The Steel Guitar Forum

OK folks,

Been away for a bit due to some serious health issues, prostate and the very beginning of colon cancer but the great news is they got all the cancer thank God bad news on that end .... Alien probes every 2 to 3 years from now on and no, how to stop the Alien Probes isn't my question

Since I am doing 100% better I am going to try my hand at building an 8 string Lap Steel, I already have a 1 piece Headstock and Neck 3/8 inch template made but I am needing to find out the depths for the pockets for the pickup (going to use the Alumitone Tone Bar) and for the Vol. Tone knobs.

Can someone direct me to the proper place for this discussion in the Forums as I do not wish to disrupt or violate rules please?

Thanks for any assistance that can be provided

David

good luck with the health issues.

buy the pickup...then you will know the dimensions first hand. i like to have the pickup in hand before i commit to cutting and such. then determine your string spacing, that will give you your nut/bridge width.

before you cut, have the nut, bridge, and pickup. then you can do layouts and actually see what your ideas will look like and function like.

What Bill Said. I do a full size drawing, and lay out the actual hardware as far as possible where everything will go. I move the tone and volume knobs around to make sure they are ergonomically reachable from with the right hand, and do not crowd the bridge or pickup. If your bridge design has hardware behind it to hold the string ends, or uses string through, plan on where your input jack will be, as you don't want to find yourself needing to drill through other hardware.
also, if you plan on installing leg sockets, get those on hand, and see where they will need to be on the bottom so as not to interfere with other hardware pockets, screw, wire channels, etc.
BTW, I had most of my colon removed in January, and think they got all the cancer. Now i am going through 6 months of chemo to make darn sure. No fun, but i am able to work in the shop, and currently starting work on a run of 8 and 6 string laps. I've built consoles so far, so this step is a blast. Good luck in all.

You've gotten good advice to get all the parts first. I've made a couple with the Alumitone. Routed one inch deep. Made 1/8" aluminum plate at bottom threaded for height adjustment screws. Drilled 1/4" deeper at screw locations. Pickup adjusts from top of wood to hitting the strings. I'm lousy at drawings so I just visualize all this stuff and go with it.

For an 8 String set Up use the 3.5 Bar from Alumitone (GeorgeBoards is an OEM Dealer)

Because the Alumitone is 30 percent more powerful than a conventional Alnico type Pickup we tend to give greater distance between the bottom of the strings and the top of the pickup.

Typical distance is a fat 1/8" (.130) we like .170 for the Alumitones. Basically it smooths out the response some.

The Alumitones are .880 tall, so for a 1/2" tall bridge unit , we go .550 deep on the pocket. 4" X 1.75"

Hope this helps some.

Thx guys I appreciate the responses been busy so I haven't been on,

George, about 1 month ago I think, I purchased a head stock template from and I will possibly be purchasing some more just need to keep the Banker/Boss/Wife happy enough so that I can spend the money without getting in to much trouble so this is possibly going to be a slow process building

Thx again and I will probably be asking more questions along the way.

Have a Blessed day

George:

I noticed when looking at your guitars that you do a "String Through" it seems on all your guitars, is there a specific purpose or reason for this or is it just a personal preference?

I've seen some that have the metal L bracket made from stock with the string holes drilled in it and then anchored to the guitar and the strings go through these holes and then over the bridge, seems that the bracket might eventually loosen at the screws (could possibly take years) causing problems down the road so I was wondering if this is why you did the String Through

Whether you use a top loading bridge design or a string through design, the end goal is the same. You want a solid anchor that has good coupling to the body. In general, string through is perceived by most as being superior, but if done right, a top loader can deliver great results too. Again, regardless of the bridge design, you want a solid anchor that has good coupling to the body.

I generally do string through bridge designs, but below is a top loader I've done that works great. Part of what makes it work well is that it has a fair amount of mass, a good footprint, and what I feel is very important, some beefy stainless screws reaching deep into the body interior.

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Gentlemen:

I thought I'd put up some preliminary pics of my project and I learned a whole bunch of stuff while doing this.

There are lots of imperfections of which I will have to live with but I think I did pretty good for my first shot at doing this with a router.

I will be making another one down the road after this one is finished so those imperfections will remain with me, went a little deeper on the outside because I slipped and the router dipped a little and caused a slight gouge so I had to clean it up, I was almost done to when it happened

Thanks again for the help you gave and I will probably be asking more questions in the future

My neck design is taken from the C6 neck off of my PSG and Mr. Boards Headstock Template worked great, I had a 1 piece jig made out of both onto 3/8 inch plexi and then made a template out of 1/2 inch Baltic Birch

This is really fun