What are the players saying about Paloma Stone Guitar Slides?

I'm thrilled to say that slides have been shipped to Australia, France, England, British Colombia, Austria, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Alberta, Onatrio, Quebec, and Spain... and many states including California, Washington, Oregon, Virginia, Texas, Tennessee, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Montana, Utah, Louisianna, Alaska, Colorado, Georgia, Mississippi, Kansas, Wisconsin, Nevada, Connecticut, Vermont, and Illinois... Thanks so much for the fastastic support!

 

Player Comments and Reviews

Kirk Lorange, Australia... www.guitar.name ...

Hi, Jay. I just wanted to let you know that the slides all arrived safely. They're beautiful! They're thicker and lighter than I'm used to, but I just love the warm tone!  Thanks so much for sending them!

 

Asher, Portland, OR...

Keep it up. I think you've got something the world needs!

 

Steve Bradley, Portland, OR... www.stevebradleymusic.info ...

Thanks very much for the slides.  It's really fun trying them out. I think you have something here.  Here are some observations after A/B ing the Stone Slides with some Shubb and Stevens steel and some original Nick Manoloff plastic steels.  I'm playing a 1960 Fender champ with a 6-string steel guitar with .10 thru .46 gauge strings to to E.

1. A very good alternative sound and feel to steel and plastic.

2. Slightly less high end than steel but fatter bottom.

3. Playing noise similar to steel.

4. Blue glaze is darker sounding than white.

5. The white feels faster.

6. Performance and sound of all shapes similar.

7. Rounded edges feel very comfortable.

8. Light weight but still sounds full.

9. They are fast.

 

Bruce Stimpson, Seattle, WA...

I'm digging the Stone Slide. It's sweet!

 

Tim H., Montana...

The slides look great, feel great, and sound great!  Glad I bought them!

 

Dan, Eugene OR...

Jay  I received my bar within two days of ordering, and must say I am very pleased with the quality.  I ordered the round nose bar measuring just short of 1 x 3 inches. It feels very nice in the hand; is fast, fairly quiet with very nice tone and sustain for such a light bar.  Evidently, weight is not the only aspect to good tone.  Thanks for offering these at just a resonable price.

 

 

Birger Olsen, Portland, OR... www.townrill.com ...

"Being mostly a fingerstyle player, my guitars are set up with pretty low action and light strings. My lovely blue Paloma slide is light enough to control and not bang into the frets, but still produces a rich and full sound. It sounds similar to my wine bottle neck slide, but louder! Especially on the low strings. And it's just nice to look at too!"

 

Dick Chapple, Sr., Hardin, MT

 

Andy Sandoval, Bakersfield, CA...

I received my bullet and Stevens type bars today and gave them a good workout. They look and sound great with a tone all their own. They're lighter than what I'm used to but you get used to the feel real quick. A lot of guys experiment with hollowing out steel bars to get a lighter feel but these are pretty light so there's no need to ruin a good steel bar by experimenting any more. Another thing is that they're easy to hold with a sticky feel to them yet they glide effortlessly over the strings. Definitely something to add to your collection for a little different tone. I'm very happy with these bars. Good job Jay

BIg Dog Mercer, Joliet, IL...    

I found Paloma Stone Slides while searching the internet for a new slide. When I came across the name  "Paloma Stone Slides" , I was intrigued. I've been using another brand of ceramic slides & wasn't happy with the fact that they put their label on the side of the slide. (Moonshine Slides) It drags under the strings. Plus, the sizing wasn't quite correct for my finger. After looking at all the different types of slides, I decided to contact the company. I spoke with Jay Seibert & he sent two slides to me within a week. After playing the first few notes, I noticed a difference in tone immediately. I used the slide at a few gigs & fell in love with the weight & tone. Plus, no pesky label on the side!! The folks at Paloma Stone slides not only have the best product I've ever used, they're extremely friendly to work with. Communication was great & very timely. Paloma Stone Slides, I use nothing but your products! www.myspace.com/bigdogmercer , www.bigdogmercer.com   

 

Twayne Williams, Portland, OR...

