The Steel Guitar Forum

We've discussed metal versus plastic versus wood as basic materials for lap steels, and to my mind carbon fibre has great possibilities.

Has anyone any experience in the use of fibreglass in lap steels ?

My understanding is that someone in Scandanavia is building some very nice sounding Weissenborne models out of fiberglass.

How about newspaper? I'm about to begin a project using a counter top material that is made from paper and resin scrunched together at about a billion PSI (or so).

We used it (Richlite) for our kitchen counters and I had a cutout from the kitchen sink that's been laying around for a few years so, it will be added to a slab (32" x 4" x 1.5") of the same material and together they will become the basis of of a new project.

The company Ed is referring to is probably Halua from Norway. There was a thread on them a year or two ago. I had forgotten the name until Brad mentioned it on another current topic of yours, Alan (bowlback instruments). They have a website with some G.A.S.-inducing audio and video clips, which certainly support your speculations...

Hey Bob, that stuff sounds like a good project. My only venture into plastic (sort of) was Corian. It sounded good. It wasn't bakelite, but it sounded good. Richlite must be a new product?? How thick is the material?

BILL

Bill...

I have two pieces to work with. The body will be a slab that came from a cutoff piece I found in the fabricator's shop. It is 1.5" thick. It comes in a nice merlot color.

I also have a cutout from our kitchen sink. It is 1" x 20" x 29" and black. I'm thinking about using that for accents or maybe for tuner mounting.

The material is used for counter tops, skate board ramps, bulkheads in Boston Whalers and a ton of other applications.

...Bob

I've been brainstorming this idea for a couple of years now. Kind of a natural no brainer sitting here veiwing surf mecca with a steel on my lap.

After setting up a web site to catalog my ideas and be ready to market 'if and when', I'm about ready to produce a prototype to see if it's viable.
With lot's of positives in it's favor, it'll be a shame if great tone can't be produced.

Ron: I'll be interested to see how your project works out.