Steel Rail Guitars

Lap steels, resonators, multi-neck consoles and acoustic steel guitars

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Jon Ward
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Steel Rail Guitars

Post by Jon Ward »

Hi All,

I started recently playing the lap steel and making these stainless steel guitars. These are 22.5" short scale length, and I'm working on a long scale model and a hard case for these.

www.steelrailguitars.com

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I also wanted to say thanks to all the members here for posting tabs and links that have helped me learn to play!
It has been challenging for me to learn how to switch from standard guitar tuning to the C6 lap steel, so I started making this web page that shows different tunings and scale patterns.
It's a work in progress :)

www.steelrailguitars.com/fretboard.html

Cheers,
Jon
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Cody Farwell
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Post by Cody Farwell »

Really cool to see some new steel guitar designs!
I really like the look of the LED fredboard.

What's the string spacing like on your guitars?
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John Rosett
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Post by John Rosett »

Love the legs!
"it's not in bad taste, if it's funny." - john waters
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Jon Ward
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Post by Jon Ward »

Thanks Cody! The string spacing on these guitars is 0.39".
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Dom Franco
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Post by Dom Franco »

AWESOME... finally a real Steel "Steel Guitar"
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Glenn Wilde
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Post by Glenn Wilde »

That's a pretty steel, i dig it! Its like a DeLorean...

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Carl McLaughlin
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Web page

Post by Carl McLaughlin »

:) :) :) :) :) Thanks for sharing your web page,i think it will help me a lot.

Carl
Now have a SX 6 string lap in G,.A Tele plus telecaster, Larrivee acoustic.Also have a Fender resonator guitar with new Quarterman cone and spider,and an Allan tailpiece.Playing through a Fender Super Champ XD,using a little delay on the amp and a Harmonix Holy Grail Echo pedal,set on Hall turned to about 1pm.Just got a Fender Dual 6 Stringmaster style. Bought a Yamaha FGX5 Recently and love it.
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Bill Groner
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Post by Bill Groner »

Fine looking lapsteel. I love to see new, different builds and wish more guys would share what they are building. I take it you are a machinist? Congrats on your beautiful creation.
Currently own, 6 Groner-tone lap steels, one 1953 Alamo Lap steel, Roland Cube, Fender Champion 40
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Bill Groner
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Post by Bill Groner »

Glenn Wilde wrote:That's a pretty steel, i dig it! Its like a DeLorean...


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What gigawatt amp do you use?????
Currently own, 6 Groner-tone lap steels, one 1953 Alamo Lap steel, Roland Cube, Fender Champion 40
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Gene Tani
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Post by Gene Tani »

Thanks for posting, the aesthetics and sound clips are great.

Do you think you can go to 8 strings (or more) and keep same string spacing, or maybe spacing of 2 3/8" between strings 1 and 8, center to center?)

also going to spend time looking at fretboard visualizer https://www.steelrailguitars.com/fretboard.html

Thakns.
- keyless Sonny Jenkins laps stay in tune forever!; Carter PSG
- The secret sauce: polyester sweatpants to buff your picks, cheapo Presonus channel strip for preamp/EQ/compress/limiter, Diet Mountain Dew
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Allan Revich
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Post by Allan Revich »

Cool guitar, and your fretboard visualizer is great! I will link to it from my Lap Steel Tunings Page, https://papadafoe.com/lap-steel-tuning-database
Current Tunings:
6 String | D – D A D F# A D
7 String | D/f – f D A D F# A D
https://papadafoe.com/lap-steel-tuning-database
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Jon Ward
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Post by Jon Ward »

I'm working on adding more options to the fretboard visualizer as I'm learning :)

The stainless steel works well so these instruments have lots of sustain, stay in tune, and there is no paint or finish.

Gene,
I would like to build an 8 or 10 string at some point! I can build these custom for any scale length, string spacing, pickup(s), and volume/tone options.

Cheers,
Jon
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Jim Pollard
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Post by Jim Pollard »

Looks AMAZING. I'm especially in love with the LED backlighting. A feature request for the fretboard visualizer - 8 string C6?

Thanks!

Jim
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Gene Tani
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Post by Gene Tani »

Hi Jon, thanks for the info, I'll have to decide what exactly I want for those parameters, scale, string spacing, pickup.
- keyless Sonny Jenkins laps stay in tune forever!; Carter PSG
- The secret sauce: polyester sweatpants to buff your picks, cheapo Presonus channel strip for preamp/EQ/compress/limiter, Diet Mountain Dew
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Jon Ward
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Post by Jon Ward »

I just finished this one with a humbucker today :)


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Brooks Montgomery
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Post by Brooks Montgomery »

Jon that one looks nice. Why no tone control? Assuming single knob is volume?
A banjo, like a pet monkey, seems like a good idea at first.
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Jon Ward
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Post by Jon Ward »

Thanks Brooks!
It sounds a little brighter without a tone pot. I like to wire humbuckers and P90 pickups with just a volume control or sometimes straight to the output jack and put a volume pedal on the floor. This setup is simple and I'll just make tone adjustments on the amp or with an equalizer pedal.
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Robert Allen
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Post by Robert Allen »

What is the weight? Looks like it might be a good travel instrument.
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Jon Ward
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Post by Jon Ward »

These weigh around 7 pounds. The short scale with a single P90 pickup is 6 lb. 11 oz.
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Tommy Martin Young
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Post by Tommy Martin Young »

Hi Jon,

Trying to contact you - just PM'd ya.


Cheers!
The One & Lonely Tommy Young

"Now is the time for drinking;
now the time to beat the earth with unfettered foot."
-Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65-8 B.C.)
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Jon Ward
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left-handed baritone

Post by Jon Ward »

This is a 28" scale left-handed baritone steel I finished for a friend last week.
It weighed in at 7 lb. 11 oz.
I tuned it to low C6 and recorded a sound sample:
https://steelrailguitars.com/
Looking forward to hearing the music my friend will make with this :)


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