I recently picked up a bullet bar type stone slide from Portland Music -- in Portland -- and I'm using it on my lap steel for swing tunes. It's nice and speedy, has a good sound, light weight and good sustain. It's also about as thick around as a Mudslide which is something I prefer. Skinny little slides cause my hand to cramp up.   ecommended.

 

Roman Sonnleitner, Vienna , Austria...

I received my blue and white SP2-shaped tone bars this week - my first impressions:

The "nose" is more rounded than on an SP2, almost like a bullet bar - great for single note playing or slants.

There is a slight difference in tone between the two colors (the blue is slightly warmer/darker, the white slightly brighter), but it is minimal, you'll only notice if you are actually looking for it.

The difference in tone to an SP2 bar is quite noticeable, though - the ceramic bars sound warmer, they take those harsh treble frequencies off, that you can sometimes get.
I've also got a bullet bar made from acrylic glass, which is quite dark and makes my electric lap steel sound like a dobro - the Paloma ceramic bars don't have that quality, the tone is still like a lap steel, just a bit warmer.
I guess if you are looking for the ultimate in treble frequencies, brightness, chime (and maybe use a lot of harmonics in your playing style), you might prefer a metal bar, but if you like a warmer sound, and/or play with overdrive tones, the ceramic bars are great.

Both my SP2 and my Dunlop metal bullet bar have noticeably more sustain than the Paloma bars - but the ceramic ones are definitely NOT lacking in sustain, and should work well for 99% of all players (my acrylic bar, on the other hand, has a lot less sustain) - only if you need to squeeze out the last bit of sustain, eg. for pedal-steel-y stuff, you might go for a heavier metal bar.

 

Joel Meredith, Portland, OR...

Jay, got your tonebar a few weeks ago. I got the RB3...
great tone! Very mellow, smooth.
My new favorite! I'll be ordering another very shortly!

 

Matt Berg, Pennsylvania...

My Palomas just showed up, SP2 types. I like them both.

The longer one has the blue finish which gives great individual note definition. The white finish has a great ring, sounds more like a traditional metal bar, but still a bit mellower. As pictured, they have a tall profile, easily controlled. Powerful, even without the weight of metal.

Looking forward to playing with them.

 

Ken Yates...

Jay, I have had the bar for a couple of weeks now and I love it.  I  will probably order another one pretty shortly.  Later I might try ordering a few and take them to a steel show or two and see how they sell...if that's okay with you.

 

Christopher Walke...

I've had a little time to spend with my new bars (and thank you for sending the extra bar - greatly appreciated).  First off, I gotta tell you that I love, LOVE, the feel of these bars.  They are wonderfully lightweight.  I thought it might be an adjustment, but I took to it very naturally.  The finish is very smooth and glides across the strings with significantly less resistance than my SP-2.  The tone has something different than I get with the SP-2, but I haven't been able to figure out an accurate way to describe it.  Not necessarily warmer, not thicker (or thinner), just different in some manner.  Nice sustain from the bar.  Overall, the feel, tone & sustain are all fantastic... Keep up the good work, and please continue to refine your products based on the feedback you receive.  You've created a unique product that I suspect will continue generate a good deal of interest among steel guitarists and slide players.  Please keep us updated on the evolution of these bars & slides.

 

Teja Gerkin, Acoustic Guitar magazine...

Great, glad to hear you're getting noticed. They're nice slides. I don't play slide a whole lot myself, but I've had one of our other staffers who is a great slide player check a couple of them out, and he really liked them, especially on his vintage National.

 

Wes Barber, Houston, TX...

"Ricochet", Bristol, Tennessee, Big Road Blues Forum

I was very interested in these slides when I first saw the announcement about them from Jay Seibert, the maker. Jay’s a musician himself, and is active on the Steel Guitar Forum. He and his wife have been making stoneware for ~30 years.

