The Steel Guitar Forum

I need a little advice about building a 8 string nonpedal lapsteel guitar.Anyone have diamentions for the body and were to get the hardware,eg.bridge????.Hope i'm on the right page eh?

You're on the right page, Wesley.
There are several decisions you'll have to make first. Scale length, string spacing, whether or not you plan on installing volume and tone controls, and where you'd place them on the body. Single coil, or humbucker?
If you want 3/8" spacing for your strings, which is usually recommended for playing slant chords, you will need a pickup, nut, and bridge that will work with that. I'm using some really nice custom bridges made by Ryan Rukavina at
www.rukavinaguitars.com
John Tipka has a very useful pamphlet on how to build a steel.
Jerry Wallace is one of several great pickup makers on the net. www.jerrywallacemusic.com
I've been researching for a while, and I'm finally building a triple 8 and a single 10. I'm using 22-1/2" scale on the T-8 necks, and 24-1/2" on the 10 (Just because that's what Billy Robinson's single 10 scale is.) Shorter scales are easier to play slants on down near the nut end, and longer scales tend to have a more fuller tone.
Basically, any shape will work for a steel, even just a plank of wood with hardware and strings attached. As for ergonomics and tone factors, I think it's best to play as many steels as you can, and find what things you like and don't like about each one. For instance, some have tuner buttons sticking up too close behind the nut for my taste. (They get in the way of my hand when I am slanting down near the nut.)
Do some searches on this website, as there are many friendly, knowledgeable people here who have probably already answered a lot of your questions before in other threads. The Steel Guitar Forum is host to several great builders who often post pictures and details of their instruments.
Good Luck! And post pictures of that baby when she's ready.

Don covered a lot of good ground. I'd just add that it all starts with a center line.
Get yourself some poster board and draw your guitar out full scale first.
Start with a centerline, then mark out the nut and bridge set to your desired scale.
That is the heart of your steel, everything is referenced from these 3 points.

Wesley,

Bluestem Strings has a Beginner's Guide to Lap Steel Construction here:

http://www.bluestemstrings.com/page5.html

And a free .PDF of a Basic Lap Steel plan here:

http://www.bluestemstrings.com/Bluestem ... elPlan.pdf

-Dave

Trouble is, once you build one, you will want to build another, and another, and..........

Bill Creller wrote:Trouble is, once you build one, you will want to build another, and another, and..........

Bill i already built a 6 string lapsteel now i have the itch to built other eh!

I've never owned a long scale steel, and I'm trying to resist building yet another guitar in a long scale.

Maybe I'll start a stamp collection instead.

I'm restoring a 1975 Chevy El Camino, so that may help.

Wes,

Haven't heard from you in a bit, wondering how the steel was shaping up. Been playing much??

and Bill,

How's the Elky (the first car I ever owned was an '84 305cid--late model )

Josh

Wes,

Also check your email,

Josh

parts?

try
www.stewmac.com

This person's quest is another reason I think we need a spot for builders on this forum.there could be a sticky for pics and a FAQ one also.Just my 2 cents

If that change were to be made, I'd suggest it take the place of the STEEL GUITAR section, as it's virtually all about pedal steel and is largely redundant.

But, being a quasi-fan of hijacking threads because it leads to more info, I'd be in favor of keeping 'lap' steel confined to where it happily is.

I was not suggesting replacing steel without pedals, I was suggesting a new topic for builders of both lap and pedal steels.People could still show of their builds in Sw/oP but questions could be directed to the builders topic.Lots of info has been brought to the Forum, but imho its a little daunting to try and find it. I have a lap steel design that I saw here on the forum and tried to find who posted it.I did not have much luck in my search.Maybe its my lack of puter skills.But had it been in a builders topic,it would have narrowed the search and I might have been more successful.

Don had some good advice. Remember that a lap steel is just a plank with a pickup, nut, bridge and tuners. As long as you get the *fret positions right you can't go wrong. The rest is just artwork.

*contact me at afbrookes@aol.com and I'll send you an Excel spreadsheet which calculates all the fret positions for you.

Gary Stevenson wrote:I was not suggesting replacing steel without pedals. I did not have much luck in my search, had it been in a builders topic, it would have narrowed the search and I might have been more successful.

That's a good point! You may have swayed me to agree.