r/LapSteelGuitar

I made this little box to keep mine in.
I need to spend more time practicing and less time making accoutrements, however.

This was my first ever scratch guitar build. It’s 25” scale, solid oak (block made from glued / sandwiched 1x cuts). Shape is a custom design that mirrors the bass side of a telecaster. Neck is a snakehead tele. The fretboard was a StewMac slotted maple for PRS/Dobro guitars. I used black 0.5mm binding material glued into the slots as frets to match the black inlays I set.

The guts are cast offs from a MIM telecaster custom 72 reissue, so that’s not a real WRHB but rather a PAF shoved into a WRHB shell. I might swap in a CuNiFe pickup at some point. 500k volume / tone.

Hardware is certano roller bridge, g/b benders, TUSQ lap steel nut, gotoh locking tuners. Custom pickguard.

I used illustrator to design all the templates (for body shape, route, and pickguard), printed and transferred to 1/2” plywood that I cut out and cleaned. Finish is 3-4 coats aquacoat grain filler, then around 7-8 coats of aquacoat instrument lacquer with 320 between. I started brushing the first 4-5 coats but wasn’t getting a good build and clean finish so I sprayed the last 3 and it came out much better with a higher build. Finished with a cut & buff.

I’ve always thought they sound so cool, so I couldn’t pass it up. Plus, just look at it, it’s so pretty. It even has a vintage tone bar in there with it too.

Now it will be learning and enjoying time!

Hello, I’m trying to identify who would have make this lap steel guitar that’s been in storage for the last 50 odd years. These are the best pics I have, and yeah, that’s all dust and cobwebs. Any help would be appreciated!! (I’m in Alberta, Canada).

Tried tuning my C6 lap steel to Dm pentatonic, as it had been a long running idea since before I even had the instrument to test such a tuning.

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The range and harmony are limited, but scales and low range melodies have never been easier.

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One week in, my impression is that it is a nice tuning for ear training as a beginner. Learn what the scales can do on an easy tuning and then carry that over to another tuning. At least that is my idea of it. You can probably do some tight solos on it too, with how logical the pockets feel laid out for popular scales in one octave.

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However, the very small range and lackluster harmony is a real cost. If all you do is single string, single octave lines, then a single string may do the job almost as well.

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Harmonically you get closed major, minor, and sus triads, dominant chords through slants, and the full set of dyads (meaning that you can potentially do a one octave scale with a drone or bass note). But the chords don't feel very lush or spacious, as they are all very tight.

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I was happy to try it, and am having fun as I pick out melodies faster than I did on tunings I played for much longer. But I will probably soon go back to something that let's me use more strings at once and a bigger range.

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Anyone else tried something similar?