Homebuilt 10string lapsteel

Cory Dolinsky · Post by **Cory Dolinsky** » 14 Feb 2010 10:49 am

I couldn't afford a clinesmith as of yet so i built this guy out of spare parts. The body is walnut (from a tree my neighbor cut down) and the fingerboard is maple. I always like seeing pictures of steels that you guys on the forum post so i thought i show one of these.

I still have to put in some fret markings, and a couple more coats of finish. but the thing sounds great.

Cory

Jason Hull · Post by **Jason Hull** » 14 Feb 2010 11:23 am

Did you install fret wire?

Tom Pettingill · Post by **Tom Pettingill** » 14 Feb 2010 12:02 pm

Nice job Cory

Leroy Beal · Post by **Leroy Beal** » 14 Feb 2010 9:34 pm

Very nice.

Don Barnhardt · Post by **Don Barnhardt** » 15 Feb 2010 4:29 am

Beautiful craftsmanship but why no tone or volume controls?

Tom Wolverton · Post by **Tom Wolverton** » 15 Feb 2010 1:33 pm

Looks great, where did you get the key head? Did you have one machined up for you?

Cory Dolinsky · Post by **Cory Dolinsky** » 15 Feb 2010 6:42 pm

Thanks for the kind words.

Tom your steel's are awesome..

Jason, I actually used some kind of chrome dish rack, that i randomly found and it worked perfect. I cut them to length and i used a hand saw to cut an 1/8 inch groove in the fretboard to seat the fret in and gorilla glued them in. Probably not he best idea but it worked, i think if i was to make another one i would give fret wire a try.

The keyhead i took off my sho bud (the c6th side) and one day ill have to find a replacement for this lapsteel so i could put this one back on my shobud but im slightly impatient.

I didn't put a tone and volume control because i use a volume pedal and i have a nice revelation preamp whcih seems to have alot of tone control. I just kind of wanted to keep things as simple as possable.

Cory

Chris Walke · Post by **Chris Walke** » 16 Feb 2010 9:10 am

Cory Dolinsky wrote: I didn't put a tone and volume control because i use a volume pedal and i have a nice revelation preamp whcih seems to have alot of tone control. I just kind of wanted to keep things as simple as possable.

Cory

I admire your sense of economy.

Chris Watkins · Post by **Chris Watkins** » 16 Feb 2010 4:29 pm

Very nice and creative.

Kenneth Caine · Post by **Kenneth Caine** » 17 Feb 2010 10:25 am

You say the walnut is from a neighbors tree. How, or did, you dry the wood?

Cory Dolinsky · Post by **Cory Dolinsky** » 18 Feb 2010 4:49 pm

hi Kenneth,

My neighbor had cut the tree down a couple of years ago so it had been sitting for a while. Luckily it was cut in 40 inch pieces and the tree was about 14 inches in diameter. So I did a rough cut with a chainsaw to about a 2 inch thick piece and left it in my house for a year. Then three weeks ago i started milling it to the thickness and cut out the shape and built the guitar.

The ends cracked a little in the drying process but i still had enough left to cut them out and make the guitar. I had never made anything like that before usually i just buy the wood. I'm not totally sure about the whole drying process but this worked for me.

Cory

Jason Hull · Post by **Jason Hull** » 18 Feb 2010 6:19 pm

The rule of thumb for drying is one year per inch of thickness. Your two-inch plank cracked because it had not dried adequately. You can get a moisture meter, but the rule of thumb works most of the time. If it feels cool, it's wet, so don't mill it yet!

Chad Winn · Post by **Chad Winn** » 18 Feb 2010 7:53 pm

I think it's awesome that you built such a great instrument from your neighbor's tree - I'm a big fan of this guitar.