Lap Steel Bass!

[John Christian]

I made a lap steel bass with flat wound strings. What do you think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dcTI9FuIVM

Here's another:
https://youtube.com/shorts/tqQcMZJjo9Y

[scott murray]

love it!

[John Christian]

Scott Murray Thanks!

[John Sims]

Awesome! Sounds great!

[John Christian]

John Sims Thank you!

[Dennis Detweiler]

Thanks for pulling the trigger on this idea. It crossed my mind over several years about a lap bass or a pedal bass. Even more, a double neck with a standard steel tuning on the top neck and a pedal bass on the bottom neck.

[John Christian]

Dennis Detweiler, thanks for your comment! I got the idea when I started playing an old bass I got out of the closet with flat wound strings and started thinking it would be cool to have one without the frets, and without the radius. It turned out great, lot of fun to play!

[scott murray]

Zane King's got one with pedals
https://youtu.be/5r5fCNrvFDg

[John Christian]

Scott Murray, pretty cool. Fun to play for sure

[Matt Perpick]

I love Bill Hatcher's lap steel bass playing (and his Bach lap steel playing and his finger style guitar playing and probably lots more )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s330c5gBx8s

[John Christian]

Matt Perpick- Yes! Super Funky, playing with the Tower of Power band. fun stuff

[Bobby D. Jones]

Lap Bass has been around for years out of necessity. About 1965 or so. The blue Grass Band "The McCumbers Brothers", Bass player lost his left arm at his elbow, In a car wreck. His prothesis allows him to attach or hold a bar. For years he played an electric bass on his lap.
Last time I seen him. He was playing a Dobro style setup, With a Bass tuning he came up with.

[John Christian]

Bobby D. Jones- Years ago I was playing fiddle in country bands and was surprised to see how many of the steel guitar players were missing fingers. It's good that there is an option to keep playing music!

[John Christian]

Here's another clip of the lap steel bass:
https://youtube.com/shorts/tqQcMZJjo9Y

[Chris Templeton]

Nice, John. I trimmed off my raised nut to play slide bass.

[John Christian]

Chris Templeton- Nice! That's a great sounding album you posted

[Chris Templeton]

Thank you, John.
There's some 2nd slide bass on my Tapper song: https://soundcloud.com/bluespruce8/tapper

[Brad Bechtel]

John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin and Them Crooked Vultures has a lap steel bass as well. Here's a discussion based on an email I received back in 2000:

https://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/001091.html

[John Christian]

Chris Templeton- Pretty wild! You should make a video demonstration of the tapper instrument, it would be interesting to see. Thanks for sharing

[John Christian]

Brad Bechtel- That would blow my mind! John Paul Jones is a creative genius. Led Zep was my #1 favorite band growing up.

[Larry Dering]

Very cool stuff and a great bass tone.

[John Christian]

Larry Dering-Thank you!