My new Harmony H-7 Roy Smeck lap steel from 1969!

Steve Ahola · Post by **Steve Ahola** » 23 Jan 2011 2:08 am

GC Manhattan was selling this dirt cheap because it was badly broken and missing the legs. With some Elmer's glue and some new screws I was able to put the two piece body back together properly, and added the 3 legs and sockets that came with my $80 Rogue EA-3. The Rowe gold foil pickup sounds really nice and the 40 year old wood fretboard gives it a sweet sound.

Although I have stands for some of my lap steels this is my first console model with legs. I can't wait to take it out dancing Sunday night! <g>

Steve Ahola

Clair Dunn · Post by **Clair Dunn** » 23 Jan 2011 4:47 am

Pictures? Please -- want to see everything while I'm learning!

Thanks.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 23 Jan 2011 5:51 am

I had one of those when I first started playing. It was in mint condition. The pickup howled like crazy when I played loudly but, from what I remember, it was a pretty good steel (although it's hard for me to rely on any assessment from my "wonder years" on steel--I couldn't play it very well).

Steve Ahola · Post by **Steve Ahola** » 23 Jan 2011 2:24 pm

Here's a picture of it:

I bought it as a project guitar, but was pleasantly surprised that I was able to restore it to its past glory. It is really nice for a guitar that sold for $99 plus another $15 or 20 for the legs.

Steve

Webb Kline · Post by **Webb Kline** » 23 Jan 2011 7:13 pm

I have one just like it in great condition, but I just couldn't get the sound I wanted from the pickup. I had my guitar tech build a new base and install a nice Seymour Duncan Humbucker on it and that baby really screams now. It has a great bluesy clean sound, yet it gets that classic Lindley tone with ease. By building a new Pup base, I am able to just set the old pup back in there intact with the original base making it original again.

Steve Ahola · Post by **Steve Ahola** » 23 Jan 2011 11:09 pm

Webb Kline wrote:I have one just like it in great condition, but I just couldn't get the sound I wanted from the pickup. I had my guitar tech build a new base and install a nice Seymour Duncan Humbucker on it and that baby really screams now. It has a great bluesy clean sound, yet it gets that classic Lindley tone with ease. By building a new Pup base, I am able to just set the old pup back in there intact with the original base making it original again.

Webb:

The gold mesh pickup is riveted to the pickguard so had I wanted to replace the pickup I would have just made up a new pickguard. (Might not look very pretty but it would do the job.) I've found that a tele bridge pickup mounted straight across (rather than at a slant) matches the string spacing of many lap steels (I believe that the Fender Deluxe used the same basic pickup as the early teles, but with a different bottom plate). So if your string spacing is around 2.15" you can use the various tele bridge pups from the different vendors.

I put a Nocaster pup in my Rogue EA-3 hoping to make some sort of ersatz Deluxe out of it but I didn't get it close enough to the bridge so it doesn't have that snap I was looking for. So that is going back to the drawing board for Version 2.0.

It is fun messing around with lap steels!

Thanks for the suggestion!

Steve

P.S. To mount the Rogue EA-3 leg sockets I needed one of those Forstner bits (which run about $15 apiece). Amazon.com had a 16 bit set from China for $29.99- how could I say no???

Clair Dunn · Post by **Clair Dunn** » 24 Jan 2011 12:39 am

Steve --
Thanks for the pic -- haven't seen one of those before -- because you shot it straight on vertically, the fretboard has the look of a necktie -- cool.

Webb Kline · Post by **Webb Kline** » 24 Jan 2011 3:48 pm

Steve Ahola wrote:
Webb Kline wrote:I have one just like it in great condition, but I just couldn't get the sound I wanted from the pickup. I had my guitar tech build a new base and install a nice Seymour Duncan Humbucker on it and that baby really screams now. It has a great bluesy clean sound, yet it gets that classic Lindley tone with ease. By building a new Pup base, I am able to just set the old pup back in there intact with the original base making it original again.
Webb:

The gold mesh pickup is riveted to the pickguard so had I wanted to replace the pickup I would have just made up a new pickguard. (Might not look very pretty but it would do the job.) I've found that a tele bridge pickup mounted straight across (rather than at a slant) matches the string spacing of many lap steels (I believe that the Fender Deluxe used the same basic pickup as the early teles, but with a different bottom plate). So if your string spacing is around 2.15" you can use the various tele bridge pups from the different vendors.

I put a Nocaster pup in my Rogue EA-3 hoping to make some sort of ersatz Deluxe out of it but I didn't get it close enough to the bridge so it doesn't have that snap I was looking for. So that is going back to the drawing board for Version 2.0. It is fun messing around with lap steels!

Thanks for the suggestion!

Steve, That's what he did for me. He kept the stock pup on the pickguard and just made me a new pickguard for the humbucker. Spacing is an issue. I had wanted to go with a P90 but the spacing was wrong. He had that used SD in his shop and the spacing was perfect so we decided to see how it sounded and it sounds great.

Webb Kline · Post by **Webb Kline** » 24 Jan 2011 3:54 pm

That's interesting about the legs. Mine came with legs. I wonder if they were installed, an option or just a different model year. Mine is a 64.

Steve Ahola · Post by **Steve Ahola** » 24 Jan 2011 6:12 pm

Webb Kline wrote:That's interesting about the legs. Mine came with legs. I wonder if they were installed, an option or just a different model year. Mine is a 64.

Mine had legs at one time but they were long gone, with one of the sockets broken off. Here's a link to a thread with more information on this, along with a catalog page showing the prices:

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=130863

Steve

Steve Ahola · Post by **Steve Ahola** » 25 Jan 2011 10:22 pm

One thing very interesting about this lap steel is the construction technique. With the two piece construction, it would be relatively easy to build something similar to it in a basic wood shop. The top piece is a nice tone wood roughly 0.8" thick, which makes up the headstock, the neck and the body around the pickup. The bottom piece is roughly 1" thick, with some shaping. The two pieces are held together with seven #12 flat head wood screws, recessed into the bottom piece.

The idea of shaping a comparable lap steel from a single piece of wood is way beyond my capabilities, mainly because you need to taper it down to accommodate the tuners on the headstock. However, with this design, the top piece of the guitar body is just a single thickness, so it would be relatively simple to cut out the shape with a router. And since the bottom piece is basically just a plank to hold the top piece, shaping it would not be that critical.

I should have taken some photos when the guitar was apart to make it easier to picture the construction. My bad!

This construction technique could be used to make a double-neck console model as well. Yes many of the console models are made from separate guitar bodies mounted on a plate, but with the Roy Smeck design, the guitar body is too thin and light for it to support the strings unless it is fastened securely to the bottom plate, which is what gives it strength.

Steve

Michael Lee Allen · Post by **Michael Lee Allen** » 31 Jan 2011 6:48 pm

DELETED

Steve Ahola · Post by **Steve Ahola** » 31 Jan 2011 7:13 pm

MLA:

Thanks- I love those old catalog pages! Do you have a website full of literature like that or do you just post them when the models come up?

I am wondering what type of wood was used for the top ("guitar") layer since it is very light and resonant. The bottom ("plank") layer is not as critical.

Although the literature says that the two layer construction was used for "ease of holding", I think that the real reason was that it was a lot cheaper to build that way- although I think it works great!

Steve