It took me ten years to complete this really only because I lost interest after the first year when I had it 90% complete. Something about that last 10% - story of my life.
I was trying to make a more interesting lapsteel going for a distinct three dimensional look. The base is maple and the neck and top are figured maple. The base is contoured using a scraper alongside the neck and the belly of the top. Before gluing on the top and sound board I routed out material in the base piece to make it lighter and resonate. There's quite a cavity under there. The bridge is aluminum angle and brass rod. The brass rod's final position is adjustable just to make sure it is properly intonated given mounting tollerances. The fret markers and dots are Delrin plastic. It has great sustain. It sounds a little thick which I think is due to the Dimarzio pickup for the most part. This is a four wire pick up and I plan to add switches and a vol pot - might even turn off one of the coils to see if I can get a brighter Fender like sound.
I've since finished it Tobacco sunburst which came out pretty good. I'll get another picture of it soon.
I have a D-size 1 to 1 plan in autocad that I made first that details everything if anyone is interested in making one, I will mail a copy.
I made the neck wide enough to accomodate 8 strings, however I'm a six string player and bought the nice Shaller 16:1 keys. The plan could easily be modified (neck as is) for eight strings. I also concluded the string angle at the nut was to steep so I have modified the drawing to include a 1/4" figured maple headstock overlay that allows mounting the keys at a higher elevation decreasing the string angle. Looks alot better too (on paper anyway)
