it is snowing like crazy this morning. I decided to finish a lap steel I built by installing a humbucker from a 70's Les Paul.
I had some leftover plastic pickguard material that matched the pickup cover color pretty well. there was a tele knob in my parts box and a 250K pot. I wired them up, cut the plastic and mounted things up. I put on a string, tuned it to E, plugged in the jack and then into the tuner. yahoo. it works.
next I added three more strings; the first, second and third, and tuned them to E B G#.
I stopped there and decided not to put on any more strings, as I have the idea of having this lap steel simplified, for lack of a better word.
I like the basic nature of this setup. a chord machine, so to speak. I am thinking it would be fun to have lying around. easily played by anyone. it could fill out a jam with beautiful tonal noise.
I like the idea of having a triad only slide machine.
I like the lowest string because it would give a fat sounding root note, no matter what open tuning I choose. the other three strings are the variable. In this example, I chose open E tuning, and the root note is inverted. it sounds ok.
I am curious of your opinions and ideas. what other tunings, other string combinations, etc.
it is a strange idea, I know, but hey, there is a snowy white out blizzard that will last all day and night. I have all this time to play with the lap steel idea.
No idea on the tuning(s) but the guitar is gorgeous.
Congrats!
:)
Don
thanks man. the design is based on my 1939 Epiphone Zephyr lap steel. same shape, but all similarities end there.
Nice!
I like the simplified approach. Not too many strings. I did my plank-o-wood, Jack White inspired thing one day with just a few strings. That mean't, of course, that I gotta tune the strings. The hammer-the-nail down a little further isn't exact, but it was enough for a proof of concept. What you have is what I had in mind, functionality-wise. I think I kept it to three strings, though. Not sure why. It was months ago, but doing the bottom three strings of an open-G guitar may have been what I wanted. something to do "Rollin' 'n Tumblin'" on. I'm pretty sure I ended up with a , thickest to thinnest, G-B-D tuning.
I never considered a bass note. Interesting idea.
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
I like the inlays. And the fretboard, nice grain.
Open E and four strings. It sounds very funny, a lot of different possibilities. I like the idea of keeping the lowest string. Are your recording equipment ready for a demo session? I miss your recordings!
Hope that you are doing well!
I think I am going to move the strings closer together. two reasons: the strings will be centrally located over the pickup, and two, the slide works better as it is fully supported. that low string was too far from the three strings.
Nuno. yes, I should record how it sounds. you got it.
Looks nice. I'm getting Parts together myself for a lapsteel project!
Paul B
here is an impromtu bit I just now recorded.
http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10308044&q=hi&newref=1
fun little steel. it gets really loud and muddy fast. it will take me some time to tame it.
call me the lap steel whisperer.
That sounded really, really good. It does have a dark sound to it, but you control it very well.
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
Amazing... I had forgotten your 'impromptu' :shock:
On the other hand, it sounds very good to me.
Sounds like a worth wild project.
What decision have you made as far as the bass string positioning in relation? Did you end up moving eerything towards the center one slot? I was thinking to myself that one might still want some seperation between the bass string and the other three just so you could play the bass string with or without the slide, depending on the mood.
Then again, I'm not sure that would even work or sound right, theory wise. In my case of doing a subset of an open-G tuning, as I'm down on the other three strings where the 6th-12th frets would be be if I had them on there. Would that ringing, plucked G or D sound OK if I'm playing something like a C, D, E or F chord?
I can space these how I want, but in terms of relative to what we can all imagine, my current thought is to string up my strings in the (traditionally named) A, G,B and E positions. This leaves a gap between the A and G positions.
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
Roy. I did move the four strings closer. the end slots on the nut and bridge have no strings.
the new position is great. I can get huge sounding 'power chords' when the bar is flat; lying on all the strings.
I use a bullet bar, so I often play with the tip, holding the back end higher. I use palm muting quite a bit. the heel of my hand usually lies across the bridge, or just before. I think I have more control over the sustain and tone of the strings.
one thing I must change is the volume pot. it is a 250K and I should have a 500K in there.
there would be a bonus of better roll off , volume taper, and more tonal possibilities.
all in all a hugely fun project.
Any notion of ever doing a tone pot? Maybe a push-pull to do a coil split?
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
