The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm thinking of making an S8 lap steel, mainly for practice. I can do the woodworking no problem, but what's a good source for cheap bridges, pickups, tuners, etc?

guitarfetish.com has inexpensive stuff that (in my opinion) is still good quality. StewMac has brand-name, quality stuff.

For 8 string pickups, you can go with 8 string pickups meant for 8 string electric guitars (usually marketed to the metal crowd, so they're pretty high output), or use a bass pickup, or grab any of the 10 string steel pickups that come up regularly on the Amps and Accessories section. A bar magnet will be better than polepieces unless your preferred spacing is wide (guitar pickups) or narrow (pedal steel pickups).

GeorgeBoards sells nuts and bridges and fretboards, or you can make your own out of aluminum, brass or steel. If you have the tools to work with wood, you can work aluminum or brass.

I recently built an 8 string lap steel. I bought a pickup from Ryan Rukavina that sounds great. Now my band mates are asking me to bring my home made guitar instead of my '51 Fender!
I also bought a beautifully made brass nut from Ryan. It's also very nice.

2 10 string pickups on the forum right now for 25 and 30 - doesn't get much cheaper than that...

Thanks guys!

I recently did my first build, an eight string console. I got the bridge, nut, fretboard, and electronics from georgeboards.com. I bought tiger maple from a lumber supplier and legs and leg sockets from Gary Sill Music. Stains and finish came from StewMac. I had absolutely no problems with the components fitting together and it turned out quite nice.

I'd like to recommend that you buy the best parts that you can afford and not those that are simply the cheapest. We have all seen so many steel guitars built by folks that see them as something so simple and so basic (a plank with a pickup) that they build them out of the poorest quality materials they can find (literally)and the end result is something completely unplayable. I don't mean to imply that that is your case at all, this is mearly a caution that cheap parts equal a poor instrument. Good luck with your build and keep us posted as to the outcome!

Jerry Wallace (True Tone) makes good pickups at a reasonable price. He has made several for me with 3/8" and 7/16" spacing. George L 10-66 is a very good choice for 7/16" spacing but costs about twice as much. I've used both but prefer the True Tone. Both sound great. Stew Mac economy tuners work pretty good for economy guitars;Grovers are about twice the price. I build my own bridges with 1/2" stainless round bar and nuts with 1/4" aluminum flat bar. Good luck