Lap Steel Guitar: she sings!
I finished building, wiring, and stringing up my lap steel guitar. Here’s a video of how it sounds. I’ve never played a lap steel and had literally JUST strung her up before this video, so don’t mind the playing.
I’m really pumped though. It sounds amazing.
Lap steel guitar: through body string system.
I decided to use a through-body system for mounting strings to my lap steel guitar. The back part is easy, I bought a set of ferrules to hold the strings in place. Just drill holes and pound them in. The top required some thought though - without some sort of support, the tension of tightened strings would easily cause the strings to cut through the guitar body.
I considered using some salvaged metal from some of my home improvement projects, but with the amount of work I would have had to do to make them work they would have lost all that salvaged charm anyway. I decided to try the same aluminum that I used for the nut and bridge, and as you see here I chiseled out nice nest for it in the body of the guitar.
Its a nice tight fit, so I’m hoping I don’t have to use any glue to keep it in place. That way if I decide that I don’t like the sound or look of the aluminum it will be easy to replace.
Lap steel guitar: cavities!
Any day that starts with chocolate pancakes is a good day. Any day that let’s me have 3-4 hours in the workshop is a great day.
Today I hollowed out the cavities for the pickup, pots and jack, and cut/filed the bridge and nut.
No pic, but I ran into an issue with my tuners - with my wide headstock the two tuner holes closest to the nut don’t leave enough clearance for the tuner. Oh well, I’ll just carve it back in a bit. No biggie. I wasn’t thrilled with how it had turned out anyway.
Cigar Box Guitar: I put a piezo electric pickup in my cigar box guitar - cheap, easy, and - again - sounds surprisingly good.
Here’s a quick sample of what it sounds like. Recorded (with “lowdown blues” effect setting) in garageband.
Lap steel guitar: sanded Well, everything’s sanded to 220 grit and while my eyes and fingers can feel the small flaws I think it’s looking pretty good! Next up I’ll glue down the fretboard.
Lap steel guitar: fretboard!
I’m not quite done with sanding and finishing it, but I did some work on my fretboard. I used superglue to glue veneer into slots for the frets. Since its a slide guitar it doesn’t need actual frets, so this was both cheaper and easier. The inlay dots are the cheapest plastic mother-of-pearl dots I could find. They look fine.
Question now is how to finish it. It’s padauk (how ever the heck that’s pronounced), which is a nice bright red wood with lots of big open pores. Maybe just some tung oil and I won’t worry about the pores?
Here’s a quick demo of the cigar box guitar my kiddo and I built this weekend (ok, that my kid kept me company while I built this weekend…)
I haven’t practiced at all, so this is just a quick test for sound. I’m surprised at how much oomph it has for such a small box. Sounds alot like a banjo to me.
Pretty good sound for two evenings of work and about $14 worth of supplies, eh?
Here’s my son testing out the cigar box guitar we built together this week. It’s amazingly loud for such a small box! Sounds awesome, almost like a banjo. Needs frets.
Lap steel guitar: headstock!
I finally put together a headstock design that I’m happy with. I used photoshop to do the design, then a coping saw and spindle sander bit in the drill press.
I also cut my fretboard blank to size. I don’t have a good rip saw, so I actually just used my jack plane to size it to width. At 1/4” thick it looks a bit hefty, so I’m going to think things through before gluing it down.
Looks like a guitar, though, eh?
Lap steel guitar: had some solid workshop time this weekend do I was able to make good progress on the lap steel.
My plans to use the hardboard template with a router bit and bushing didn’t pan out once I realized the bit I have isn’t deep enough for the guitar body. So I went with the old cut it close and sand it perfect route. I got to test out my new drum sander bits for the drill press and it made work a lot faster. Then final cleanup on the sides was done with a cabinet scraper and 120 grit sandpaper.
I used a chisel and block plane to form the taper on the neck.
I still haven’t settled on a design for the headstock, which is why it still looks like a big square.