For any who don’t know, there are three main categories of pottery: Earthenware, which is a porous material fired at low temperatures and used for cheap stuff. Fragile and non watertight. Porcelain, which is made from fine particle sized clay and other materials and fired at a high temperature that pretty completely vitrifies it into a hard, glassy, translucent substance. If you hold a dish up to light and see light shining through it, it’s porcelain. Porcelain’s good hard stuff and can ring like a bell, but it also breaks very easily. Then there’s stoneware. Stoneware is made from mixtures of materials with a range of particle sizes and fusing temperatures like clay, feldspar, quartz, flint, or a mineral called nepheline syenite. It’s fired at very high temperatures, but some of it fuses to glass and some of it doesn’t. Think of it as resembling concrete on a microscopic scale, with the gravel and sand held together by the cement matrix. This structure makes it very tough and fracture resistant compared to porcelain. Unglazed or fractured stoneware surfaces have a somewhat rough, gritty texture. It’s usually still slightly porous and water absorbent, but glazing takes care of that. Some “high fire” stoneware glazes are as tough, hard and impervious as porcelain, and the glazes Jay uses are in that category. Think of porcelain as the fine china you got for wedding presents, keep in the cabinet on display and get out only for special occasions. Stoneware’s the stuff you eat off of all your life. It survives lots of bumps and drops, and doesn’t get scratched up with stainless steel utensils sawing against it for decades. Jay uses two glazes, a clear one and a cobalt blue, that are fired to a final temperature of 2460° F. Experience has shown they’re reliably hard and tough.

I got two of the Paloma “bottleneck” slides, in the Large size with 22mm inside diameter so I can use them on either my pinky or ring finger (if I were exclusively a ring finger slider I’d have to go to 24mm) in the 69mm length, and two of the SP3BN shaped tone bars with a bullet nose in 90mm length. (I have 8 string as well as 6 string lap steels.) In both styles I got a clear glazed one and a blue glazed one so I could see if there was a tonal difference.

The clear glazed one is not quite white. It’s a pleasant, slightly beige off white, a bone color. The blue is a deep cobalt blue, a familiar color on many stoneware objects. It immediately reminded me of the decorative bands on my stoneware churn in which I used to make muscadine wine. Whatever Jay uses to hold one end of the bisque fired slides when he dips them in the glaze leaves a ring of unglazed stone at one end. The inside of the tube is glazed. For such large slides, they’re very light. I don’t have a glass slide of identical dimensions for comparison weighing, but I think the stoneware might be a little lighter. The surface glaze is very smooth in both colors, but not quite as glassy slick as my Diamond Ultimate leaded crystal glass slides. They’re like a good bottleneck, with a little fine texture. I don’t always want a super slick surface. A rough slide makes all kinds of scratchy noise and isn’t good for a lot of playing, but a super slick one won’t excite the string when the slide’s slid back and forth on the string for vibrato. There’s a nice medium where the surface gets a little “bite” on the string for vibrato sustain but doesn’t sound noisy. That’s a reason why many players like bottlenecks. Well, the Paloma stone slides got that happy medium just right. Stoneware’s very rigid structure doesn’t absorb sustain by flexing in the slide, either. I was surprised by this, and I may be wrong, but I think the blue glaze is slicker than the clear, which has a little more of the “bite” I’m talking about. But it’s very close, and even A/Bing back and forth a lot over a week of playing I don’t think I could tell for sure which was which with my eyes closed. Other than this subtle textural difference, I can’t hear a tonal difference. Get the one you like the looks of best! These slides are comfortable, sound great, and make for terrific sustain without scratchy noise. I’m not going to deliberately drop them on the floor (as Jay recently did in response to a question, finding that even on concrete they’re surprisingly resistant to breakage), but I’m not quite as worried about dropping one as I am about my crystal slides. I can’t make up my mind which I like best, the bone-colored clear glaze or the cobalt blue. After a week of playing, I remain deeply ambivalent. The best solution is to get both! I’m not about to quit using my old favorite Ultimate, Craftsman socket, Dunlop #224 brass or Bronze Bomber, but they all have their own special pluses and minuses for different things. These Paloma Stone Slides are going to be new favorites of mine! I love having different options. Slide Acquisition Syndrome is better than GAS, it’s cheaper and doesn’t take up as much space!

