John Pearse "Uncle Josh" nickel strings on GBDGBD lap steel?

[Frank Nims]

Electric lap steel, that is, not acoustic.

Any thoughts on these? Seems like just the right thing for that setup unless I'm missing something.

Gauges are .059W .049W .038W .026 .018 .018

[Jack Hanson]

Depends on the lap steel's scale length. Might be a little floppy on a 22.5" or especially a 20" scale.

I have found that the best way to string up an electric lap steel is to purchase bulk strings by the gauge. I follow the recommendations of the various string gauge calculators, such as Ernie Ball's or John Ely's. Some experimentation is often necessary.

[Peter Jacobs]

I use .054 - .042 - .034 -.024 - .016 - .014 for GBDGBD on my 22.5 and 23” scale steels. I buy them in singles. I used to use a .018 for the high B and .016 for the high D, but the lighter B string is a lot easier for behind the bar pulls.


To make things really easy, you could go with a nickel wrapped dobro G set — those gauges will work fine.

[Frank Nims]

This particular Pearse set is marketed as a dobro set.

The guitar is (I think, no logo) a Harmony H3. 23" scale.

I was going to tune it DADF#AD, but it arrived in GBDGBD and I figured I'd just see how that works out. Very wimpy top D though, needs replacing so I'm thinking .018 there. And generally a reasonably hefty set, solid block of wood there, it can handle it.

[Jim Fogarty]

I don't use that exact set, but I do use Pearse Nickel dobro strings on a lap steel (also tuned to dobro G). Sounds great.