Here's build #2 for me , new to lap steel pretty much. The levers are a Shad Peters inspired design. I've just purchased a cross slide vise so I can machine aluminum into a roller bridge design, first crack at this stuff. I used the shortest scale I could as my original design I had asked for a slab of 33" , shortly realized I would be hard pressed to squeeze in the hardware therefore the headstock being quite compressed for space , I used the cut out from the headstock to add length to the guitar .
Last edited by Robert Millar on 6 Aug 2020 1:03 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Slab of Oak c/o my nephew , the levers and other trim are Olive wood I believe . I machined the Aluminum from some stock I had on hand , the pickup etc, all items I have on hand, just about to replace the tuning machines .
Nice build Bob!! How about a couple more pictures - Particularly of the back end of your guitar and the String benders. What to you think of the slider for the PU.
Do you use often?
Joe Elk Central Ohio
1st picture.......I think if that dog could talk he'd be saying, "I hope that stand is strong enough to hold all that lumber!" How does she sound Robert? I love to see what other guys are building. I don't have access to my shop anymore at work with the modified hours since CV-19 has happened. Not building any lap steels right now from scratch. I do however have a Telecaster in progress for my son. He always wanted one, so I bought pieces and parts online and have everything I need to get it done. Southern Yellow Pine body and roasted maple neck.......SD pickups....hope it sounds like Bill Kirchen's tele.....It probably would if he was playing it! LOL
Currently own, 6 Groner-tone lap steels, one 1953 Alamo Lap steel, Roland Cube, Fender Champion 40
Joe Elk wrote:Nice build Bob!! How about a couple more pictures - Particularly of the back end of your guitar and the String benders. What to you think of the slider for the PU.
Do you use often?
Joe Elk Central Ohio
I saw Shad Peters had come up with this design so I did my best to emulate that as working with Aluminum is more difficult for me , getting there slowly. I set up with a C6 tuning mostly and set the 2nd string lever for a semitone and the 3rd string lever for a whole tone. Seems the best approach for C6 can play either minor or major thirds on string 1 and 2 and get minor 3rd on strings 4 and 5 . The pickup doesn't slide , it just appears that way ? The Certano design is what I'm thinking to emulate next build , looking into that .
JB Bobbitt wrote:Please tell us about the roller nut. I need one for my current build.
thx
-jbb
The roller nut is just a poor mans milling machine solution, some aluminum angle machined down into about 7/8" height and a groove cut to support a rod , the only thing I could find handy that would fit tightly inside the brass ball ends from old strings . The copper is jut the ground wire from typical residential house wiring , I got it as close to flat as possible and then CA glued it in. I cut one manually with files and then cheated on another one using a dremel tool . Just really need strings 2 and 3 to be roller , easiest way to accomplish that was make them all roller , seems to work pretty well for me . I used the pickup cover for string spacing guidelines.
I also found I needed a fender washer between the levers to stop one lever from affecting the pitch of the other . For instance without the washer between lever 2nd string was causing the 3rd string to go slightly flat when lever 2nd string was depressed, "keep 'em seperated"
Bill Groner wrote:1st picture.......I think if that dog could talk he'd be saying, "I hope that stand is strong enough to hold all that lumber!" How does she sound Robert?
I'm loving the sound ! Likely going to replace the single coil with a humbucker , $10 is my budget and I may have found one online , used of course , I've just replaced the tuners with some nicer ones , the pickup is next , the sound is fine but i could live with less noise especially when playing with a lot of gain in the band .
replaced the single coil with a humbucker from a guitar kit , no hum and overall much more dynamic now that I can keep the volume wide open and play more dynamically not fussing with the buzz and hum. Made a new plate to hold the pickup and just replaced the connections. Also used a few scrap bits to cover up the routing mistakes , albeit the grain is running the other way , meh , it's still a beginner project at this point , she plays and sounds great though.
Remove most of the material with the Forstner bits.
Keep the routing to a minimum , neighbours tire of the whining quickly i find. I close the large door for the high pitched stuff.
routed a cove to hold the tone bars ...
the JD 925 with a custom holder thingy and a piece of 3/4 cold rolled steel for the heavier sustain on clean playing. The JD is easier to got on and off the strings , good for open string licks and rhythmic playing , the bullet tone bar has more sustain but harder to manipulate fast on and off the strings ...
the routed area exposed , burned as well... lots of time to abrase, seems this project is never done , still learning new tunings and strings guages to apply. Currently she's GDGBDG .042 / .032 / .024 / .020 / .018 / .014
the Dunlop tone bar is easiest to handle , the bullet one is tricky in this tuning , incorporating open strings say , first and second string makes it tricky not to go sharp doing partial bars , keeping and eye on the tuner , the benders are set up for the classic 1 to 4 chord approach , 3rd string up a semi and the 2nd string up a tone .
I've fashioned some kind of stand , thought about the tripod, even bought some EMT 3/4 conduit tubing , but then decided to re purpose some pipe and drape base I've had since AV days gone by. The spigot on the base plate didn't quite fit the upright pole i had so I just grinded away and used a hose clamp to hold it on there, not a lot of weight on the pole and the base may be a tad wobbly but you really can't tip it over , and the height is nice and high because I prefer to be close to the fingerboard , I can barely see lol . The straight stand is reinforcing the weight of pushing the levers down which can be considerable , I can switch from guitar to lap steel all while standing and it's a welcome addition, no more fumbling around. Maybe I should paint in black though ...
Here's a working setup with the pedal board , kind of gets in the way for now , see how it works out live , really need access to the pedals for volume and wah , compression and Distortion too , looping , reverb and delay , ah never enough effects in my opinion , use em all .
