Close grip bench presses

[jbondura]

I am towards the end of the mass program and i am using Close grip bench presses for my compound tricep exercise. I am usually at the gym late on chest, shoulders, triceps day. By the time i get to triceps there arent many people around to help spot. For the past few weeks i have been doing close grip bench presses on the smith machine. I know....not really as good as a barbell. They also have been wrecking my shoulders even more; i guess due to the fixed plane. I have decided to stop doing them on the smith machine.

My question is...would it be better for me to do these on a bench and just decrease the weight a bit to where i know that i can get the reps in without failing too much to where i need a spotter? Or should i use an EZ bar instead of an olympic bar? Which one would be better to use than the smith machine ? I am guessing that it would still be best to use a barbell with heavy weights. I am just wondering if i do them with an olympic bar with lighter weights due to not having a spotter would still produce results versus going heavy on a smith machine.