String Spacing At The Bridge And Nut

[Chris Templeton]

Some pedals and laps have equal string spacing at the bridge and at the nut.
If I recall correctly, Dekley pedal steels have the smallest string spacing and and there are some guitars (laps) where string spacing is equal at both ends.
For lap steel, this is a benefit for doing slants.
What are your thoughts about string spacing on either lap or pedal?

[Jack Hanson]

On my lap steels, I much prefer the wider nut and bridge spacing of both Gibson and Rickenbacker to the narrower spacing of Fender and Valco.

There are exceptions in the Gibson postwar lineup. The PAF-equipped '57 - '59 Ultratones have extremely narrow spacing, especially at the bridge, to accommodate the tighter polepiece spacing of the humbucker. It's doubtful that the 6-string PAF pickup was ever manufactured with multiple string spacings like the P-90s commonly were.

I would suspect the red mahogany Century models of '65 - '67 that sported the Firebird pickup follow a similar scenario, but I've never seen one except in photos.

I will opine that the '57 - '59 Ultratones are the finest-sounding of all postwar Gibson lap steels, but the narrow spacing makes for a difficult transition from similar instruments equipped with P-90s.

[Chris Templeton]

Great info, Jack.