The Steel Guitar Forum

Whoa! Don't toss me in with the C6'ers. I work with E7 (b d e g# b e low to hi) and find it most useful for all the music I play. Most of the songs I play don't have 6th chords in them, but I do use a lot of minors, and 7ths. I have no qualms about anybody else using C6/Am7 as I'm sure not many peop...

I'm constantly amazed by the depth of knowledge found here on the forum.

Ray, that tuning looks pretty interesting. I'm going to map it up and see what I can find. I'm no music scholar so I'm wondering how would that logically extend to eight strings?

I like that term "Diddly Bow"(wasn't that the name of the original incarnation/concept? ), of course the obvious confusion would be Bo Diddly.

I know we all have them. Some of us save them, some of us throw them away, some us autograph them and three years later they show up on EBay. Some of us can't work without 'em, some of got it all "up here!" But I think most of up like to have a set list near. I was wondering if any of you ...

I'm not trying to alienate anybody. We're all in this boat together. Many of us play the same type of instruments, using a bar (or slide) over raised steel strings. To most of my listeners/fans, I use the visual definition I referred to earlier (in my lap - using a steel - and it's a guitar - lap st...

So then, should one be termed "Slide Guitar" because of the emphatic use of glissando, regardless of using a steel bar or bottle neck type slide? When people ask me about the instrument I'm playing, I tell them it's a lap steel guitar,I play it in my lap , I use a steel bar to play it, and...

Is it method or style? I feel like there is a difference between lap slide and lap steel. I have a friend in a band that plays lap slide. To me it's the same as playing slide guitar, only in a different position. He uses a narrow bar, plays in open E, and never uses slants. I play lap steel. I use a...

Ray, I'd previously made the same mistake with the orientation of your chart. Then I printed it, saw that it was horizontal, and felt like a little dummy. When I first started actually learning songs, I knew very little about reading music. I figured using tabs would be a way around it, but then if ...

Good idea with the numbers, however I'm not that bright, plus when playing from notation (sheet music/songbooks written for piano or other instruments), and the notes on the page read F-A-C, I can look down and see the letters FAC without having to translate in my head. I have a large chord spelling...

Ray. Thanks for pulling that post up. Hopefully some forum folks can take advantage of the idea. I originally thought I could market the idea, that is until I realized how easy it was for anyone to make their own, especially with all the ingenuity I see here on the forum. In the first incarnations o...

Ray: I first posted the idea back in October. I don't know how to bring up an older post, but I can tell you it was made on 1, Oct. 2008 under the title " Newbie? Checking in with some info for beginners " The post shows how the Lap Map would look in E7. If you find it, notice how come cho...

To Ray Langley: If you take your chart, orient it so that it's horizontal rather than vertical (so it's more from the players point of view), and leave out the sharps and flats, then you have a basic picture of the lap map. With the sharps and flats taken out, it's less confusing to find notes and c...

Justin: Yes, and no! The problem with stickers on the fretboard is that you end up with junk on your fretboard, and if you want to change tuning, you have to clean off the old gunk to put on some new gunk, and it can be more of a hassle than it's worth. I have a fairly rigid clear vinyl sheet that h...

I don't have any good pics of it but here's a photo of me playing with it. You may have to zoom in to see it well. It's such a simple idea I wonder why everybody hasn't done it. Seems my photo is not downloading. Sorry about that! If you don't mind going through some of my regular guitar stuff, I ju...

I prefer to play without picks, but feel I have to get used to using them for the times I'm playing out. I'm much more accurate with bare flesh, but as we all know' the flesh is weak. The finger picks give me a more crisp and louder tone, but I find myself frequently making adjustments - not to ment...

Roger: I use E7th tuning. I find all my major, minor, and seventh chords in close proximity. I play mainly blues, R&B, and rock so this tuning fits my style. Plus, I cheat - I took a few years off the learning curve by using what I call 'Uncle Theo's Lap Map' . This enables me to readily find no...

There was a recent post concerning strings. My question is who keeps fresh strings on their lap steels, and how often do you change them. On my Gibson acoustic and my Tele electric I find myself changing strings fairly often as they tend to deaden or 'die' from hand sweat and just plain over-use, no...

Hey James, I'm in Portland too. I also visit Guitar Crazy once in a while. My experience with Bob is that he has always been a great guy to do business with. If you're looking for quality and guitar knowledge, he's the guy in this town. I got my BR-9 from him as well as my tele and other equipment. ...

Wouldnt it just be playing with guitar as the back up, secondary, or non-lead instrument.

Philip: There are a couple fret calculators online that you can use. http://www.windworld.com/tools/fretcalc.htm http://www.internationalluthiers.com/fretcalc.php http://www.buildyourguitar.com/resources/fretcalc/fretcalc.htm I'm not sure which one, but I think you can download one of these fret cal...

From my perspective, a lap steel is just another musical instrument like a guitar, piano, or a reed instrument, meaning the player can play practically anything that is music. If a song has notes and/or chords and a melody, it can be played on any instrument that can make notes, chords or melodies. ...

I've been getting a lot mileage out of "Just Like A Woman" by Dylan and a couple Beatles tunes: Honey Pie, For No One, Maxwell's Silver Hammer, I Call Your Name, No Reply, and even For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite - to name a few. I think I'll still be playing these "When I'm Sixty Four&qu...

I played my regular guitar by ear for years. Chords and scales were fairly easy to memorize and since I played mainly rhythm and a little lead, that was all I needed. However, when it came to an instrumental only song, it took so long to figure it out that I stopped bothering. For the first few mont...

Phil: More power to you. My first ones were done on paper putting two halves together. I did have to contend with matching them up so the frets were correctly spaced (my method eliminates that), but it looks like you're on the right track. So carry on young man.

Theo

Phil: There may be problems with running plastic through your printer, especially if there is any heat involved, I learned the hard way. Also some printers won't print something that long. With the press on letters you can fix any misplacements and (for Ron) it looks almost natural. I do busk with m...