Big Road Blues Discussion Forums

by **s1120** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 10:10 am

Reading about Bottleneck Johns CBG got me thinking that I did not post up my project. I kinda got the bug to build something, so I figured I would wip up a little lap steel guitar. I made a few mastakes, but all in all Im pretty happy with it. This pic is the finished guitar... I have some pics of the prosses if you guys want to see it. For now no sound clips.... Im better at building then playing.

Once I learn how to play it, Ill post some vids up.

by **zhyla** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 1:57 pm

Very nice! Looks pretty compact - mine turned out rather large. What kind of woods?

by **s1120** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 2:24 pm

I used poplar for the body... I would have made it a little larger, but I worked with what I had.

by **s1120** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 3:02 pm

Here are some pic's of the build...

by **s1120** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 3:10 pm

Most things I used what i had, or common localy sorced stuff...

by **s1120** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 3:14 pm

The pickup I had laying around. its a bridge pickup from a strat. Tuners I got from GFS. the pot is from Radio shack....

by **s1120** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 3:17 pm

Made a few mastakes....the fret board needed to be a bit wider. Near the bridge the strings are spred wider then it. Not a huge issue with a lap....

For the finish I used a Cherry stain, and about 6-7 coats of tung oil...

by **s1120** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 3:33 pm

Plays pretty well...... I had to rase the picup some and I had to fab up that string tree...the strings kept popping out.

As you can see in the first pic posted, I changed the knob.... I did not like the first one... I like the white chickenhead one much better....

Still working on figuring out a tuning, and how to play.....

by **OldWailer** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 4:06 pm

That looks great! I'm just about ready to start work on another one--I built the Jack Daniels lap steel a couple of months ago--building them
is almost as fun as playing them.

I'm going to try for a more acoustic sounding hollow body this time, but with cheap materials. . .

by **s1120** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 4:28 pm

OldWailer wrote:That looks great! I'm just about ready to start work on another one--I built the Jack Daniels lap steel a couple of months ago--building them
is almost as fun as playing them.

I'm going to try for a more acoustic sounding hollow body this time, but with cheap materials. . .

Thanks!!! Ya, I do enjoy building.. I enjoy working on, and building stuff, and frankly Im much better at working on the guitars then playing them!!!

Looking foward to your new project. Im thinking of building some form of a CBG. Maybe a small CBG uke for the kids.... or a bass or somehting diferent... Im on the lookout of idems to use for the build.... Might just hand make a "cigar box" from scrach....

by **DaveG** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 5:04 pm

That really looks great. Hope it sounds as good as it looks. Wish I had the skill to build something like that.

by **zhyla** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 8:29 pm

s1120 wrote:Im thinking of building some form of a CBG. Maybe a small CBG uke for the kids.... or a bass or somehting diferent...

I'm doing an acoustic build right now (in addition to the bass/baritone lap steel I posted about weeks ago). Acoustic is a lot of fun, not nearly as hard as it looks.

DaveG wrote:That really looks great. Hope it sounds as good as it looks. Wish I had the skill to build something like that.

No! Anybody can make a lap steel with very little equipment. Lap steels are the least finicky instrument you can build, if you're remotely interested in building one you should just go for it.

by **s1120** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 8:45 pm

zhyla[quote="DaveG wrote:That really looks great. Hope it sounds as good as it looks. Wish I had the skill to build something like that.

No! Anybody can make a lap steel with very little equipment. Lap steels are the least finicky instrument you can build, if you're remotely interested in building one you should just go for it.[/quote]

Ditto... you can make it as simple, or as complacated as you want. A 2x4, a handsaw, and a handfull of hardwere can get you going.

by **Steve C** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:16 pm

Very cool...look forward to hearing it.

by **DaveG** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 10:39 pm

zhyla wrote:
DaveG wrote:That really looks great. Hope it sounds as good as it looks. Wish I had the skill to build something like that.

No! Anybody can make a lap steel with very little equipment. Lap steels are the least finicky instrument you can build, if you're remotely interested in building one you should just go for it.

s1120 wrote:Ditto... you can make it as simple, or as complacated as you want. A 2x4, a handsaw, and a handfull of hardwere can get you going.

Thanks for the encouragement. Unfortunatly my friends won't let me near saws. They're afraid I'll cut my fingers off.

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