The same observations about the glaze texture and sustain apply here. To someone used to using a metal slide, like the Shubb Pearse SP-1 I’ve been mainly sliding with since playing 8-strings, what’s immediately noticeable is how very light these slides are! I had to make an adjustment to applying a little more downforce to the slide, whereas the weight alone of the SP-1 or especially of my big round bullet bar (a Dunlop stainless steel one) will keep them in firm contact with the strings. It’s more like the wood handled Gary Swallow and Snakeslide slides I have, made for bluegrass players who do lots of pulloffs and jumping up and down the fretboard. The bullet nose is excellently radiused and smooth. A very nice feature is that the top surface of the bar is left unglazed, helping with a easy, secure grip on the bar. Aids control. The squared off end of the bar isn’t as sharp as a metal bar with a sharp edge, which may be important to those who do a lot of pulloffs with the edge. It won’t give the string quite as sharp a snap as a metal bar would. Those who suffer from hand fatigue or control problems will appreciate the light weight of the bar. Tonally, I think I don’t hear quite as much of the very high harmonics with the stone bars as with metal. It’s not a dramatic difference. If you’re playing with slide vibrato, sustain goes on as long as you want it to, with no scratchy noise. I think these tone bars are a really nice alternative to the all metal and wood handled shaped bars for lap playing. Paloma also makes round bullet bars, which would be quite different from the metal ones in use due to their lighter weight. I haven’t tried one, and really don’t play that much with a round bar.

Jay’s a musician, and he’ll listen to what you want and make some custom alterations like length if you ask him. He extrudes the tubes for the bottleneck slides and the bars, cuts them to length and does final shaping like the beveled ends and bullet noses by hand. I recommend all of these as quality products, that you’ll like playing with.

 

Ricochet, Big Road Blues Forum

Weight, feel, length and diameter are all things that obviously differ, and different slides feel better for different styles of playing and different string tensions. I have several favorite slides, but don't have just one I'd use for everything. I believe I've said before that I changed out from my good old Diamond Ultimate to my Craftsman socket just before playing "Dark Was The Night" in church Good Friday because the Craftsman's texture lent itself to better sustain with slide vibrato. Super slick surface texture isn't always the best. Rough and scratchy rarely is, which is the main reason why I wasted my money on the original aluminum Bigheart slide. And why I can't stand to play with a copper pipe section. Some materials absorb and damp vibrations. Try playing with a hambone. No good. Since I've gone to lighter strings than I used to play on, I don't use my super heavy Bigheart Bronze Bomber nearly as much, but sometimes I like it. I find the Paloma Stone Slides to be very comfortable, they have a very nice surface texture, and they sound great on my guitars. Very versatile all around, not something I just drag out on special occasions. But I'm not about to get rid of any of my other favorites, and I sure am glad I don't have to stick to just one slide. Can I tell what an old master was sliding with from listening to a recording? Of course not. I usually can't tell what guitar he's playing, either. But, I can tell a difference in which of my slides I'm using when I play, and that's what counts in my book.

 

Stumblin Andy, Big Road Blues Forum

I think there is a perceptible difference in tone between the blue & the white Paloma slides. Mine arrived today
Call me crazy, but for my money, the blue sounds warmer or more rounded in tone, whereas the white seems to emphasize clear treble tones. I tried them on a Washburn Parlour, a Washburn 12-string and my Chinese tricone.
I expect I'll be playing quite a lot of guitar during the "honeymoon period."

