New lap steel

[Jason Hull]

Just finished this one:



I wanted a lap steel to learn on, so I made a slab-body, and it stayed that way for a few years. I guess I got good enough that I was inspired to make it guitar-shaped and put a finish on it (tung oil over black stain). It's loosely inspired by the old Ricks and Gibsons, but done on-the-cheap, with handy parts and scraps. I use a volume pedal and pre-amp, so no controls. 22.5" scale length, C6 tuning.

[John Burton]

Nice!
Looks good.
Just curios. Where in Va are you?

[Jason Hull]

Thanks. I'm in Richmond.

[John Billings]

Looks great! You might wanna try a bridge like the ones from Loni at Lapdancer guitars. I've never been a fan of multi saddle bridges on lapsteels. No need for any compensation, and the big mass would most likely add a lot of sustain.
http://www.lapdancerguitars.com/

[Andy Sandoval]

I like it.

[Jason Hull]

You might wanna try a bridge like the ones from Loni at Lapdancer guitars.

I could make one of those, but I like setting the compensation, and it gets plenty of sustain. Besides, that would violate the "handy parts" principle!:P

Here's another picture:

[Roman Sonnleitner]

You might wanna try a bridge like the ones from Loni at Lapdancer guitars.

I could make one of those, but I like setting the compensation, and it gets plenty of sustain. Besides, that would violate the "handy parts" principle!:P

Very nice build!

But, ummm, there IS NO compensation on lap steel, simply because you don't press the strings onto the frets - you have to intonate (and compensate) by ear, with your steel bar...

[Bill Creller]

Some of the cheap imports have compensated bridges. Likely the same parts they us on the regular guitars that they pump out by the thousands.

[Jason Hull]

Just because there usually isn't compensation doesn't mean that they can't be compensated.

[John Billings]

Compensation is completely unnecesary(sp?) on a lapsteel.

[Chad Winn]

Compensated or not, I really dig this steel.

I don't see how a compensated saddle would compromise tone in any way, and it looks wicked cool - I dig the dual 'guards.

Great guitar. Build another, and share us some more pics!

[Jason Hull]

[Jason Hull]

Whether a guitar is played with a steel or with fingers is irrelevant. It is more difficult to set the intonation using a steel, because the usual process involves comparing the harmonic at the 12th fret to a fixed, fretted note. With care, this is also irrelevant.

I've been playing for 30 years and I can hear how much better certain intervals sound when the guitar has been compensated. I'd intonate my PSG if it was that easy!

[Roman Sonnleitner]

What's your theory behind that?

Compensation really is NOT necessary (or even useful) for lap steel, because the strings are not fretted - compensation on "regular guitars" is there to compensate for how much the strings are stretched when being pressed down on the fretboard, and how the pitch of strings of different gauges changes differently when being stretched.
With (lap steel) there is no stretching, and the end-points of the vibration of the string are not fixed (by frets) either, they are freely movable up and down the string with the steel bar - so only your ear in combination with the bar placement determines the exact pitch (and consequently, how "correct" an interval sounds).

How would you go about setting compensation on a lap steel, anyway? What note would you compare the pitch of the open string or 12th fret harmonic with?

BTW, have you ever seen another non-fretted string instrument with a compensated bridge? Violins, cellos, double basses, etc. don't have compensated bridges either...

See, there's nothing wrong with using a bridge like the Tele bridge, quite to the contrary, I think it looks great, and I like the tonal qualities a Tele bridge contributes (at least on regular guitars, haven't tried them on a lap steel yet) - but compensation simply does not make sense on a fretless instrument, neither from a musical nor from a sceintific/acoustic perspective.

[Leroy Beal]

Well done! I really like the color scheme and the wooden pick guards(?). If it looks good, plays good, sounds good, then it is good.

[Jason Hull]

The color-scheme was sort of random. I used a maple neck blank that was too warped to used for a standard guitar neck. Maple scraps for decoration and scrap walnut for body wings. The board was one that I didn't like enough to put on a standard guitar. Black like a Rick, quicker to do than a Gibson 'burst, and hides the walnut body wings. Keeping the cost down was the major design factor.

[Twayn Williams]

compensation simply does not make sense on a fretless instrument, neither from a musical nor from a sceintific/acoustic perspective.

Actually this is not quite accurate. The different diameter and tension of each string will cause that string to deflect a different amount with different weight bars/pressure. Most of us sub-consciously compensate for this with minute adjustments to pressure and slant and various tuning methods. I usually find I have to actually slant back a bit on the lower strings when playing above the 12th fret if I want perfectly in-tune octaves/5ths. The difference is small but it is there.

I'd have to agree that a compensated saddle is usually not necessary with a steel guitar though.

[Tom Pettingill]

Cool little guitar Jason

I've used "regular" guitar 6 saddle bridges and find nothing wrong with using them as long as its of decent quality.

On compensation, my experience is much like Twayn's. On a string set thats fairly evenly graduated, like a C6 set for example, the gauge difference from string to string is not overly drastic. As such, we tend not to notice and or just naturally adjust on the fly.
Where I do notice a bigger difference is on a tuning such as open E where you have a large jump / gap in gauges from the 5th to the 6th string, 38 to 56.

[Jason Hull]

As a slab-body, this guitar was strung for open G, for which more compensation was necessary (than for C6). Speaking pragmatically, I compensated it by ear, because I could (with the Tele bridge/saddles) and I like the less-than-equal-temperament-but-not-quite-just-intonation. Just like a fiddle player, or anyone else that plays "by ear".