The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi Folks,
Just wanted to drop a couple things on here after a lengthy absence of internet forum activity. First off, I'm happy to announce that my new website, http://laproguitars.com is up and functional. It's a little overdue perhaps but worth the wait. There's a bunch of new information and images as well as a page of audio samples. Here are a couple recent images that show the Lapro Guitar in its most current form.
Thanks for looking!
Slide easy,
Dave

Very cool, Dave. Interesting design and sound!

Wow, lots of mojo in those sounds. Very nice!

Some very cool and interesting tones in there, especially when you can blend 'em.

Nice job!

I think I ate my cereal in a bowl like that this morning.

That makes me wonder how it would sound using a glass bowl or a metal bowl as a resonator. Your wooden bowl sounds more like an acoustic guitar than a resonator guitar with an aluminum cone.

Thanks for the inspiration. I must experiment more.

I liked the sound samples, by the way, especially the mixed sample.

Thanks very much for the kind words, gents. Erv, I might be heading through your neck of the woods in a couple weeks. Any chance you'd be interested in running it around the block for a bit and giving me your take on it? I'll bring the Wheaties...

Dave,
Feel free to drop in.
I'll supply the milk!

Dave, that's a cool looking (and sounding) guitar, although I'd like to hear more samples that aren't as overdriven.

How likely would it be in your opinion that the cone could become damaged through normal wear and tear? It looks a bit fragile to me.

Hi Brad,
There's a couple additional clean samples on my workshop Myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/mankatowoodworks. Check out Laprosample 1 and 2. As far as the cone goes, it is sturdier than it looks. The wall of the cone is 3/16" thick hard maple and is extremely rigid. The flowing curve of the wall profile adds to the overall stiffness too. One of the things I was initially very attracted to about this design was the ability to have the cone be completely exposed without fear of damaging it. I have stood with all my weight on test cones with no damage at all. Thanks!

Hi Dave! That is a very cool sounding axe! I was just wondering what it sounds like acoustically. I mean, does the resonator actually produce any volume or is it strictly there for the piezo tone? Could you play with other acoustic instruments and still be heard? Is it possible to put a blend pot on there instead of two separate output jacks? I really dig the sounds in the example files...keep up the good work!

Hi Fontaine,
Thanks so much. The unamplified volume level of the current design is somewhat like an unusually loud electric guitar, perhaps similar to an unplugged hollow thinline like a Gibson ES-330. There may be some design elements down the road that could bring additional acoustic volume.
The standard electronics layout is for a single jack output with volume and pickup blend controls. The dual output jack setup is optional.