Me & a bud performed an unscientific experiment this afternoon.
I brought in a parlour guitar tuned A Spanish and three slides:
1 a thin brown glass pill bottle
2 Paloma Blue glaze slide
3 Paloma White glaze slide
He turned away & closed his eyes and I played the same ( or nearly the same) phrase a couple of times with each slide.
After three repeats with each slide, my mate, who totally fixed my computer too, said he thought the pill bottle sounded weaker than the others, the Paloma blue had a warmer tone, he thought the Paloma white emphasized treble tones.
Just sayin' is all

P.S. I should say that he didn't know in which order I was going to use the slides. Otherwise it wouldn't even have approached "experimental" status. Hopefully we're all on the same page by now, but what the hell do I know?
'twas ever thus...

 

The Breeze, Big Road Blues Forum
I don't subscribe to the "old bluesmen use anything at hand and make it sound great" urban myth. Most old bluesmen seem to have definite favourites, and some seem to be even more pedantic than us!

Personally, and it is a sad tale, I went the authentic route. I thought I would have more kudos by cutting my own slides. During the long search for the perfect tone and many bottles later I became an alcoholic. It was at this stage I turned to the medicine cabinet. Things went from bad to worse and I ended up on the street foraging for old cigarette butts, (no tone or sustain). At this point I reached rock bottom and booked myself into the Betty Boo Slide clinic. I'm on the mend now but can never be left alone with a corcidine bottle again. I recommend Paloma, it's the safe route.

 

Neal, Big Road Blues Forum
They are good slides. Different than glass from an inner feel, of course. Smooth enough to be counted among the quality makers. Comfortable to use, if this was your only slide, you'd be happy with it. Tone-wise I'm deaf, must be. Not a lot of difference between the white or black, or the glass and stone to my ear. A bit I suppose, but not significant as the difference between these and brass (different but great) or these and pyrex (crap).

All in all excellent work from Paloma.  Keepers.

 

Larry Robbins, Steel Guitar Forum

I use one of Jays' grooved bars for my dobro playing. The top is not glazed and it seems to help me in controlling it.
Love these bars!

 

Fred Rogan , Steel Guitar Forum

I got 2 of Jay's bars and am surprised at how anything so light can still deliver the tone. Just going from my old Ernie Ball steel to one of Jays bars, it is hard to tell a whole lot of difference, and that is a compliment. The big advantage to me is the lightness of these bars seems to really help in left hand movement. There also seems to be a reduction of string noise.
The cobalt blue that I ordered makes for a really cool looking bar and the sound and weight make it a bar that every player ought to have.

  

 

Joel Merideth, Steel Guitar Forum
I had Jay make me a custom bar 1.23 inches in diameter and 3.6 inches in length...kind of a "copy" of my Sneaky Pete steel tonebar.  Not only was he super responsive, but he gave me a very, very fair price.  After a few weeks, a box came with four different (colored) tone bars, all the same size! That's cool, man.

I love the feel and the tone of the bars, and they all have subtle differences in the way they sound...but they're all great!  I've let a couple friends in town that play steel borrow them and they're blown away, too.

Thanks, Jay!

 

Mike Perlowin, Steel Guitar Forum

The bar arrived yesterday, but I was out all day and didn't get home till after my wife was asleep, so I did not turn on the amp, which would have woken her up, and played for a while unplugged, just to get a sense of how the bar feels. I still have not heard what it sounds like when played through an amp. I'll do that later today.

If I may make an analogy, if somebody has been driving a full size Hummer, and goes from that to one of those tiny Smart cars, chances are (s)he will think the Smart car will feel flimsy and unsubstantial by comparison. On the other hand, somebody who is used to driving the Smart car would find the Hummer to be clunky and awkward. It's all a matter of what you're used to.

I'm used to a substantially heavier bar. The Zirc bar weighs 8.8 oz. The ceramic weighs 3.9. Less than half as much.  And, I have used the Zirc bar since they were first introduced in 1997 or'98.  So my initial response was like that of the guy who is used to the Hummer and is driving the Smart car for the first time. My immediate first reaction was that the bar was too light, and not very substantial.

But then as I played with it more, I realized that the light weight makes it a lot faster. Just as the Smart car has a smaller turning radius than the Hummer, and is far easier to manipulate, so too, the ceramic bar is easier to manipulate than the Zirc bar.

