The velocity dispersion of the Young's modulus mode in a number of finite cylindrical fused silica, aluminum, steel, and brass rods was determined. Their velocity dispersion is shown to agree extremely well with that calculated from the Pochhammer‐Chree theory for infinite rods of the same materials over the range of Ω values from 0 to 2.6, whereΩ=ωa/cs,ais the bar radius, andcsis the shear‐wave velocity. Small differences between the experimental and theoretical velocity dispersion occur when Ω exceeds 2.6; this is attributed to the occurrence of a phase shift when theL(0,1) mode is reflected from the endfaces of a rod. For every rod a few harmonics have been found to occur that do not lie on a smooth graph of frequency versus harmonic number. They may be displaced in frequency, or replaced by several resonances lying close together in frequency. This phenomenon occurs at specific values of Ω, which are associated with an end resonance and the higher‐order symmetric modes.