Crafters of Tennessee Lap Steel

David Keller · Post by **David Keller** » 13 Dec 2011 3:03 am

I am going to look at this Lap Steel which is on Craigslist. Does anyone know about them. I searched the forum and can't seem to find anything about Lap Steel, but saw a post about Crafters Resonators.

Steve Green · Post by **Steve Green** » 13 Dec 2011 5:01 am

I didn't even know they made lap steels, but I have a friend in Gulfport, MS who is a dealer for their acoustic guitars.

While they're no Martins or Gibsons, they are very nice sounding and well made guitar for the money.

Peter Jacobs · Post by **Peter Jacobs** » 13 Dec 2011 5:51 am

I had no idea they made steels. They are pretty well-known for their banjos, and they also make resos. Tut Taylor's son, Mark, is one of the principals.

Tom Pettingill · Post by **Tom Pettingill** » 13 Dec 2011 7:40 am

I wonder what the string spacing is at the nut. There does appear to be a taper from nut to bridge and the string spacing on those tailpieces are just slightly over 3/8", or around 2" c/c overall.

The pickup also seems to be mounted a little farther away from the bridge than "normal". Not necessarily a bad thing, but its going to push the overall tone into a little darker territory.

Overall I'd bet its a fun steel and bonus points for being made in America

Fred · Post by **Fred** » 13 Dec 2011 8:02 am

The Gibson style stop tailpiece used as a bridge is curved on the top. The strings won't all be in the same plane and there's no way to adjust the height individually. This will likely cause intonation problems.

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 13 Dec 2011 1:32 pm

It appears to be from the early 1990s, roughly the same period as my Crafters of Tennessee model resonator guitar and should be a fine sounding instrument. It certainly seems like a good price for that instrument.
I have a similar Gibson style stop tailpiece on a Rondo SX lap steel and have not noted any problems with intonation or playability. Of course, your mileage may vary.

Steve Ahola · Post by **Steve Ahola** » 13 Dec 2011 2:03 pm

Brad: My Rondo SX has a wraparound tune-a-matic bridge, with screws to adjust the intonation of each string although the height is fixed. On regular guitars the wraparound bridge will be curved to match the radius of the neck; the Rondo SX wraparound bridge is completely flat so it does work properly for lap steel. As for adjusting the intonation, I set the saddles in a straight line as far back as they could go just to make the scale as long as possible. (I use the fret markers only as a rough guide so if they are off a bit it doesn't bother me but YMMV.)

It is hard to see the actual curvature of the stop tailpiece from those pictures. Perhaps the OP could post pictures of the bridge when he gets the lap steel if he thinks there might be a problem. (With the bar resting on the strings at the end of the fretboard, pushing down just a little bit, all of the strings should be heard with equal clarity. If the outside strings buzz and the inside strings don't then I would do something with the bridge.)

Steve Ahola