated, the plated and unplated brass bars, the round, flat, and other shapes and the powder coat bars of today, ..the finger picks have been steel, brass, plastic, and heaven knows what else.

The legs are microphone stands, the leg holders are relatives to pipe hangers (except for the Sierra approach), ..does "bell crank" sound like a guitar term? Then there are the gun cleaning rods, mechanical "stops", pedal racks, cross rods, knee levers, mechanical fingers, and on and on. Guitar?...one could question that name (and just did). How about two octave string bends (bar slides), try that on a "guitar". Even Roy Thomson thinks it is a bagpipe (think drone strings) on occasion, Doug Jernigan thought that it was a horizontal banjo at on time. Buddy Emmons has played it as the horns and/or woodwind section of the Big Band, Ralph Mooney makes believe that it is a hound dog and stomps on its tail to make it howl, Paul Franklin thinks that it is a machine gun on occasion, Bill Stafford uses it as the string section of a symphony orchestra (cello and upright bass included) Billy Easton makes it sound like a marimba on occasion, and the late great Jimmy Day used it as a "cryin' machine".

I think of it as the great portamento machine, ..it is not the note(s) that you are on, it is how you get there and leave there; Chord/harmony morphing possibilities far outstrip a "guitar". My position is, it ain't what you call it, it is what you do with it that is of value ("A Rose By Any Other Name" if I may quote a famous Scot), and like us people, if there is no infusion of genes from other family lines the line finaly will die out. Those that changed the body to aluminum from wood (machinists as opposed to cabinet makers as manufacturers, neither being luthiers), and now the "mold a body" folk must really present you a problem re what to name the animal.

With all that, you worry that changing a bar material from one of the various metals (not just steel) or plastics to a ceramic will present a problem re the name "steel guitar"? It must be those cold down east winters!!!

You might be surprised who uses one in the studios in Nashville (so he said) and wanted a second one for a backup after we stopped making them.

[This message was edited by ed packard on 01 January 2003 at 03:36 PM.]

Joey Ace · Post by **Joey Ace** » 1 Jan 2003 10:34 am

Well Ed, the answer is to make more and prove your point!

Another post has me convinced I play a "Pedal Zither".

Smily Roberts has called it a "Mechnical Pitch Approximater", I like that.

And Roy, I made a bar out of a wooden broom handle to get fake banjo sounds. So I guess it's a "Wooden Guitar" when I use it.

I'm so confused. Back to the Bar...
Make mine a Zirconia, bartender! Happy 2K3 to all!

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 1 Jan 2003 2:55 pm

When I started at age 12 I asked,, "Why do they call this a Steel Guitar?" (Stella 6 string)

I was told "Because you play it with a steel bar."
Everything in your post is right on Ed except you spell my name wrong!

You're welcome here anytime and I promise we'll keep the heat up.

Happy New Year to you and yours.
I still remember your great visit several years ago.

Roy

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</A> [This message was edited by Roy Thomson on 01 January 2003 at 02:56 PM.][This message was edited by Roy Thomson on 01 January 2003 at 02:56 PM.]

ed packard · Post by **ed packard** » 1 Jan 2003 3:39 pm

Roy, sorry about the spelling, ..I went back and knocked the P out of ya!

I started on the Stella also, ..in Halifax.

Marty Nemanick · Post by **Marty Nemanick** » 1 Jan 2003 4:51 pm

Ed, Count me in on a 10 string zirc.
Happy New Year, Marty...

Mike Perlowin RIP · Post by **Mike Perlowin RIP** » 1 Jan 2003 6:45 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> I will not buy one.
A Steel guitar is a Steel Guitar because we use a Steel to play. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This is why I want to change the name of our instrument to TIFKATSPG (The Instrument Formerly Known As The Pedal Streel Guitar.)

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Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm schizophrenic, and so am I

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 2 Jan 2003 1:35 am

The TIFKATSPG Forum?????

