Padauk lap steel

[ramonet]

Tuners mounted. Next step: take out all the hardware and start finishing with the tung oil; It's almost done

 

[ramonet]

After the first tung oil coat

 

[AutoBat]

Would I be right in assuming a lap steel is like a slide guitar, except you have it on a table or your lap (duh) instead of wearing it via a strap?

 

[Cagey]

Right. Some of them get even fancier, where they have legs and a series of foot pedals with mechanical linkages to the bridge so you can sharp/flat certain strings or groups of strings. Those are usually called "pedal steels" rather than "lap steels".

Some are fancier than others...

 

[ramonet]

It's finished, and it plays and sounds really good (I only have my Fender Mini 57 Twin but...) First some detail pics

 

[ramonet]

Another bridge + pickup view and backview

 

[ramonet]

And two full views. There are some little mistakes, but the final result it's gorgeous. An advice: if you are going to finish one instrument in tung oil check a lot of times all the possible sand / rasp scratches; when you apply the tung this little marks become really notorious and you must sand again until they disapear. And tung aplied on padauk takes a lot of time to dry!!!

 

[Cagey]

Nice job! Looks good! I think if I were to ever take up the steel, that's the route I'd go rather than the massive pedal units I pictured a couple posts back.

 

[stubhead]

Have you found the steel guitar forum? I play pedal steel, and that forum has more knowledge about music and a higher pro-to-amateur ratio than any other I've found. They have a  "Non-pedal" section where some builders hang out. Many of the people who play steel work as guitarists, producers, amp builders and such - it's like a piano in that you can use it for anything, but it unfortunately got stereotyped early and hard as a "country instrument" - just like guitar, piano, fiddle etc.(?)

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewforum.php?f=13&sid=386369cb28b1534f40e19685bab8b05f

http://steelguitarbuilder.com/forum/

This was a recent thread with 4 pages of links to non-country playing:

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=208507

Oink.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThmRIUBJj0w&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7YI0EbcokU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vz_1lC51z0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM7ICFXvpYw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_SUG9wlyvE&feature=related

 

[Cagey]

I don't know. I have a hard time getting excited about them. To me, slurs should be used like makeup or spices - they're there to enhance, not be the entire presentation. But, steels are almost nothing but slurs from one end to the other. That's fine in some applications, but for general use it's a bit too much to take, at least for me.

 

[Eric Banjitar]

Check this guy out Cagey!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4zpzEIdoPc

 

[Cagey]

Not exactly your father's pedal steel, is it? <grin>

 

[stubhead]

It's gained a real following in these like Norwegian black metal slow-w-w long moany kind of bands. Believe me, when you plug a respectable old ShoBud into a full rock guitar pedal board + Marshal stack, you can play some really disturbing stuff. If you play pairs of octave strings then tilt the bar a bit it's a natural flange, and if it's feeding back.... all it is is a ten-string solidbody guitar, the pedals and knee levers change the intervals, and the bar changes the fret. There's nothing frightening about it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WqL6BV0nfc&feature=related

 

[ramonet]

As I know the guy who this lap steel goes has no slide bar, I build one for him. I've used a scrap of padauk and an aluminium bar. I know it's not the best and for some profesional use it didn't work properly, but I think it's enough for a beguiner. It's a simplified version of the GS Steel model by Shubb (one of the best slides for lap steel an, for sure, the most eronomically designed).

 

[bagman67]

That's really cool!  I like the slide; the one thing I might do is to bevel the edge of the wood grip where it comes down to the metal bar, so if your boy really gets into some aggressive vibrato or something, he won't drag the lumber on the strings.

 

[Tipperman]

Don't forget Eddie Rivers. I had the honor of meeting these guys, including Willie, not too long ago. I'm currently friends with Jason Roberts, the guy on violin, and got a letter about jamming from Eddie Rivers recently. Point being.... it made me get more into steel guitars and slide. It's good stuff.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y68Gljrc_Xc[/youtube]

 

[AutoBat]

Nice build. It reminds me of the Chrysler building in NYC

but more orangey

 

[reluctant-builder]

This build is seriously, bloody awesome. Amazing work. I'm in awe.

 

[ramonet]

Because the success of this build, I have received an order to build another one! To make a slightly different instrument, I'm going to change the pao ferro strips for mongoy (also known as ovangkol, another african wood). Also, the customer wants his name inlayed; a new challenge, because I never did!!!

 

[Eric Banjitar]

Congrats on the new gig as lap steel luthier. It is obvious to me why this wise person has chosen you. The design and execution of this instrument is georgous. :hello2: :hello2: