A question of technique?

[bod]

Hi Michael

A quick question for you, if you'd be so kind:

Can you - or anyone you know of - actually get a clear, strong sounding pull off using a bullet-style bar on a dobro? Or would you say it is pretty much the case that if a person wants to get that effect in a piece they should use a rail for that piece?

Cheers

Dave

[Michael Messer]

Hi Dave,

A quick answer to a quick question....

Yes I can do pulls-offs with the bullet. I flip it around and then it is no longer a bullet bar. I have always used a Hawaiian bullet bar, so I am very used to it. Flipping it around to use for pull-offs is no problem.

Have fun

Shine On
Michael.

[bod]

Thanks Michael, appreciated as always - exploring that one will, I imagine, add whole new epicycles of slide-related fun to my efforts!

Dave

[LouisianaGrey]

Having been taught by people from the bluegrass world, where pull-offs are a very big part of the technique in fast passages, I've always used a pointed bar like all my teachers (apart from Stacy Phillips who uses a traditional Stevens bar). I admire anyone who doesn't need one - I just can't imagine the level of technique that's needed to flip a bullet bar around fast enough without dropping it!

[bod]

Hi Pete, nice to meet you

On the basis of my extremely limited experience, flipping the bar around fast without dropping it doesn't seem like it is going to be terribly difficult easier than (other forms of) juggling, perhaps, just so long as I'm not trying to anything (else) complicated - like play dobro - at the same time! ;D

Dave

More seriously (he added, unable to help himself) I'm just starting out on dobro, I have and am learning to use both types of bar and am not planning to chose between them any time soon, if ever, as each seems to me to have its merits and limits. Then I read somewhere that, despite what is often said, it is actually possible, with experience and technique, to play with a rail anything that can be played with a bullet and vice versa. And I'd kinda like that to be true but try as I might I could not do - nor see how to begin going about learning to do - decent pull-offs with a bullet... now I know how it does sound rather advanced, but a) it is fun to try and b) Rob Ickes suggests trying to learn the full range of bar techniques, even if you don't plan on using some of them much, as it is all good learning for a person's bar hand and their relationship with the bar. Granted he says this with a rail in hand (and probably in mind, too) but I figure the point is generalisable, and it is pretty much on these sorts of grounds, rather than any conviction that I'll actually succeed in putting this to use while playing at real speeds, that I'll be exploring this one)

[Michael Messer]

Flipping a Hawaiian bullet bar is not a difficult move, I have always done it. Most times when I do pul-offs I use the bullet end, but if I need a brutal pull-off I flip the bar around. Never dropped one yet!

Each to their own and as we all know most modern Dobro players do use Stevens-type bars. They are easier to handle and less likely to get dropped, but in my opinion, not as good as a bullet. The bullet is what all the early Hawaiian players used, and what the early Dobro players used too.

Shine On
Michael.