The Steel Guitar Forum

Still waiting on my pickup to start my Rogue rebuild. I was hoping to find an acrylic fretboard in 22.5" scale, looks like I'm going to have to cut and slot a blank maple board I've got somewhere, unless...

What's the absolute maximum anyone has coaxed out of these things? I'm wondering if using a thick, modern flat tele bridge with the saddles removed, overhanging the end a tad, with brass angle mounted on top of the bridge at the edge of the body could get the 23" mark? I wonder if the break angle would be too steep?

What I need to do, is find a new home for this Cordoba 35T uke my wife got our son a couple years ago (she meant well. He plays blues rock, funk, soul, and worship), and find me a decent lap steel in some apples for oranges trade, learn on it, then mod to my hearts content on the Rogue. My son re-gifted the ukelele to me when he finished college, making room in his place for his recording gear.

I used a 23" acrylic fretboard ($12) from CB Gitty on my 7-string. The bridge is almost all the way back (the picture is deceiving)

What advantage is there to a longer scale? I'm using an Epiphone Pee Wee as a lap steel with short scale.

Mike McBride wrote:What advantage is there to a longer scale? I'm using an Epiphone Pee Wee as a lap steel with short scale.

Longer scale length

Pros:
thinner strings at the same tension (this really comes in with tunings that have low notes like open d)
More leeway intonation wise
Many say a "thicker" tone

Cons:
Slants can be harder at lower frets
Technically there is more distance to travel poistion to position

Tommy Martin Young wrote:I used a 23" acrylic fretboard ($12) from CB Gitty on my 7-string. The bridge is almost all the way back (the picture is deceiving)

Man, I do love the look of that thing. I hear red ones play louder, but cops are always looking for one to write a noise violation ticket for!

Mike McBride wrote:What advantage is there to a longer scale? I'm using an Epiphone Pee Wee as a lap steel with short scale.

I was just figuring that, being an old fart just joining in on the music making side of stringed instruments, that even a little longer string will give me some leeway on intonation, and that when I buy myself one (I think I wrongly assumed that 23" is a common scale length for these do-hickies) I won't need to fix any muscle memory glitches to hit the sweet spot at each fret.

George Boards had some nice conversion kits to make them 22.5". He does have some good vinyl sticker fretboards for sale on his site in various lengths,
My favorite scale is 23", though 22.5" is absolutely fine for me as well.
I have a Rouge short scale that I changed the pickup and nut on. I was going to change the scale but I think I will probably keep it as is.
Jumping between a ultra shortcale like this D6 I rebuilt, 20.62":



and a 23" scale like my Vega's and Morrell are, or 22.5" like my other steels; isn't really that hard. Just takes about 20 minutes to get my bearlngs, and after a few practice sessions, I hardly notice the difference in scale.

The big difference to me in the really shorter scale is that intonation gets tougher up past the 14th fret and sustain and tone kind of suffer past the 12th fret.

In learning steel; I would not really worry about scale length. Pickblocking, palm blocking, bar control, muting behind the bar, chord grips etc. take a while to get down, and scale won't really hold you back in these areas.

The only thing I would change on your rouge; if you want; is the pickup. That will matter more then anything else towards your sound. I like playing a shorter scale sometimes; here's a video of my little 20.62" D6

[/img]https://youtu.be/x098XKRgXqg

works well enough for my limited ability and I only play for fun and my own amusement, which a short or longer scale provides pretty much equally.

John Burton wrote:
The only thing I would change on your rouge; if you want; is the pickup. That will matter more then anything else towards your sound. I like playing a shorter scale sometimes; here's a video of my little 20.62" D6

[/img]https://youtu.be/x098XKRgXqg
,

.
works well enough for my limited ability and I only play for fun and my own amusement, which a short or longer scale provides pretty much equally.

Thanks, I'm ordering one or the other (birch or vinyl) tonight, leaning toward birch. I think the number 1 reason I'm modding this is I probably restored and upgraded my last 2 guitars this past year, each a gift for my son and daughter for Christmas. I think this relieved my wife, but I still have a huge maker bug. After I've been playing awhile, I'll build a lap steel for myself, and slide more toward playing in my spare time.

I'll start on the Rogue as soon as I get the fretboard. I thought about borrowing a lipstick humbucker off a 12 string hanging in his old room, but I'm going to keep huge mods to a minimum. I decided to buy a Seymour Duncan Vintage Rails bridge pickup (it just arrived), which should provide the punch I want for covering all the genre i love, and the bars eliminate worrying about spacing on the pole pieces.I pulled some angle brass from my various hobby supplies to replace the nut and bridge. I'm moving the jack to the side, and filling the hole on top with a kill switch.

Got me a Hal Leonard beginner's lapsteel book from bookfinder.com, a slide still weaving its way here, and need to order open g strings since I only bought C6, which the book doesn't cover. Then I'll be off to the races.

Maybe later, I'll repaint it with the Ford Mustang Amazon Green I painted this SG copy I made for my old high school to raffle off toward a scholarship fund. It's one of my fave paint colors I've used. We'll see if my qife doesn't kill me first!