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Greg Simmons · Post by **Greg Simmons** » 4 Dec 2004 1:15 pm

Hey, here's a blast from the past...
anybody have any news about a possible 2nd run of the zirconia bars - I tried Mike Perlowin's in TX a few years ago - suffice it to say I'd still love to get #007

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<size=-1>Greg Simmons
Former custodian of the Unofficial Sho~Bud Pedal Steel Guitar Website </size>

[This message was edited by Greg Simmons on 04 December 2004 at 01:15 PM.]

Joey Ace · Post by **Joey Ace** » 4 Dec 2004 1:40 pm

#001 for me!

I'm Number One, I'm Number One, . .

George McLellan · Post by **George McLellan** » 4 Dec 2004 2:56 pm

Sorry Joe, but mine is #56. I got it the year (I can't remember which one it was - CRS) that Bill Stafford was selling them at the ISGC.

I still like it a lot but I do want to try a BJS 15/16ths.

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SUAS U' PHIOB
Geo

Joey Ace · Post by **Joey Ace** » 4 Dec 2004 3:10 pm

The BJS 15/16ths is what I use.
I hope this run starts numbering at 001, so Greg can get his 007.

Howard Whittington · Post by **Howard Whittington** » 4 Dec 2004 3:55 pm

Well I am kicking my self for not getting one before...So now I would like to have 2

Herman Visser · Post by **Herman Visser** » 4 Dec 2004 5:09 pm

Id like one! sign me up

ed packard · Post by **ed packard** » 4 Dec 2004 6:26 pm

Sorry folks, I don't want to spoil your Christmas but there is no plan to make any more Zirc bars. If anyone wants to make them, and has the right equipment, I or Bill Stafford will be glad to tell them how.

Bill Stafford · Post by **Bill Stafford** » 5 Dec 2004 3:13 pm

What Ed said!~ Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.
And if you happended to miss our little show here in Gulfport, you certainely missed out on one wonderful musical experience.
Pee Wee Whitewing was here with his Zirconia
bar and he still calls his instrument a steel guitar. I do too, for some reason or another. lol.
See you in Jan. Ed.

Bill Stafford

Dustin Rigsby · Post by **Dustin Rigsby** » 5 Dec 2004 6:55 pm

My wife calls it "that freakin' whiny guitar in the basement!"

. That is usually followed by "Why can't you go back to playin' six string?"

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D.S. Rigsby
Wilcox SD10 3&5

Joey Ace · Post by **Joey Ace** » 7 Dec 2004 6:01 am

Ed and Bill,
Thanks for the offer to help, and the (bad but straight-forward) news about production.

I guess this thread will settle to the bottom, like it did two years ago, then be brought back up in another few years.
I'll be waiting.

Merry Christmas to all.

Jim Ives · Post by **Jim Ives** » 7 Dec 2004 11:46 am

I'll take 2 (Two) 10 string bars.
-Jim

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Mullen D-10
Lexicon MPX 100
Fulltone Full-Drive II
Evans FET 500 -or-
Peavey Nashville 1000
Vox wah-wah pedal
My dog Toby sittin' on the floor listening

Chippy Wood · Post by **Chippy Wood** » 7 Dec 2004 11:59 am

Hi,
I'll take 2 if you're making them again.

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Ron (Chippy) Wood
Emmons D10
Carter SD10

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 7 Dec 2004 12:25 pm

I could go for one bar for my
Hawaiian Horizontal Pedal Harp

Roy Ayres · Post by **Roy Ayres** » 7 Dec 2004 1:09 pm

Am I wrong, or isn't "Zirconia" the plural of "Zirconium" ? ? ? ?

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Visit my Web Site at RoysFootprints.com
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ed packard · Post by **ed packard** » 7 Dec 2004 3:20 pm

Roy;
It is like aluminum, ..aluminum is the metal, alumina is the ceramic; you are right, they play the Latin singular and plural game.