I will have to play more with the bar and see just how much faster and easier to move it is in comparison with the Zirc bar. I need to see if I can get used to the way it feels, and whether I prefer the increased maneuverability it provides over the familiar feeling of substance of the heavier bar.

I still have not turned the amp on, and so I still don't know if there is any difference in the tone the 2 bars produce.

to be continued.......... 

 For this test I disconnected the volume pedal and went directly from the steel to the amp. The amp in question is a Crate Power Block with an Alesis Midiverb plugged into the effects loop, going into a Peavey 12" Black Widow speaker in an open back cabinet.

I was unable to notice any difference in tone between the two bars. I did notice that the Zirc bar produced a very slightly louder tone than the ceramic bar, and had a tiny bit more sustain. In terms of practical playing, these differences are so minute as to be insignificant. I'm pretty sure that if I were blindfolded and heard somebody else test the 2 bars, I would not be able to tell which was which. I will however bring both bars to another players house or gig, and ask him to play something with them both and see if I can tell.

I think the big factor is the weight. The question is whether one prefers a heavy bar with some meat on it (if you can call it that) or a lighter bar that is easier to manipulate, but doesn't have the solid feel of a heavier bar.

Personally, I'm still trying to decide.  (ed. The Zirc bar is $150, the Paloma bar is $20!)

 

Kevin Brown, United Kingdom

Hi Jay,  had some time now with the Paloma Slide,  and found it has a very nice 'niche' use.  I wear my slide on my pinky, this enables me to finger chords during my songs,  hence my action is quite low on a particular instrument I use for song orientated stuff,  because the Paloma is comparatively light its handles the low action very well, also helped greatly by its smooth finish. So if you use a regular guitar 'sometimes for slide'  the Paloma is perfect.  It has found a place in my slide rack and fits a particular need, considering I only have three slides on stage, thats a tall order well fitted out.
By the way I have just finished a slide lesson and my student forgot his slide, so I let him try a Paloma,  he  asked if he could keep it so he will email you when he gets a chance,  Gene Dunford is his name, first sale !!  Kev

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Geoff Cline...

Your Paloma bottleneck slide has replaced the Mudslide as my #1.  I am LOVING it.  Great fit, feel and just a tad lighter (and "slimmer") for better control and tone as good or better (both sound good).  The best part for me is that your (or is that my?) slide fits with no "velcro pad" and once everything is warmed up, the feel/control/tone is much more organic to me.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND this bottleneck.  It's a winner (and the cobalt blue is KILLER).

Hi Jay,

Thanks for the slide, received it yesterday. I love it, it is very smooth but gives just a faint biting tone that's perfect for my single cone reso. This is just what I was looking for. Thank you!

a.c. ware

Joan...

Jay,  I got the slides on Monday and really like them.  I have 2 other ceramic slides – a Moonslides and a Rocky Mtn.  The Rocky Mtn.  is thin-walled, not real comfortable, and thin-sounding.  The Moonslides is very much like yours but sounds dull in comparison.   I’m enjoying getting to know the differences between the clear & blue tones.  One’s not better than the other, just different.  They’re a little short for me but I’ll keep working with them and decide later whether to get longer versions.  Thanks for the prompt delivery – you’ve got a great product.

Lefty Blake, Strat Talk.com...

I love playing slide, and I've used quite a few different slides. The Rocky Mountain slides are decent, but I think they make too much noise. I think a lot of that comes from the glaze they use and the fact that they might not fire it high enough. I recently purchased a ceramic slide made by Paloma Stone Slides. His product is top notch and very light! The glaze is perfectly smooth and it makes virtually no noise, which is real nice. And Jay was a pleasure to do business with!

 

Brad’s Page of Steel,,,

Paloma Stone Slides are hand crafted ceramic tone bars, available in both Stevens and bullet styles. These are lightweight, high quality bars, and represent an excellent value for both the beginner and experienced player. The lighter weight of the ceramic makes them easier to hold over a long period, and the glazed surface makes them glide smoothly over the strings.

