Ezzee~slide Tone Bar or Clinesmith Polymer Bars

[Dave Sky]

I have no experience with the Clinesmith Polymer Bars or the Ezzee~slide Tone Bar. Any recommendations for one or the other? Or is there another bar of this type that you like? I just play for fun and wanted to try a different type of bar.

[Peter Krebs]

Hi Dave. I love my Clinesmith bar. I have a bunch of bars I’ve picked up over the years (or were given to me) and the Clinesmith is the one I come back to. Good luck!

[Miles Lang]

I haven’t tried a Clinesmith bar, but I adore my Ezzee-Slides! I’ll never go back to metal/chrome bars again.

[Jim Fogarty]

Clinesmith bars = Highly recommended. Turned my BJS bars into backups.

[Frank James Pracher]

I have both... they're each fantastic. To me the Clinesmith has a tone closer to a metal bar... I find the Eezzee slide a bit easier to grip.. Both are fine bars, and I found Todd and Basil both very professional and easy to work with.

[Lee Gauthier]

I have one of each. I think the Clinesmith is a bit noisier on the strings - I haven't used it in a minute so I forget what the tonal qualities are. My Eezzee side is absurdly quiet on the strings and definitely has a bit more mellow of a tone compared a metal bar. I really like the Eezzee slide sound for jazz-y or ambient styles, but I still find myself grabbing a metal bar for a more classic country sound.

[Mark Helm]

I confess I haven't tried one of Basil's bars but I hear raves...yet, but I have been playing my Clinesmith bar for a few years now and I absolutely love it.

I have Todd make them as heavy as possible for the size. I believe I last ordered a 7/8 X 3.25 bar 7.25+.

Like some of the other guys, I do often return to a steel bar, but I keep coming back to the Clinesmith.

I highly recommend picking one up. You won't regret it.

[Lee Gauthier]

I ran back to the studio tonight to test with my Clinesmith again. I'd describe it as a bit brighter and more direct sounding than the Eezzee, but it definitely scrapes the strings more than the Eezzee. I don't recall Clinesmith being scratchy at all when I first got it so maybe there is some polishing I need to do?

Tonewise I don't think one is better than the other just subtly different.

[K Maul]

I love the Eezee slides. I have one 10 string size one smaller for lap steel and one big Sneaky Pete size for my Fender 1000.

[Gregory LeBlanc]

To keep bar recs in one place, what are your favorite grip bars? I'm using a ben harper signature right now but torn between upgrading to an asher or beard.

[Brett Day]

The Ezzee bar is my go-to bar for pedal steel. Because I have cerebral palsy in my left hand, an Ezzee bar works well for me. The bar I use is the Sneaky Pete size, and works really well on my Jackson Blackjack Custom pedal steel. I find it easier and more fun to play steel with the Ezzee Slide bar and I don't have to adjust the bar every five minutes, like I did with a stainless steel bar. Basil Henriques makes great steel guitar bars. I don't use a bar holder on the side of my steel now, I keep my bar between the pad and neck of my steel at all times, unless my house is being cleaned. When my house is being cleaned or I'm not at the steel when I have company at my house, I put my picks and bar in a drawer on the table beside my bed, then take them back out a few days later. My Ezzee bar is tapered and it is very easy for me to handle

[Chase Brady]

I have one of each, both approximately the same size/weight. There is a difference, but it is so slight that I can't imagine anyone liking one and not the other. I have a very slight preference for the Clinesmith, yet I often practice with the Ezzee-slide. I'd say go for the one that's made closest to home.

--Chase Brady

[Tim Whitlock]

I too have one of each, but sadly I dropped the Eazzee on a hard surface and it now has a small notch, so I need another bar as a backup. I'll be ordering my next one from Todd, mainly because of proximity for delivery. You can't go wrong with either one - they are both fantastic! Put me in the category of players who will never go back to metal.

[Carey Hofer]

For those of you that use Ezzee tone bars, does the bar not having an indentation on the ends affect slanting the bar?

[David Ball]

I have a couple of Ezzee bars, and they both have the indentation on the end. I also have a Clinesmith. I wouldn't turn around for the difference in the two--they're both great bars. For non-pedal, my go to bar is a tapered Ezzee.

Dave

[Tim Whitlock]

For those of you that use Ezzee tone bars, does the bar not having an indentation on the ends affect slanting the bar?

The indentation on the Clinesmith is an advantage. I glued a piece of rough vinyl to the end of my Eezzee bar for better traction on reverse slants.

[Brett Day]

The Ezzee Slide is a bar that I think I've been waiting for for 25 years because when I started playing steel, I started out using a Dunlop steel bar and it always slid around on the strings and fell out of my left hand a few times. I'd tried out another bar I'd gotten from Billy Phelps and Full Circle Sound at the ISGC in '03, but over time, I realized the grooved bar was making my left hand sweaty and tired. So, for six years, I'd kept my steel in its' case, but by 2021, I was missing playing steel-I'd taught myself how to play dobro when the steel was in its case, but I decided to get my steel back out and play it again to show that I play both instruments. In 2023, I was on a trip to Sevierville, Tennessee, and visited the Emmons Guitar Company, and when I first got there, within a minute or two, I was sitting behind a blue 1994 Emmons D-10, and there were different bars for me to try out-one was grooved , and I think there was another steel bar, but after those two slid around in my left hand, Kelcey O'Neil handed me a white bar, and I tried it out on the Emmons, and I noticed how well it stayed in my hand, so I asked Kelcey what the bar was and he said, "It's a polymer bar", then I asked him what company makes those bars, and he said, "it's an Ezzee bar", and at the time, I'd never heard of such a brand of steel guitar bar, so I did some research and found out Basil Henriques makes those bars. If it wasn't for the trip to Emmons in 2023, I probably wouldn't have found out about the Ezzee bars