Bass lap steel

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

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Ferdinand van den Berg
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Bass lap steel

Post by Ferdinand van den Berg »

Hi!

Anybody ever thought about a bass lapsteel?
Just wondering!

Fern
Ron Simpson
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Post by Ron Simpson »

Leo Fender did. The outermost neck on the quad neck
stringmasters came with strings tuned one octave below the standard sets used on the inner three necks. I'd venture a guess that no one ever played it on their lap though.
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Tom Pettingill
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Post by Tom Pettingill »

I forget who, but someone posted a bass console they built a while back. It was a real nice one built out of aluminum.

I've been toying for a while with couple ideas for a baritone scale steel. Just need to find the time to work it into the schedule.
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Brad Bechtel
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Post by Brad Bechtel »

John Paul Jones did. Check out his CD "Zooma" for some good examples (his web site has some video examples).
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A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars
Stephan Miller
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Post by Stephan Miller »

Saw one on eBay last summer. It was a homebuilt job dating from the late 50's. Looked great. 30" scale, with 4 strings, standard (lo-hi E-A-D-G) bass tuning, and the wider string spacing you'd want. Thinking about what might be done with a volume pedal...I was tempted. The seller wanted $300 as I recall, which seemed about right for the limited amount of use it would get.
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chas smith
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Post by chas smith »

My first bass neck was a 5-string on Guitarzilla, that I made around 1990.
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This is at a recording session. The vertical rods are woven in the strings of the front necks and a 12 string guitar is bolted on the back apron. This version weighs 110# in the case
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This is Junior Blue, a 6-string bass guitar. it's machined from a billet of 7075 T-8 aero-space aluminum.
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This is Guitarzilla 2, it's a titanium frame with a 12 string neck and an 8-string bass neck. It weighs 28#.
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Ferdinand van den Berg
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Post by Ferdinand van den Berg »

People!

Thanks for all the great reply!
Great pictures, Chas!

I will probably make at least one simple bass lap for my shop, just to see the reactions. It is nice to have some background. Brad, I will check out John Paul Jones CD, thanks.

When it is done anyway, I will let you now at the forum (but it will take a while).

Fern
John Ed Kelly
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Post by John Ed Kelly »

Here's a link to a Youtube Fred Kinborn video:

<http>

john
John Ed Kelly
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Post by John Ed Kelly »

Sorry - I'll try again

<http>
John Ed Kelly
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Post by John Ed Kelly »

I can't paste the URL so just search Youtube for Kinbom Bass Lap.
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Fred Kinbom
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Post by Fred Kinbom »

Here is the video that John mentioned above:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxOqcTNCfzc

It is a 1937 National New Yorker (which has lots of bass through its hidden neck pickups) through an Electro Harmonix octave pedal.

Cheers,

Fred
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