 

Leftyguitarman… Big Road Blues Forum

I got my Paloma slide last week and I dig it. Many thanks to Jay for shipping it to my family's address in Washington while I'm up here on vacation. I've used the slide on several jams with some of my buddies, and it has outstanding tone on my Les Paul. It's the only guitar I have with me up here in Washington, but as soon as I get back to Phoenix, my resonator is gonna see a lot of Paloma action.

The construction of the slide is flawless and the glaze is absolutely perfect. The weight is absolutely perfect as well. Well worth the money I paid. If it got lost or broken, I wouldn't hesitate for a second to replace it.

 

Old Wailer, Big Road Blues Forum...

I got my slides today. WOW! They are great. I can't believe the tone and volume I can get from such a lightweight slide. My favorite used to be a hunk of brass--but it's heavy, and it tends to go it's own way sometimes when moving fast due to inertia. The stone slides are much more controllable and the tone and
volume and sustain are great--I've got a new favorite slide now.

Of course the old brass hunk and the two bottlenecks and the ceramic slides will still have their place--as a place to gather dust and something to clean now and then.

I guess I could say more--but I gotta go play my guitar.

Thank you very much Jay--I'll be telling everybody about your slides at Centrum Blues week--I hope you do well with such a great product. . .

 

Lefty Blake, Strat Talk Forum...

I love playing slide, and I've used quite a few different slides. The Rocky Mountain slides are decent, but I think they make too much noise. I think a lot of that comes from the glaze they use and the fact that they might not fire it high enough. I recently purchased a ceramic slide made by Paloma Stone Slides. His product is top notch and very light! The glaze is perfectly smooth and it makes virtually no noise, which is real nice. And Jay was a pleasure to do business with!

 

Slim Pickens, Reso Hangout...

I don't know if anyone here has ever tried these, but I thought I'd throw this out there. I'm not quite sure how I came across these, but after hearing about them, I searched and found a website. Now, Paloma Stone Slides are made by a man named Jay Seibert in Woodland, WA. They are stoneware slides, not porcelain or ceramic. I contacted Jay because I was skeptical about getting good tone out of a reso using a stonework bar. I told him I was interested in buying a bar from him, and he said he'd be glad to make one for me. The thing is, my custom Bradley heat-treated stainless steel bar is my favorite, and I wanted something that had very similar dimensions. This includes 10 degree sloped sides. Now, Jay's reso bars are made in the shape of a Stevens steel, including the flat sides. Jay, however, agreed to try something new and would make me a custom bar. I figured for $20, what could it hurt? So, after a couple of tries, Jay was able to get the slopes exactly right. Well, I just received my custom Paloma Stone Slide today and I couldn't be more pleased. I ordered the "Cobalt Blue" glaze and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at the tone. Very warm and not scratchy at all, which is what I was expecting from a stone slide, regardless of any glaze. I don't know if I am quite ready to give up my Bradley as my main steel, but I am definitely willing to keep testing the Paloma. I don't know if it counts for much, but I highly recommend that you try one of Jay's bars if you get the chance. He makes the Stevens type bars for reso and lap steel players, but also makes bullet bars and bottleneck slides as well. Here's Jay's website: www.stoneslides.com.  I forgot to mention the weight in my post. It's definitely lighter than my Bradley SS. It will take some getting used to, but I do really like the feel of the Paloma. I'm not much for the Stevens steel itself, but there is just something different about the way these feel. It's probably the weight.

As far as slippage goes, I had no problems holding on to it. Unlike the website, which shows the whole slide covered with the glaze, my was only cover about halfway up. The top where you rest your index finger was left uncovered with the bare stonework exposed, giving it a gritty, sandblasted feel. However, if you're looking for something more, I'd ask Jay. He's more than willing to try something new as far as a custom bar. Tell him Brent Libhart sent you. ;-)

 

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