Chankgeez wrote:It's probably easier for most people to use a tone bar (and you can do different things with it). I'd say generally you'd get a more solid tone and more sustain with one. The heavier the object you use to stop the strings, the greater returns you'll get in those respects. There's a balance though. Playing with something that's too heavy will make your control much more difficult (and be a detriment to sustain).
The length of the bar also matters. Especially if you wanna use slants in your playing or wanna play across the entire width of the neck. If you're just using the bar/slide to stop only one or two strings at a time (and getting most of your sound from pedals and such & less of it from technique), it matters less so.
Material of the bar/slide also makes a difference is sound. I often play with a pocketknife and because it has a flat playing surface it buzzes against the strings. There're lots of choices though: metal, ceramic, glass, bakelite, wood, plastic, etc.
I'd say, give a proper tone bar a try. Go to a music shop and test out a few. One of 'em will probably feel more natural in your hand.
Great post
Plus.
You can buy bars in different weights.
You can do more oddball things with a bar like roll it down the strings, play without always holding it, use the tip to just play on 1 or 2 strings and so on. The different material thing is important to me... With normal slides a such as bars... I have like 12 slides
out of different materials and lengths... I have 4 tonebars atm: steel, brass, porcelain and glass with a brass core. I still want to get a old style metal one and a agate one like they use in India