I just finished building a Dynalap model # 01 lap steel kit (dynalap.com) . It was a fun project, and I learned a lot about wood finishing. I told Mark that I would make some nice photos of it for his website if he would make it out some nice looking wood. He kindly obliged, and made the body out of solid curly maple. I'm happy with the way it came out, but I probably wouldn't have tried dyeing the wood if I knew how difficult that would be. The finish is Tru-oil, which I found out about from this forum (thanks!), and that turned out to be difficult as well, but it all turned out ok at the end.
It's a very cool guitar. The 23" scale is comfortable for me, and it sounds great with the TrueTone pickup. These kits are a great deal, considering what you get:
And here is the final result. Now I just have to learn to play the thing. I'm mostly a pedal player, although I own a few lap steels. Hopefully this will motivate me to spend more time with the laptop guitar.
Last edited by Jerry Gleason on 15 Apr 2011 2:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
One nice thing about this model is that, due to there being no taper in either the neck or headstock, you could mount those sockets/legs such as that guy(s) is selling on Ebay.
At $145 (approx) for 3 sockets/legs admittedly it would be an expensive mod to what is a very reasonably priced instrument. But that's one way to rig a console instrument.
BTW - I'd love to make my own 3 legged console steel guitar but are there no other sources for metal guitar legs/sockets other than those 2 sellers on Ebay? Where do these guys get them? I've Googled this extensively and all I've found are furniture legs which seem to cap out at 28", nowhere near tall enough for a steel guitar.
You could rig wooden legs (e.g.; sawed-off broomsticks) but that's a little hokey even for a rube like me. Suggestions? Ideas?
Looks real fine to me Jerry.Would you tell me what you used for the color? I'm doing a Tele and thought about tung oil.I don't want to seal the wood. PJ
Joe, the color is equal parts of Transtint Honey Amber and Transtint Bright Red. It's a water / alcohol soluble dye and works well on Maple. I don't have any experience using it on any other wood, so I don't know if you can use it on Ash or Alder without sealing. Reranch.com has a lot of good info on guitar refinishing. I learned a lot from there before I started on this project.
Thanks for all the feedback on the photography. I spent a few years as a commercial photographer, specializing in product illustration. That was in ancient times, before computers had anything to do with making photographs. The light had to be right when it hit the film, and what you shot was what you got. Nowdays, a small corner of a single car garage and the wonders of Photoshop allow me to still do smaller stuff.
Does anyone have any ideas for an inexpensive case or gig bag for this axe? I'm thinking that gun cases might be about the right size.
Last edited by Jerry Gleason on 28 Jan 2008 7:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
An artful presentation, Jimmy! That guitar just screams 'Play me, and be rewarded'.
It looks like it would sound even better than my DL. A tuff measure.
The gun case may be a bit shallow for this particulat headstock, but a large/baritone uke case, modded to accept the new neck, should work well as it does for my similarly shaped bakelite.
I love what you did to that Dynalap. I got the same one about 2 weeks ago. I threw it together in about a half an hour and started playing it. At first I thought it was a little bulky, but I got used to it real fast. It's the steel that I play around the house all day. My 2 daughters don't mind picking a little bit too (they are 2 and 5).
I didnt request the curly maple, but mine is made of nice lumber. I played it in the studio 2 days after I got it and the thing sounded great! I would like to get a little more out of the tone knob, but that will be an easy fix. Maybe I will finish it when the weather gets a little nicer around here.
If my proficiency on the lap steel was up to where my pedal steel playing is, I'd post a sound file right away. As it is, I have to do some woodshedding before I'm ready to share sound files.
I have to say, though, that after spending some time playing this guitar and dialing in some settings, that I'm really digging the tone. The only lap steels I have here right now to compare it with are my Fender Stringmaster, and a Boen 10-string lap steel (both 22.5"), but it's easily my favorite of the three for tone.
It sounds nothing like a pedal steel. It's much more organic, for lack of a better word. Compared to the Fender, it's much more meaty and full-bodied, but still manages to be bright and clear. Very distinct harmonics.
I think that Mark got it right with the 23" scale. It seems to offer the best combination of tone, ease of intonation, and slantability (is that a word?). The wide string spacing at the nut really helps with slants, too. At the first fret, your hand is right up against the tuners, and some may find that uncomfortable, but I haven't found it to be a real problem in my playing.
One interesting thing; when I had TrueTone pickups on my Carter, I had serious hum issues, but the TrueTone in this guitar is not picking up much hum, in fact it's much quieter than my Stringmaster.
I'll try to post a short sample when I get something worked up.
