Getting the strings in the right place

[Paul Douglas]

I'm completely new to lap steel. I've bought an Epiphone Electar to start learning on, but I'm also trying out a home build, starting with the ubiquitous 2x4.

I replaced the strings on the Electar with a GHS Open E set (tuned to Open D) and, as predicted by several reviews of the instrument, strings 3 and 4 popped out of the very shallow grooves in the nut as soon as I started to tighten them. A little filing of string 3's groove held it in place (it's not a wound string in the GHS set) but string 4 needed a fair amount of filing to get it to stay put. I then found that the bar either buzzed badly or completely missed the 4th string near the nut as it was so much lower than its neighbours. In the end, I filed all the grooves so that the tops of the strings were level with each other. This seemed sensible to me, but looking carefully at pictures of other lap steels, it looks to me like it's more usual to have the bottom of the strings lined up as they go over the nut. That's how they are going over the bridge (no grooves at all) but then I don't use the bar anywhere near the bridge.

I'm going to be making a basic nut out of some aluminium angle for my first 2x4 effort, so my first question is: should the strings ideally be level at the bottom or at the top? Or is any way you like ok given that the guitar is just for me? I don't want to learn poor technique from the start because I've set the strings up badly (though it's a bit late for the nut on the Electar if I've messed it up).

Second question is about string spacing - they are quite far apart on the Electar (58mm at the bridge, which I presume is the same as Gibson lap steels from around the 1950s) and I like that and will stick with it. The spacing narrows to about 49mm at the nut. That's also fine for me, but I see that pedal steels seem to have parallel strings and lap steels vary from parallel to fairly narrow at the nut. Is there a correct way? Or a better way? Or is it again down to personal preference? I can experiment on a home build, but I need to start somewhere.

Thank you!

[George Piburn]

GeorgeBoards sells al sorts of nuts and bridges fretboards to help folks DIY Projects.

Scope out their Reverb Shop GeorgeBoards Lap Steel Guitars for the Starrs

[Paul Douglas]

Thanks for that, I have seen the GeorgeBoards site and they have some very good stuff. Sadly, importing it isn't a great option for me (I live in Ireland): last time I bought a $25 item from USA it actually cost me $78 - $25 for the item, $27 for postage, and $26 for import fees and VAT. Even with GB stuff, I'd still have to make some choices if I bought blank components and customized them, so I'd still welcome any info about string depth over the nut and spacing between strings.

[George Piburn]

Our Formula is ; 60 degree V groove depth same as the String Gauge eg; .056 = string gauge and depth of cut to the bottom of the V cut.

Since you will most likely be making any grooves by hand , You have to do a visual any way.
We use a CNC Mill to make our professional metal parts and can get super accurate.

I am not certain if Ireland has Home Centers or not , we get these 5 needle file sets from our Local Walmart for under 10 usd and use the Triangle file.

Spacing is pretty straight forward too, Take the nut width - subtract the margin from either end you want , and divide evenly the remainder of the distance,

As is the standard . measure multi times then hit it with the file to taste.

Hope this helps you

[Paul Douglas]

Thank you!