Stupid questions Vol. 1

[Randy Chow]

Forgive me if these have been asked before.

1. How many strings should a tone bar cover?? I think I have found an object for a tone bar that works pretty good and it easily covers 6 strings. But I am on the market for an 8 string and I don't think it will cover all the strings. Will it still work or would I need to find a longer tone bar for the 8 string?

2. I was checking out Reverb and eBay and saw some 'E9 lap steel guitars'. Aside from the tuning, what other features make these guitars specifically 'E9 lap steels'? What devilry would issue forth if I were to tune them otherwise??

3. I also saw some double lap steel guitars, 6 and 8 string. The control knobs are right between the two guitars and for the most part the designs of the instruments seemed symmetrical. So aside from flipping/changing the nut and the strings (and dealing with the turning direction of the knobs), these double lap steels seem pretty easy to convert to lefty. Is this a feasible option and are there other considerations that I should think about before attempting such a conversion??

Thanks for any information!
(:^D

[Stefan Robertson]

Forgive me if these have been asked before.

1. Get a Bullet Bar (It looks like a Bullet and is solid stainless steel) - the size depends on the size and feel in your hands. As a beginner just get a Dunlop 921 Bullet bar. It will feel big and Heavy until you get used to it but trust me stick with it as its great practice and as you get better and become more involved you will upgrade later. -

Get some Dunlop metal .025 Fingerpicks and a Dunlop plastic thumb pick (I use Medium but the size depends on the thickness of your fingers.)

2. E9 - is a tuning on a Pedal steel guitar
If you are after that you can tell its not a Lap Steel guitar as it has Pedals and levers attached.

Lap Steel Guitar has no pedals. Both use the same basic tools to play but the pedal steel uses lever, mechanisms and pedals to alter notes up and down.

3.As long as the double Lap Steel Guitar is flat and not raised you can simply re-string it up for a lefty. It makes no difference.

4. Before you ask you cannot intonate a Lap Steel Guitar as its ridiculous. Just incase you saw the video of that guy on Youtube who knows little about Steel guitar.

This forum is the best place to ask a question as you will get jewels that will save you time and money from pros and amateurs alike.

Also at some point we all asked foolish questions? This is how we learn especially if you don't grow up around these instruments or community or country.

[Jeff Mead]

I would think very carefully before learning to play left handed. That cheap lap steel may be easy to convert but if you get bitten by the bug you will find many that can't be converted so easily - for example most multi neck steels step up on height as you get to the furthest necks - if you reverse it, you'll be stepping down.

And if you decide to get a pedal steel at some point, converting right to left hand is not really an option so you will have hardly any choice and when you do find one you'll pay a lot more for it than an equivalent right hand model.

[Tony Lombardo]

I write and swing a tennis racquet and shoot a basketball and throw a baseball left handed. I am a left handed person in pretty much all ways, but I play all my instruments (guitar, tenor banjo, tenor guitar, lap steel) right handed, and deciding to play that way was the best decision I ever made. The first month I tried to play right handed was tough. Playing that way felt awkward and difficult. After that, it started feeling natural. Then, playing that no longer felt awkward. That was when I felt like I made the right decision. I have owned three steels in my life: a 50s Magnatone Troubadour, an expensive custom steel that I hated made by a famous builder, and my current one. Each time I went searching for a steel, I never saw a single leftie model. The leftie steel player has to rely on converting right handed instruments for leftie play, a compromise situation at best. I urge you to consider playing right handed. After a month, the awkwardness will go away, and you will have much more freedom when it comes to deciding which steel guitars to acquire and play.

Respectfully
Tony Lombardo

[Stephen Abruzzo]

Randy, there are no "stupid" questions around here.

1 It would be best to get a bar that covered 8 strings, at least at the onset, since you are a beginner (I am assuming you are). I play slide guitar too and use a slide that measures 1.75", which covers 4 or 5 strings depending how far up the neck I am playing. But, I don't need to cover 6 strings, so that works for me and I don't have to wield a big clunky slide.

2 An "E9 lap steel guitar" is just a lap steel that happens to be tuned to E9. There is no such specific animal as that. Just tune it how you want and make sure to use the proper string gauges. Now, if you buy a lap steel that was tuned to C6, for example, the low C string may be a 36 gauge string. If you want to play Open E (rock/blues), your low E string may be a 56. In that case, you may have to cut the nut slot a little wider/deeper to keep your strings level.

