The Steel Guitar Forum

On a regular acoustic guitar converted to a steel guitar--by raising the nut--

a)Should all 6 strings be parallel from nut to bridge?
b)What should the string height be from fret board?
c)Same goes for electric lap steel?

Many thanks.

A) As with Spanish guitars, there's usually a small increase in spacing from nut to bridge. This is done for ease of playing, and if you're doing your own conversion work, it's down to personal preference.

B) As long as the strings comfortably clear the frets and there's a solid break angle over the nut, it doesn't matter.

C) Same for acoustic and electric steels.

The cast-metal Grover extension nuts are pretty hard to beat for an inexpensive conversion.

I also used the cast metal grover nut raiser, worked well. The tops of strings need to be level otherwise you'll get buzz on lower height strings. Also mind tension, people have gone to dobro tuning/gauges, woops reso tuning and substantially increased string tension.

Mike,

a) not really (read on)
b) enough that the tone bar is not hitting the fretboard.

I've gone this route with a couple of acoustic guitars. Basically a nut raiser, like the aforementioned Grover, sorts out most of the initial challenges.

Once you've established that the instrument sounds ok, you can "flatten" things at the bridge end later. Either with a new saddle or just filling the old one.

Mike,

a) not really (read on)
b) enough that the tone bar is not hitting the fretboard.

I've gone this route with a couple of acoustic guitars. Basically a nut raiser, like the aforementioned Grover, sorts out most of the initial challenges.

Once you've established that the instrument sounds ok, you can "flatten" things at the bridge end later. Either with a new saddle or just filling the old one.