SP2 Shubb Guitar Steel Slide - Stainless Steel 5.6 oz

Just learning lap steel. Had a lapdawg bar but for a beginner it gets easily hung up on strings when going low to high across the fretboard. This Shubbs bar with its one bullet-nose end glides perfectly. Problem solved! Plus it still has a squared-off end for hammer-ons when desired. It’s also comfortable to hold with the nice finger grooves and has enough weight for decent tone, without getting too heavy for comfort and a good ergonomic length. Plus it’s a good value price-wise. All-around winner!

Recommended. Easier to grip with my partially paralyzed left hand.

I play a duesenberg lap steel and this thing rocks. Perfect weight and sustains forever.

Seemed like a good idea so I bought one. It is lighter than a Stevens or the all steel Shubb. Exceptionally comfortable and easy to manipulate. Glad I got it. Thanks Shubb!

Really nice size for large hands, pretty easy to hold just need some getting used to, nice sound and heavy enough so you do not need a great deal of pressure on the strings, I am not a professional player but this brand is much better then the cheaper ones I tried.

I've been playing steel guitars for about 40 years. For most of that time, I've used cylindrical, bullet-nosed bars, and I still do for some music on some instruments.About three years ago, arthritis and some new original music caused me to look beyond the bullet. I obtained an original USA-made Shubb-Pearse SP2, and found that it suited my new needs very well. While not as well-suited to conventional forward and reverse slants as the bullet bars, the SP2 proved superior (in MY left hand, at least) for bending strings behind the bar and for split slants. I also discovered that I could make good use of the squared-off end for pulloffs.The original SP2 was chrome-plated brass. After a couple of years of frequent use, the plating began wearing away from gripping surfaces. This did not bother me. Also, the strings had scored fine lines on the playing surface. This did bother me, as the bar made more noise while sliding along the strings.I was pleased to hear that Shubb had begun making the SP2 in stainless steel, but I was reluctant to order one from a musical instrument vendor because of uncertainty as to whether I'd receive a new stainless steel bar or a new old stock chromed brass one. Amazon's unambiguous statement that the SP2 it was offering is made in China removed all doubt that I'd receive a current-production bar.There are small, subtle differences between the stainless and plated brass iterations: - The stainless bar is longer than the brass one (probably by about 2 mm, but I didn't measure) and lighter (154 grams vs. 161). - The sharp edges of the ridges that form the finger groove atop the bar are now flared outward rather than upward.None of the changes in shape made any significant sonic or tactile difference to me, except that the new one may prove to be slightly more comfortable over a long session.Only time will tell whether the stainless SP2 will become as noisy as quickly as the plated brass version did.

Now that I have worked a bit more with this bar I have updated my original review to add an additional star. I is now my "go to" bar and is great for faster playing and the stainless steel has a nicer sound than coated bars in my opinion. I still use the rounded nose bar SB2 for certain songs that require "pushes" as noted below, but perhaps some day I will get better with this edge or "Stevens" style bar. My original review: I have always played with either a rounded or ½ rounded bar. One of my common maneuvers is to slide up a single string with the back of the bar raised a bit and then plunge the bar tip forward across a single fret to engage the next string up. For me, this is extremely difficult to do with this edged bar design. Unless I am extremely careful, it will either run into, or catch under the next string up the single fret. I am working at avoiding this problem but it requires a whole new approach to the bar pressure when making this common maneuver. My other comment is that my heavier full steel bar has a bit more sustain on thumb drags across 5 or 6 strings, but not that noticeable. On the plus side, I do like the clean pull-offs this bar was designed for, and in my opinion this bar being stainless steel does have its own unique sound so I am going to strive to work it into my playing, but I am not abandoning playing with a full steel ½ round bar. If this bar had one its edges rounded I could swap edges for different song styles and I would give it 5 stars.

First off let me say this is my first Dobro Steel Slide and I haven't been playing all that long. Since I am learning and probably will always be learning, it was essential to me to find at least a decent steel slide at the beginning of the journey. This one fits my hand. That is one of the big concerns in my opinion. It needs to be comfortable. And it is for me. But I understand that it might not be comfortable for everyone. The second concern is how easy it is to move around. I have had no problem with that at all. It lands where I put it and the sound is clear. There is one caution I would like to add. Don't drop it on a slate floor. It is heavy and STEEL. It didn't fall out of my hand. It got knocked off a desktop where I put it after practicing. It didn't even mar the finish on it. The slate floor however.....You won't know until you actually try it, if this is one of the ones for you.