Im starting to play lap steel (6-string 1-pickup), as soon get it (Everett Cox built and mailed it to me.. Thanx ..).
My questions regard just about anything, as I never played lap steel before..
Which tuning(s)?
String gauge?
Picks or not?
Bullet or stevens?
and most important: How do I get to know my guitar?
I play regular guitar, but Ive gotten bored by it, so I decided to start playing lap steel, because I just love the sound, and from trying to play alot of delta-slide stuff lately I felt a feel for sliding coming, pretty fast..
And you dont really hear alot of steel/slide players playing blues/rock/funk style music..
I just cant stand waiting for it to
arrive in my letterbox..
Which tuning(s)?
A good starter tuning is open G (bass to treble G B D G B D). I think you'll find the most instructional material written for this tuning. String gauge?
See b0b's string gauge chart - usually a set of regular gauge strings work well (.013-.056). Picks or not?
As you wish. Most players use picks. Bullet or stevens?
Again, as you wish. I prefer a bullet bar with lap steel, but many prefer a Stevens steel. and most important: How do I get to know my guitar?
Practice, practice, practice. If you can find a teacher in your area, take lessons; otherwise, practice.
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Brad's Page of Steel: www.well.com/~wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars
David -- congratulations and welcome to the slide zone. I took it up to get electric and play blues/rock/new americana-type music. As a banjo player, I thought I could transfer a lot of open-G knowledge and finger-picking techniques to the 6-string steel.
In some cases, I was right, but there's so much to understand about touch, bar handling, intonation. Perseverance - as always - is the key.
Some reference points for you -- in open G, as Brad thoughtfully provided, your 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strings are identical to standard guitar, and the 5th and 6th are an octave below 2 & 3. Also, if you want to hit a major chord, just bar any fret all the way across.
The toughest part is figuring out what you want to say with the instrument, as opposed to just making cool sliding noises. I spend a lot of time working out phrases in my head first, as I don't have a big enough steel vocabulary yet.
Equipment notes -- six string Melobar LS (a kickin' ax -- thanks, Ted). Music Man 60-watt, 12" combo. Morley JD-10 pedal for overdrive sounds -- sounds great on "Mercury Blues" (The Lindley version, not the Alan Jackson). Shubb #2 bar(although I'll also use glass, brass, and aluminum bottleneck-style slides for a different vibe). Metal finger/plastic thumb picks.
Instructional material - Check Brad's site for links to teaching stuff, or check out elderly.com -- they have a lot of material from a lot of publishers.
Sorry to have gone on so long -- just sharing my enthusiasm. Good luck and let us know how you'er coming along.
I'm also mainly a guitar player who likes to mess with the lap steels sure is alot of fun to learn the steel.
I would suggest open E as your tuning. From Low to high EBEG#BE. This way all the chords you are used to from playing guitar will be at the same fret positions you are used to 3rd fret G 5th fret A etc. I'd start there for slide type stuff and as you progress try C6th or A6th or B11th.
Steel is alot of fun but does require alot of practice to make it sound good so keep playing.
There's a heck of a lot more to the so-called "lap" guitar than sliding...(actual name is "Hawaiian Steel Guitar" and I gotta wonder why it's so hard to say ?) If you are indeed serious about playing it properly, I would also agree with the above suggestion of using the E Major tuning as it is closely related to the Spanish Guitar format which you have been playing. My suggestion...make a chart on a sheet of paper showing where all the notes are played on each fret, each string. Learn this thoroughly and learn to properly hold the bar, also proper picking technique. You can get some darned good instruction from one of Mel Bay's Instruction books showing the E major tuning. Have fun, and welcome to the "club" !
..).