3 Playing a double 6 or 8 left-handed would be very difficult for the reasons mentioned previously.

[Randy Chow]

Thanks for all the great info.

Re lefty - I am indeed a lap steel beginner as Stephen deduced, however I am coming from a 30 year background of playing left handed electric bass. So I am doomed to left handedness. DOOMED! But I am quite used to it all from my years of bass: the lack of availability of instruments or having to try and flip/convert/adapt. Actually in the last 10-15 years the attitude has changed among many manufacturers (bass as well as lap steel) who now offer a left handed option on many of their instruments at no extra charge! However, if I were able to live life over again I'd probably have started learning righty from the get go.

Re double guitars - Aha! I was unaware that they stepped up and such a feature is not readily visible in the photos on eBay and Reverb. But that would be a huge problem. So much for that.

Re E9 - I suspected it was something that wasn't written in stone so to speak, but I wasn't sure if there was some structural/mechanical issue that made it solely an 'E9 instrument' and not able to be anything else. In my short time playing lap steel it seems that the 'do whatever works' attitude is pretty much standard operating procedure more than any other instrument. I've already had to work with some goofy tunings to play various songs.

Re tone bar - OK. Now that a specific model has been mentioned I can get it. Once my mom told me to go to the store and buy some Head and Shoulders shampoo which seemed simple enough. I get to the store and there were 20 different types of H&S! Same thing with the tone bars, and the tone bars cost much more than H&S. There appears to be a dearth of solid tone bars at the local music stores in SoCal so I haven't been able to try one out in person, and have been reluctant to buy one online without trying it out first.

Thanks again for all the tips. I am sure there will be more questions as I continue on with lap steel.
(:^D

[George Piburn]

Here is your Best Bang for the Buck Entry Level Left Play Steel Guitar <<CLICK<<

As usual the China Trade has little clue to details,
you would need to unscrew the leg Sockets and Turn them so the legs stick out to the left play position.
This is easy to do and takes a few moments.

Once you "Catch the Bug" so to speak,
there are a number of USA Builders that can create a Left Play Steel Guitar you can be proud to own and play professionally.

[David M Brown]

Here is your Best Bang for the Buck Entry Level Left Play Steel Guitar <<CLICK<<

As usual the China Trade has little clue to details,
you would need to unscrew the leg Sockets and Turn them so the legs stick out to the left play position.
This is easy to do and takes a few moments.
.

I have the 8 string normal right handed version and it's a nice instrument for the price. You would do well learning on it.

I suggest the Dunlop 918 bar.

[Randy Chow]

Here is your Best Bang for the Buck Entry Level Left Play Steel Guitar <<CLICK<<

As usual the China Trade has little clue to details,
you would need to unscrew the leg Sockets and Turn them so the legs stick out to the left play position.
This is easy to do and takes a few moments.

Once you "Catch the Bug" so to speak,
there are a number of USA Builders that can create a Left Play Steel Guitar you can be proud to own and play professionally.

That's what I bought:


Mine has the plain dark finish with a bridge/pickup cover. I had already switched over the legs. It appeared that the leg mounts were drilled by hand, which makes me wonder why they didn't screw the mounts in the right direction in the first place.

The tuning machines are crooked on both sides:


But other than the tuning machines and a rather noisy pickup I completely agree that these Rondos are a fantastic instrument for the money. I got mine of eBay for $131.xx and it came with the legs and a pretty nice gig bag. In fact I was ready to pull the trigger on the 8 string model that David has but the same seller said that they are not available lefty and they are not able to do a custom one. However he continued by saying they are considering production for 2017. Hmmmm.

In the meantime I am eyeing a Joe Morrell Pro Series 8 String which they offer lefty at no charge, and the prices are still reasonable.

[Stefan Robertson]

The Noisy pickup in pretty much most Lap Steel Guitar is because its a Single Coil and not grounded properly. Has a hum until you ground it by either using your hand or connecting it to the bridge to ground it.

Or get an Electroharmonix hum debugger. (That is my next purchase soon)